Reply #27: The Rutherford Institute is always bad news

[murielkane]

http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-15.html

John W. Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, has gone to great lengths to conceal the ideological leanings of his Christian Right legal center in statements to the mass media. He told the New York Times that "Oh, gosh, no," he had no political agenda in representing Paula Jones, and that he had founded the Rutherford Institute by himself. The New York Times reporter described The Rutherford Institute as "a kind of evangelical Christian civil liberties union."

Whitehead's claims misrepresent the group. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is blunt, "Our files on the Institute go back 10 years. After examining the material, we can safely say Whitehead is not being honest in his description of his organization."

From its founding, the Rutherford Institute has pursued a highly-politicized ultra-conservative agenda. A review of Rutherford Institute newsletters, reports, and direct mail appeals going back seven years shows a long pattern of attacks on liberals in government and President Clinton in particular. Whitehead consistently puts forward an apocalyptic conspiracist vision of devout Christian activists under concerted attack by corrupt and repressive government officials in the service of godless and immoral secular humanism.

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Rutherford_Institute

Early members of the Rutherford Foundation's board of directors included California millionaire Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., as well as prominent fundamentalist activists such as Francis Schaeffer and R.J. Rushdoony of The Chalcedon Foundation, a West Coast Christian think tank in which the Christian Reconstructionist Movement was born forty years ago. The early activities of the Rutherford Institute reflected this, and tended to focus on cases involving public primary and secondary education. They were especially active and often successful in trying to stop condom distribution in public schools, as well as sex education, AIDS prevention programs, and programs that teach tolerance.