SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A gay-rights organization said a group that ran an ad defending the Mormon church and others’ right to support California’s same-sex marriage ban is lying about the nature of demonstrations against the ban.

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Truth Wins Out took out a full-page advertisement Thursday in The Salt Lake Tribune under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.”

It’s a response to another full-page ad placed in the New York Times on Dec. 5 about the fallout from passage of a California constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The New York Times ad accused opponents of Proposition 8 of waging mob violence. It also called for a stop to “violence and intimidation” against supporters of the measure, including the Salt Lake City-based Mormon church, which urged its members to contribute to the cause.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said its property has been vandalized as a result.

The Utah headquarters of the church also received an envelope in the mail last month containing a white powder. The FBI later determined the powder wasn’t a known toxin or biological agent. Further testing is ongoing to determine the exact substance.

Proposition 8 opponents haven’t been blamed for sending the powder, but last week’s ad suggested it was the work of “thugs” seeking to terrorize a place of worship.

“That would be a stretch,” FBI agent Juan T. Becerra said. “We have not received any reliable evidence that is related to the Proposition 8 issue.”

Wayne Besen, director of Truth Wins Out, said in a statement Thursday that the ad was part of a “concerted and ongoing effort by anti-gay forces to portray peaceful marchers exercising their First Amendment rights as violent troublemakers.”

The New York Times ad was sponsored by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and was signed by several religious leaders, including Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals; William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights; Nathan Diament, public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; and the Prison Fellowship’s Chuck Colson, a member of the Nixon administration who served prison time for Watergate-related offenses.

LDS Church Elder M. Russell Ballard expressed the church’s appreciation for the Times ad in an issued statement.

“This was a thoughtful and generous gesture at a time when the right of free expression of people of faith has come under attack,” the statement said. “We join with those of all religious faiths and political persuasions who have called for reasoned and civil discourse on matters that affect our nation.”