Follow The Money
by pastordan
Mon May 1st, 2006
As promised by
Chuck Currie at the end of last week, the
Episcopal Diocese of Washington has released what by all rights should be considered a
landmark study authored by former New York Times reporter Jim McNaughton tracking how a handful of wealthy political reactionaries has funded much of the current strife within the Episcopal Church in the USA, as well as fomented schism in the Worldwide Anglican Communion. Read the whole thing, if for no better reason than that it's an excellent introduction to the shenanigans of the "dominionist" right.
McNaughton
focuses on Howard Ahmanson, who seems to be the leading money man behind the conservative "renewal" movement in the ECUSA. Along with apparently being a major benefactor of the Richard Scaife-affiliated Institute for Religion and Democracy - which began life with smears against mainline denominations' foreign missions boards, and continues today with campaigns to undermine those denominations from within - Ahmanson
...emerged as a political force in his home state of California in the early 1990s. Research conducted for The Los Angeles Times found that he and his wife had contributed $3.9 million to Republican candidates in state and local races and $82,750 in federal races between 1991 and 1995. 14 They also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to ballot initiatives that banned gay marriage and affirmative action. 15 Campaign finance records indicate that the couple continues to contribute heavily to Republican candidates nationwide. 16
Ahmanson is a member of the secretive Council for National Policy, an elite group of politically conservative national leaders who meet several times a year to coordinate their efforts on a common agenda. According to a New York Times report, the dates and locations of the group's meetings are kept secret, as is its membership. Participants in the group's discussions promise not to reveal their content. 17 Members in recent years have included Gary Bauer, Tom DeLay, James Dobson, Bob Jones, III, of Bob Jones University, Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series, Grover Norquist, Oliver North, Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson and Phyllis Schlafly. 18
Ahmanson also supports several think tanks. He was a major benefactor and former board member of Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation. He also contributes heavily to the Discovery Institute, the intellectual flagship of the Intelligent Design movement, 19 and the George C. Marshall Institute, which disputes research indicating that human activity contributes to global warming. 20
In what may be his only published article, Ahmanson advanced a Scriptural case for opposing minimum wage laws. 21
In other words, Ahmanson has his fingers in nearly every American religious movement progressives find objectionable and/or troubling: dominionist, Religious Right, anti-gay, millennialist, intelligent-design/creationist. About the only one left off this list is the radical anti-abortion movement. I don't have time to reproduce all the links, but each one of those numbers above provides a source for McNaughton's contention.
~snip~
read the rest at:
http://www.streetprophets.com/storyonly/2006/5/1/134354/8093