Four months before California voters headed to the polls to decide the fate of Proposition 8, the Church of Latter-day Saints put out a call for help.

A letter from church President Thomas Monson was read at every ward in California. It told members to “do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time.”

Organization meetings broke out across the state, but the leaders wanted more. Additional letters were sent to every church, with titles such as “Thirty People in Each Ward” and “More than Four Hours per Week.”

Donations from individual Mormons poured in and Mormons hit the streets, going door to door, hanging up signs, campaigning against the measure through phone banks. Funding was used for everything from newspaper ads to television commercials.

That push from the Mormon church is widely credited as helping propel Proposition 8, which defined marriage only as a union between a man and a woman, to victory in November 2008.

The measure’s fate remains tied in the courts: A federal judge has struck down the law, and an appeal is pending a state Supreme Court decision on whether proponents of the law have authority to defend it in court, since state officials have declined to do so.

Mormons dispute charges they were the main impetus behind Proposition 8’s passage — arguing that they were only part of a large coalition of churches and residents that favored the ban on same-sex marriage. Many Mormons say they have been disproportionately targeted for their activism. In some cases, the backlash was violent, and, church members say, smacks of discrimination.

“We had protests outside of our temples, white powder delivered, vandalism of our church buildings and individuals targeted who gave only minor donations (to the proposition),” says Scott Gordon, president of the Redding-based Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, which defends Mormon theology.

“Some (Mormons who donated to Proposition 8) lost their jobs,” Gordon says, “while others felt truly frightened, only because they participated in the democratic process.”

Proposition 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote. Only about 2 percent of the state’s population is Mormon, so Mormons alone did not pass the proposition, but they did donate a lot of time, money and organizational expertise.

Proposition 8 was the most expensive campaign on a social issue in the state’s history, with both sides raising a combined $83 million.

Supporters raised $39 million, with the largest sum, $27 million, coming from California. The second-highest contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign — $2.8 million — came from the state of Utah, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

Mormons for Proposition 8, a website organized by opponents that claims to track contributions from individual Mormons, says LDS members donated more than $20 million in support of the measure. The state, however, does not track the religious affiliation of donors, so the site’s claim is difficult to confirm. The site also has been controversial, with Mormons complaining it does not track the donations of members of other faiths.

LDS officials initially denied that the church contributed money, claiming that only members contributed. California’s Fair Political Practices Commission in 2009 asked the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other groups to hand over financial records regarding Proposition 8 and learned that the church spent almost $200,000 on the campaign. One-third of that included money paid to church employees who were on the clock while organizing for the proposition. Other expenses included airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals.

Mormons are practiced at organization, says Richard Bushman, a professor of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University and author of “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.”

“They combine two qualities that make it easy for them to work together. The first is that they are respectful of authority,” Bushman says. ” “… They believe the church organization derives its authority from God, and contributing to the congregation’s work is an essential part of serving God.”

Further, he adds, the church has no paid clergy, and wards have no paid staff. Congregants willingly step forward to perform necessary tasks.

“It is a people’s church,” Bushman says. ” “… The buildings now do not even have paid janitors. Even in the wealthiest congregations, the members take turns cleaning the building. This means there is high buy-in.”

Still, the church didn’t force anyone to vote for Proposition 8, says Charles Pope, 55, a Santa Cruz finance executive and member of the LDS Church. Pope says he acted from his own free will when he donated money, made and posted signs, and encouraged others to support Proposition 8.

“I think the church was very instrumental because we were willing to go out and speak about it and make certain a lot of people understand our point of view, but a lot of other people and religions had that point of view, too,” Pope says. “But you never hear about those other religions being cast in the same light as the LDS.”

Same-sex marriage supporters don’t understand Mormons, Pope says.

“It’s always been cast that everyone on our side was a hate monger,” he says. “Is there any room for compromise in our position? No. We feel it’s a doctrinal and a moral issue, but that’s still a long way from being hate mongers and discriminators.”

Proposition 8 pitted many people nationwide against Mormons, and also splintered Mormon congregations, says Clark Pingree, a 35-year-old wealth manager for Wells Fargo, and a longtime Walnut Creek resident. He is gay and was raised Mormon but is no longer with the church.

“I have seen so many families and friendships destroyed by Prop. 8,” Pingree says. “I’ve seen my own family’s relationship strained because of Prop. 8.”

Pingree believes the proposition gave both sides excuses to “demean and judge.” He doesn’t like the LDS denouncement of same-sex marriage and no longer attends church, but still considers himself Mormon. It’s common for disaffected members to identify with their Mormon culture — after all, being LDS is for many a wonderful experience full of friends, purpose and community service.

“It’s such a strong and concentrated religion that it’s more of a way of life and an identity,” Pingree says.

Former Mormon Kerry Rutz, 51, a landscape architect who moved to San Francisco in 1998 and recently relocated temporarily, says anger has not died down regarding Proposition 8.

“On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being angry, the gay population in the Bay Area is running an anger level of about 100 against the Mormon church,” says Rutz, who is gay. “I don’t think that anger is likely to change, and I certainly hope it doesn’t.”

Mormons don’t hate homosexuals, Gordon said.

The church’s only position on homosexuality is that marriage should exist between a man and a woman, and that homosexuals “are children of God and our brothers and sisters,” Gordon says.

“This position is articulated in the pamphlet on homosexuality which starts with the line, ‘You are a son or daughter of God, and our hearts reach out to you in warmth and affection,’ ” Gordon adds.

Retaliation against Mormons was troubling, says lawyer Jay Pimentel, of Alameda. Part of an LDS line that has lived in the Bay Area since 1850, Pimentel donated $1,500 toward Proposition 8, canvassed neighborhoods, assembled phone rosters and called people to remind them to vote.

After the proposition passed, according to Pimentel, a San Francisco group mailed a letter to every neighbor within a few blocks of his home informing them that he supported the proposition and suggesting he should have supported local charities instead. Ironically, Pimentel volunteers for and donates to several Bay Area charities, including some of those listed on the mailer.

“They were assuming I was homophobic or discriminatory or uncaring, and that would be incorrect,” says Pimentel.

“Had Prop. 8 not passed, it would not have occurred to me to retaliate against those who had voted against it (or) funded the campaign against Prop. 8.”

Pimentel says the fight against Prop. 8 was well under way before Monson sent his letter in June 2008. The Catholic Church was also instrumental in its anti-gay-marriage campaigning, yet Catholics haven’t been vilified for their support, he says.

The Mormon church won’t allow its leaders to be interviewed on same-sex marriage, but on its website, the church says it does not object to gay rights already established in California, including those regarding housing, employment and medical care, and that the church does not condone “any kind of hostility toward homosexual men and women.”

Pimentel says he and many other Mormons support civil unions for gays, and that Mormons want gays to keep the rights California affords them.

Nonetheless, the church’s stance on Proposition 8 created casualties.

One young Silicon Valley woman, who wanted her name withheld because she is critical of the church and doesn’t want members to mistreat her, was hurt by her family’s support of Proposition 8. She was raised Mormon and married a man who turned out to be gay. She says local church leaders and fellow Mormons blamed her for making him gay and don’t support her ex in his new lifestyle.

“My parents, quick to obey the words of the prophet, donated $1,000 to the ‘Yes on 8’ cause,” she says. “You can imagine my pain when I came home and visited them for the weekend and saw that yard sign poked in the grass.”

Public balance on this topic is difficult, she says.

An important need for gay couples: the ability to have their unions recognized publicly, and to receive full legal rights that heterosexual couples have. An important need for Mormons: the assurance that they will never have to perform gay marriages.

Such protection for the church is vital, says Alyssa Johanson, a 29-year-old research scientist who lives in Union City. She is Mormon and supports Proposition 8.

“This is a tricky issue to deal with, because heterosexual marriage is a key doctrine of our faith and is the crowning ordinance performed in our temples, which are our most sacred houses of worship,” Johanson says. “Because few states have tougher anti-discrimination policies than California, we worry about the impact that legalized gay marriage will have on our continued ability to worship according to our beliefs.”

Mormons would indeed feel better if there were a guarantee they wouldn’t have to perform same-sex marriages, says Robert Rees, of Boulder Creek, an educator at UC Santa Cruz and other California universities. Rees is Mormon and has been married for 50 years. He does not support Proposition 8, and says that viewpoint caused problems for him with some brethren.

“One of the unfortunate results of Proposition 8 is that it tended to divide some LDS congregations, in some cases pitting member against member,” Rees says.

Proposition 8 has been hard for all sides involved, according to San Jose teacher Vanessa, 29. She requested her last name not be used because community members have already insulted her for her Proposition 8 views, she says, and she doesn’t want to argue anymore or be discriminated against.

“I can understand why the gay community feels they’ve been discriminated against, because they have been,” she says, “but I do feel there’s a big misunderstanding on our views of homosexuals.”

She says she has close relationships with gay family members and colleagues, but doesn’t want the definition of marriage expanded.

She’s proud of the work her fellow Mormons did to support Proposition 8, but she knows her church wasn’t alone in its activism — it was just especially good at it.

ABOUT THE SERIES

This is the first of a two-part series on gays and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Today: The fractured history between gays and the church.

March 20: Reparative therapy and church attempts to ‘cure’ gays.

Online: Read the full series and see more photos at ContraCostaTimes.com.