The Mormon church, whose members have emerged as the leading backers of a ballot measure to end same-sex marriage in California, is scaling back its Utah campaign operation but will continue to support the initiative.
Church members will no longer be making phone calls from Utah to California voters, Kim Farah, a church spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement Friday.
At the request of the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, church members in Utah had been enlisted to make calls on behalf of the measure.
"However, the church has since determined that such phone calls are best handled by those who are registered California voters," Farah said.
Opponents of the measure have criticized the church's involvement in the campaign.
The Courage Campaign, a liberal advocacy group, plans to deliver a petition to a Mormon church in Los Angeles next week demanding the church stop funding the Yes on 8 campaign.
But a spokesman for the church, which holds traditional marriage is a sacred institution ordained by God, said the church continues to support the measure despite curtailing its Utah phone bank operation.
Church members have been the biggest contributors to the Yes on 8 campaign.
In a related matter, Frank Schubert, who is managing the Yes on 8 campaign, released a statement warning that "unless we raise $3 million in the next week, we're going to lose."
The No on 8 campaign, which raised $3.9 million this week at a fundraiser at the Beverly Hills home of billionaire Ron Burkle, has made similar appeals in the past.
Supporters have raised $27.7 million and opponents $29.3 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign filings.
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