Wealthy political reactionaries and strife within the Episcopal Church

[LiviaOlivia]

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

[roguevalley]

1. he's a dick who has to have his wife speak for him most of the time.

[ShockediSay]

2. Behind most parochial opinion movements, there are one or more

with a big bankroll, an agenda, and little regard if any, for common well being.

http://www.slate.com/id/2133079/

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Thank you so much for posting this

I KNEW there was something going on under the covers and figured it involved big bucks. The Episcopal Church or my youth, of which I am extremely proud, has been wracked by this schism which I can see now really isn't as much a schism as a planned train wreck.

I think I'll up my pledge to my church. The ones with the chutzpah to ordain an openly gay man bishop and to come out against the war before we ever stepped foot in Iraq. The ones who leave and go back to the Anglican church? Well, just don't let the big red doors hit you on the way out. They'll knock you on your butt and you'll have trouble getting up.

T-Grannie, righteously annoyed

[sutz12]

4. But there is no 'vast right wing conspiracy'

:sarcasm:

[charlie]

5. Alright

How many more times in my life am I going to have to see that fucktard Scaife's name attached to a malignant rip in the social fabric? That shadowy pissant has been behind every goddamn thing that's given me heartburn for the past 20 years! It's waaaay past time the cowardly shitstain's been outted in a big way. As America gets swerved into a ditch, it's citizens are at least owed a face, an address, and a phone number of the idiotic driver. Goddamn him. And goddamn the goddamn Mellons for not reining in their family sociopath!

[davidinalameda]

6. I saw this story earlier

why am I not surprised in the least that the right wingers are behind this

[bettyellen]

7. State of Belief on Air America is covering this story sunday 5/21

and the host, Rev Welton Gaddy, has been through this with the Southern Baptist Convention, so it should be interesting.
the mainline protestant churches are in the crosshairs now.