The Mormons Church Was Planning This Fight For The Last TEN Years

And they're shocked, SHOCKED, that people are pissed off at them. Not only was the LDS plotting their campaign back in 1997, they'd already decided to enlist the Catholic Church as their unprecedented ally.

On Election Day, LDS Church members helped pass the Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban in California. But now, a new internal LDS Church document has surfaced, one showing the Church's involvement and strategy going back more than a decade. This memo was reportedly sent from a LDS General Authority to a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. It deals with the issue of same-sex marriage and it is dated, March 4, 1997.

This eleven-year-old memo gives a glimpse into President Gordon B. Hinckley's strategy for dealing with same-sex marriage. It talks of a meeting with President Hinckley who reportedly said to "move ahead" with the church's opposition to same-sex marriage. This memo also discusses joining forces with the Catholic Church, saying: "...the public image of the Catholic Church is higher than our Church. In other words, if we get into this, they are the ones with which to join."

But President Hinckley apparently urged caution as the memo makes clear, "he (President Hinckley) also said the (LDS) Church should be in a coalition and not out front by itself. And this is a key point. President Hinckley's 11-year-old strategy of opposing same-sex marriage and partnering with the Catholic Church helped lead to the passage of Proposition 8 and a new ban on same-sex marriage.

But some of the outcry since could be blamed on the perception that the LDS Church was out in front of this issue - exactly what President Hinckley warned against. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could not say for sure, but believes this recently surfaced 1997 memo is authentic. And those who opposed Proposition 8 are claiming that more documents like this do exist.