After a fast pace 30 day campaign to get the word out to Seventh-day Adventists about voting YES on Proposition 8 it is finally over. Thanks to all your efforts the ballot measure passed in California and I believe in other states that had similar measures. We don't expect this battle to be over yet though so please continue praying as we help defend religious liberty for churches, protect traditional marriage and our kids.

--The Adventists For Prop 8 team!

Dear friends on both sides of Prop 8 debate: 

Last night we released an email associating same-sex marriage with the judgments of God. The title was:  "Be Scared California. Be VERY SCARED."  The email generated emotions on both sides of the issue but on further reflection, we regret that we used scare tactics to drum up support for Prop 8. We do believe the judgments of God on account of sin are real, but the proclamation of judgment must be tempered with mercy, kindness and tact, and our email, quite frankly, did not include all those qualities. Proposition 8 is an emotional issue that has generated strong feelings on all sides. We hope that you will forgive our intemperate remarks earlier, and continue your support for this vitally important measure.

Sincerely,

Adventists For Prop 8

We hit over 1,000 signatures today as of 9:30 PM Pacific time! Thanks to everyone for spreading the word. Lets keep up the effort until the election. We are wanting to be sure every Seventh-day Adventist in California and every church knows the dangers of same-sex marriage to marriage and our religious liberties. Please check out our new Resources page for a lot of new information.

- Andrew Jones

Check out the new FAQ and Resources pages! The response by Alan Reinach to the group "Adventists Against Prop 8 (AAP8)" is posted on the home page and the new resources page. It's an excellent rebuttal to their arguments.

We're very very close to 1,000 signatures. Tonight I'll update the petition list with all the new ones that came in today.

Thanks again everyone for your efforts! More to come next week! By Monday we should have the Spanish version of our web site up too.

- Andrew Jones

Yea you were expecting this but we wanted to give people the option to help us get the word out to Adventists in California about Prop 8. We finally got the donations piece integrated today. It didn't take much using Click & Pledge web service. This allows us to ask the required fields like Employer and Job title that you're supposed to ask when taking political donations. So with 2 weeks left until the election we're making a mad dash to the finish with promoting Prop 8.

Finally got the paperwork done a few days ago and submitted it to the California Secretary of State's office in downtown Sacramento. Our ID# is 1312536.

Some quick Q & A about this proposition 8 website petition drive...

1. Are you an employee of any church or ASI-member organization? Answer: No.

2. Is this an Amazing Facts or 3ABN project? Answer: No.

3. Did Amazing Facts give you any resources to do this project? Answer: No.

4. The people who helped you with this project, was it on their own time? Answer: Yes.

5. Why is the domain names WHOIS info hidden via a proxy company? Answer: Because the person who paid for the domains does not want their home address on the Internet.

6. How did this project initially start? Answer: A friend instant messaged me about another web petition effort against Prop 8 circulating among church members and told me to take a look at it. A few days later my local pastor suggested I do a similar project. After investigating what it would take to do this I went ahead on my own with launching this project.

7. Who provided the content? Answer: We have had different people write content, edit content and make helpful suggestions. Among them my local pastor.

8. Why did the article "12 Civil & Religious Reasons" located here http://www.adventistsfor8.com/Info.aspx change? Answer: The website address was sent out among some friends and acquaintances a few days before the official launch. We officially launched at 6 PM, Friday, October 3rd. Some Adventists news blogs picked up on the website effort before the launch and noticed editorial changes being done and wrote up about these changes. We though had not officially launched yet so those changes were to be expected. Even after launch the main article was updated with more input from some of the key endorsers.

9. Is this a "conservative" Seventh-day Adventist response to the "Adventists Against Prop 8" website? Answer: Many of my friends consider themselves "conservative" Adventists like myself but not all the people who have helped with this project call themselves "conservative" Adventists. I promoted the cause earlier on with some of these conservative friends by associating my efforts with being conservative but the petition drive is opened to anyone who believes Proposition 8 should be passed this election and that marriage should be defined as being between a man and woman only.

10. How can I contact your group? Answer: Our email address is listed at the bottom of most of the web pages. It is info@adventistsfor8.com.

If I can think of any more questions I'll answer them here. If you have any questions dealing with this project post a comment here and I'll reply. Questions about Proposition 8 itself and same-sex marriages should be posted in another forum as this blog post is only about the web project.

- Andrew Jones

www.Adventistsfor8.com

logo for our petition drive

It's been a fast and furious work to get this Proposition 8 website project off the ground quickly with the election coming up. This hasn't been a one man show though and so I would like to list here the names and brief details of those who have helped in some form either professionally, financially or through volunteer efforts to make this web site possible (forgive me if I don't know some of the people well enough to describe who they are as this project has introduced me to a lot of "strangers" and new friends too).

In no particular order of importance:

1. Dr. Jerome Niswonger, Paradise, CA - friend, opthamologist, business owner, church elder, lay preacher, Sabbath School teacher.

2. Tim Taylor, Collegedale, TN - friend, theology major at Southern Adventists Univ, marketing director of GYC, founder of ArmyOfYouth.com, lay preacher.

3. Jeff Brostrom, Roseville, CA - friend, graphic designer (created our Facebook logo), marketing guru, MMA fighter, business owner, owns the web and database server we're renting from him, owns the domains we are using.

4. Dennis Jones, Lincoln, CA - father, retired IRS employee, lay preacher, Sabbath School teacher, church elder.

5. Sam Devai, Newcastle, CA - friend, business owner, Sabbath School teacher.

6. Eric Hawkins, Sacramento, CA - friend, network administrator, IT guru, Sabbath School teacher.

7. Pastor Doug Batchelor, Sacramento, CA - senior pastor, evangelist, author, President of Amazing Facts.

8. Shemeka Bruton, Rocklin, CA - friend, Amazing Facts web developer, Sabbath School teacher, Bible worker.

9. Debbie and Todd Christensen and family, Newcastle, CA - supporters of the website effort.

10. Steve Wood, Camino, CA - family friend, business owner, elder, lay preacher/evangelist, Sabbath School teacher.

11. Hans Mauth, Sacramento, CA - friend, supporter of the website efforts, Sabbath School teacher.

12. Eric Kippel, Rocklin, CA - friend, Director of Information Technology at Amazing Facts, Sabbath School teacher, soon-to-be father, husband of Debbie Thompson Kippel <GRIN>.

13. Carson Cross, Newport, TN - friend, web developer, supporter of the website efforts, created Facebook fan page for this project.

14. Stacy Futrowsky, Virginia - Capwiz account manager - her and her team have provided excellent support in getting this project off the ground.

15. Dr. Tom Andrews, Redding, CA - friend, psychiatrist, business owner, lay preacher, church elder.

16. Adam Jackson, Canada - friend, web developer, graphic designer.

-Andrew Jones

www.AdventistsFor8.com