Making a difference

The other night I did a Google News search for "mormon" and was surprised by the title of an Associated Press article that had just been published. It was titled "Mormon church blames powder hoax on gay activists." I had read the powder hoax coverage pretty closely, and had read the press release from the Church earlier that day (here), which, while it did blame "opponents of Proposition 8" (not "gay activists") for recent vandalism, hadn't even referred to the powder incidents at the two temples. I read through the article, and while it seemed that the reporter was referring to this press release, he did not offer an substantiation of the claim made in his title or in the opening paragraph of the article.

I decided to send an email to the AP, and then, thinking that the email might take a while to make it to the right person, decided to try calling the number on the AP website. It was probably about midnight Eastern time, but someone answered the phone and immediately transferred me when I asked how I would go about reporting an error. My call was picked up by a national news desk editor. I told him what I was calling about, and he told me that he'd edited the article and had asked the reporter point-blank if the Church had actually assigned blame for the powder attacks. He asked if I had access to the Church's statement from that day, and I gave him the URL for the Church Newsroom website. He took down my name and phone number and said he'd take a look at it.

When I ran the same Google search about half an hour later, a new article showed up in place of the old one, with the title "Mormon church condemns gay activists for 'attacks'", and some changed wording in the first paragraph. It's still kind of odd that they put the word "attacks" in quotes, given that it was only used in the press report in the sentence "Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues," and not in an actual assertion of blame or condemnation.

While the original article is still accessible on ~1800 web sites, according to Google, the new one is has ~19,000 occurrences, so I'm glad that the semi-fixed one has been used more. Success!

The LDS Church and Section 501(c)(3)

A number of web sites opposed to the passage of Proposition 8 in California, such as http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/, are claiming that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has violated its tax-exempt status by supporting the proposition. They quote a provision of the Internal Revenue Code section 510(c)(3) (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)), which says the following organizations qualify as exempt (emphasis added):

Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.

The critics of the Church claim that the Church's involvement in the Prop. 8 issue is a substantial activity, and as such, the Church should not qualify for tax exemption. Unfortunately, these critics are misreading the Code. What it says is that "no substantial part" of the organization's activities can be involved in influencing legislation. There is a huge difference between what the Code says and what the critics want it to say. Anyone familiar with the Church's activities throughout the world should recognize that the involvement of the Church in the Prop. 8 issue is minuscule compared with even its non-ecclesiastic projects, such as humanitarian work and education.