The Mormon Church spent millions of dollars and countless man hours to pass Proposition 8 in California, and now the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that “despite the LDS Church’s claim last week that it had not taken a stand on Argentina’s move to allow gay marriage, a high-ranking church official did join other religious leaders there to plan opposition to the bill”:
Carlos Aguero, LDS public-affairs director for Argentina and a former Area Authority Seventy, attended a July 7 meeting with leaders from several conservative Christian churches and traditional family organizations, according to a Buenos Aires newspaper. […]
Mormon leaders in Argentina on Sunday read a letter from the Utah-based church’s governing First Presidency, reiterating its support for traditional marriage, to all congregations in that South American country. The letter did not ask members to contribute time or money to the opposition, as it had in California’s Proposition 8, which opposed gay marriage.
A Church spokesperson confirmed that “the letter was sent to local leaders in Argentina, where the faith has more than 371,000 members, according to a 2010 church almanac.” “The letter falls short of calling for political activism by members in Argentina, but is an echo of a 2008 letter from Monson to Latter-day Saints in California. Monson had called for Mormons to give their time and money to help pass Proposition 8.”
Proposition 8 won by less than 5% of the vote and “individual Mormons contributed $20 million of its $40 million war chest.” The marriage initiative in Argentina passed 33–27 in the Senate, making the country the “first Latin American nation to legalize gay marriage, granting same-sex couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexuals.”