US millionaire bankrolls crusade against gay Anglican priests

[starroute]

There's far too much in this article to do it justice with brief quotes. Howard Ahmanson is the extreme right-wing fundie whose name comes up from time to time in connection with right-wing control of electronic voting. Now it seems that he and his fundamentalist allies are deliberately setting out to take over what has been a mainstream Protestant denomination.

This is both a major story and a very disturbing one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1061368,00.html

Howard F. Ahmanson Jr does not like publicity. The fiftysomething multimillionaire, who lives in Newport Beach, California, is something of a recluse . . . Now Ahmanson has a new crusade, whose repercussions will be felt far beyond the United States. He is using his cash to stir up the most divisive row facing the Anglican Church, one that threatens to rip it apart when its leaders meet in London this week.

<snip>

Leading the backlash is the American Anglican Council (AAC) based in Washington. . . . AAC stalwart James M. Stanton, Bishop of Dallas, admits that Ahmanson gives $200,000 a year, although many observers believe it is considerably more. . . . The AAC's influence is bolstered by its close links to another right-wing religious organisation, the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), which operates out of the same Washington office as the AAC, and on whose board Ahmanson's wife, Roberta, sits.

Between 1997 and 2002, the IRD, set up during the Cold War to fight the spread of communism, spent at least $2.5 million to monitor and resist the liberalisation of America's churches.

Much of the IRD's money comes from the conservative philanthropist Richard Scaife, heir to a banking and oil fortune and owner of the Greensburgh Tribune Review, the Pittsburgh newspaper that became the bane of President Bill Clinton's life, with a series of allegations surrounding the Whitewater affair.

[hedda_foil]

1. Ahmanson .... now isn't that interesting.

Ahmanson is no Anglican or Episcopalian. He's a Christian Reconstructionist with deep pockets. He's also deeply into black box voting. This guy is one of the prime movers of the electronic voting industry.

Just in case you don't know about Christian Reconstructionism, their vision is to rule the United States and eventually the world under their interpretation of Old Testament Law, including burning nonbelievers (anyone who doesn't agree with their own particular version of xtianity, which is far more extreme than what is fed to the fundies), stoning adulters, rape victims and homosexuals to death. Oh ... and forget about the Constitution or even elections. These folks REALLY want to return to the good old days circa 1,000 BC.

What's also really interesting is that the author of the "Left Behind" series, which promotes the idea that believers will be raptured away before Armageddon, is a Christian Reconstructionist. Contrary to the rapturous vision of the fundie sheep, the CR's believe that 1,000 years of virtuous rule by "Biblical Law" is required before Jesus returns for the final judgement.

I used to have great CR links but they disappeared when my old hard drive died. If no one else comes up with them, just google:

Christian Reconstructionism

[cosmicdot]

2. Council for National Policy

Howard Ahmanson, Jr.- CNP Member 1984-85, 1988, Board of Governors 1996, 1998. President of Fieldstead and Co.; Fieldstead Foundation; chair of the California Independent Business PAC. Ahmanson is an Orange County financier who inherited Home Savings of America from his father, has spent millions promoting Religious Right candidates, first in California and then nationwide. Ahmanson has been a major contributor to the Capitol Resource Institute, the California political front of Focus on the Family; the Western Center for Law and Religious Freedom, the Reason Foundation, (an offshoot of Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI)) and the California Prolife Council. Inc. Ahmanson helped found The Rutherford Institute and is a major donor to Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation; The Ahmanson Foundation was a contributor to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)(1990-1993). A Board member for the Claremont Institute, wife, Roberta Green, also a member of Claremont Institute board. Newport Beach, CA.; Ahmanson also served 23 years (retired 1995) on the board of the Chalcedon Institute in Vallecito, California, which Newsweek (Feb. 2, 1981) accurately identified as the think tank of the Religious Right. The Chalcedon Institute, to which Ahmanson has contributed over a million dollars, was founded in 1965, perpetuates the Dominionist/Reconstructionist/Kingdom Now beliefs of founder Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony who was also a member of the CNP. Rushdoony, who died February 8, 2001, is the known as the "father of Christian Reconstructionism," which is the misguided belief that Christians should have dominion over all earthly affairs and nations and the law would be according to Old Testament laws, which includes the death penalty for many infractions.
http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.a.htm#ahmanson

The movement has generous friends in two California multimillionaires, Howard Ahmanson, Jr. and California state Senator Robert Hurtt, members of the secretive Council for National Policy.<216> Unlike some libertarian and neoconservative donors who either shy away from cultural and religious issues, or at the very least are not explicit in their support, Howard Ahmanson Jr. is very open about his mission to save America: "My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."<217> Ahmanson's money, inherited from his father's Home Savings of America, goes chiefly to anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and pro-business state Assembly candidates in California, many of whom beat out moderate Republicans in the June 1992 Republican primary.<218>
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=2062

[Eloriel]

4. His money also goes to NPR (or at least CPB) these days

I've heard "Ahmanson Foundation" named as supporters of CPB in the last 2 weeks when I've been out and about in my car with the local public broadcasting station on. My heart sank.

Eloriel

[realFedUp]

3. interesting info

thanks for posting.

[MinnFats]

5. hands off my church, ya morons!

lately i have thought of my little suburban St. Paul Episcopal parish, with its out lesbian pastor, as a bastion of sanity in a roiling sea of nutcase religiouists.....
i pray they just leave us alone...
the idea that richard mellon scaife is taking aim at my church frightens and infuriates me.....thanks for the warning, though.