The divisive campaigns for and against the ballot proposition that would define marriage as between a man and a woman have deeply entwined the LDS Church because of its aggressive push for members to help pass the measure on Tuesday.

The church's involvement got a little messier, not from its own activities, but from an anonymous posting that appeared on Mormon blogs warning of "six consequences" if the proposition fails.

Some Mormon scholars jumped on the piece as false and misleading and one, Morris Thurston, an LDS attorney in Orange County, posted a rebuttal, stating he didn't want the image of the church to be tied to falsehoods.

The anonymous author later was identified by another blogger as Glen Greener, a political consultant in California who wrote a similar piece in the LDS-related Meridian Magazine that warns of "nine consequences" if the proposition fails.

Greener was a Salt Lake City commissioner in the 1970s and became embroiled in a scandal known as "Citygate" that eventually led to a change in city government from a commission form of government to a mayor-council form of government.

Greener, fellow Commissioner Jennings Phillips Jr. and Police Chief Bud Willoughby were accused of plotting to take over the city's personnel department and rule the city by fiat. The so-called cabal got into a direct confrontation with then-Mayor Ted Wilson and other commissioners. An independent committee studied the activities of the three and scolded them in a harsh report.

Greener eventually left the state for a career in California and, once again, finds himself in the midst of controversy.

One of the "consequences" he listed in the Meridian article, as well as the anonymous piece, referred to Massachusetts, where he said the Catholic Charities of Boston had closed its doors because the courts legalized gay marriage there.

That was news to the Catholic Charities of Boston, according to a blogger who contacted the organization and found it is very much open.

Don't mess with Grandma: Many Utahns have complained this year about campaign signs in their yards being stolen or vandalized and some Barack Obama supporters have reported racial epithets and threats posted in their yards because of their signs.

But when it happened to 80-year-old Obama supporter Arleta Neilsen in Centerville, she wasn't going to stand for it.

Neilsen put up an Obama sign in her yard last week, and the next day it was stolen.

So with the help of a few neighbors she recruited, she painted "Obama" on the grass on each side of her front yard, which sits on a street corner.

"Obama," by the way, is painted in red, white and blue, just so her neighbors know she is a "real American."

prolly@sltrib.com