Oct 12, 2008

Howard Ahmanson STRIKES OUT (again) against LGBT Christians/others our families, our friends and fellow citizens!


¨Will A Wealthy Social Conservative Have His Way With California Voters Again?

Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., has put $900,000 of his own money into passing California's gay marriage ban, but it's not the first time the flush ascetic has injected his religious views into politics. From stemming affirmative action to stoking unrest within the Episcopal Church, Ahmanson has been one of the most influential political donors in the country.¨

By Kerry Eleveld

An Advocate.com exclusive posted October 13, 2008

¨Will the same man who bankrolled a Republican takeover of the California Assembly in 1994, underwrote an amendment that gutted the state’s affirmative action law in 1996, and fostered the birth of the schism within the Episcopal Church over its gay-inclusive leanings now succeed in taking away the marriage rights of tens of thousands of gays and lesbians in California on November 4?

Weighing in with $900,000 of his own money, Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., a conservative philanthropist and highly influential political donor, is one of the single biggest benefactors of the campaign to pass California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.


Though Ahmanson is notorious in California circles and has been the subject of several comprehensive pieces in Salon , the Orange County Register , and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington among others, the reclusive philanthropist -- who almost never speaks to the press -- isn’t on the radar of many Americans even as his impact is being felt across the nation.

Cruising Ahmanson on the Internet reveals the tale of a socially conservative ideologue who has put his money where his mouth is, assiduously flexing the muscle of his multimillion-dollar fortune to bend the country’s political system to the will of his worldview.
According to multiple reports, he and his friends poured more than $4 million into winning enough Republican seats in the early ‘90s to briefly wrest control of the California Assembly from Democrats; he put $350,000 into dramatically weakening the state’s affirmative action laws (Proposition 209) and $210,000 – 35% of total funds according to Salon – into banning recognition of gay marriages from other states (Prop. 22) in 1999; and perhaps his most cataclysmic legacy to date began when he funneled $1 million to the American Anglican Council, which helped fuel the rift over gays that has besieged the Episcopal Church. (The Advocate reported more about the upshot of conservative Anglicans’ anti-gay crusade here).

More Ahmanson anti-LGBT PLOTTING on Theocracywatch/Howard Ahmanson, click here

Ahmanson’s moral certitude has its underpinnings in a variant of Calvinism known as the Christian Reconstructionist movement founded by far right theologian Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony, who promoted philosophies that might well be considered draconian by modern standards. In his 1973 tome “The Institutes of Biblical Law,” Rushdoony concluded that the Bible instructs society to execute people for 18 sins, including: murder, rape of a betrothed virgin, adultery, promiscuity by unwed women, homosexuality, sodomy, striking or cursing a parent, habitual criminality, blasphemy and bearing false witness. During an interview with Bill Moyers in the late ‘80s, Rushdoony said of the death penalty, “This is what God requires.”


Ahmanson considered Rushdoony a close spiritual guide – close enough to be at his bedside when Rushdoony left this world in 2001 – and in line with his teacher’s thinking, in 1985 Ahmanson told the Orange County Register, “My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives.” But his later interviews, few as they are, indicate some awareness of the disconnect between Rushdoony’s prescription for social order and that embraced by most of the developed world. In 2004, he told the Register, “I think what upsets people is that Rushdoony seemed to think – and I’m not sure about this – that a godly society would stone people for the same thing that people in ancient Israel were stoned. I no longer consider that essential … It would still be a little hard to say that if one stumbled on a country that was doing that, that it is inherently immoral, to stone people for these things. But I don’t think it’s at all a necessity.” the story continues...

Click here for the whole story from The Advocate

For The FULL background on the Calvanist/Extremist Fundamentalist/Dominionist, click here

¨Following the Money¨...for more about Howard Ahmansons self-righteous extremist religious/political capers, click here

Thanks to The Advocate
Thanks to Wikipedia.org
Thanks to The Daily Episcopalian
Thanks to Theocracywatch.org
Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

10 comments:

Cany said...

That man! Geez.

Wouldn't you know, I have been wondering when he would donate and how much, now I know. Here I am stuck in the same stupid red county as this beast...

Wonder when he is going to recommend stoning again...

He's a pro-theocracy nutcase (like Palin, BTW), and somehow these folks still manage to control the agenda. Makes me damn ill.

Fran said...

Ahmanson... Rushdoony... Ugh.

God forgive me the thoughts I am having.

No on 8!

And yet another RC priest spoke up against Prop 8.

Caminante said...

"Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., has put $900,000 of his own money into passing California's gay marriage ban" Qué pendejo.

Think of what GOOD that obscene amount of money could do for the poor, those without water, those with HIV/AIDS, the dalit, you name whichever group, anyone but how he is throwing his weight around.

Leonard said...

Worse yet...
one wonders, after Ahmanson´s appearance/attendence at GAFCON, the Middle East Bigots Conference for destruction and/or takeover of The Anglican Communion,just how much ¨support¨ goes for the promoting/preaching and the outcasting, demonizing and hate campaign currently waged against LGBT Christians/Anglicans. LGBT Anglicans/Christians/others are persecuted more ruthlessly these days by the Anglican Archbishops of Uganda and Nigeria! Howard may no longer think it ¨necessary¨ to ¨stone to death¨ homosexuals, but others, whom he enables, don´t seem to have a problem with instigating crimes of hate at HOME in AFRICA and beyond...come to think of it, Howards old Episcopal Church parish, St. James Newport Beach, California, has been tempoarily ¨poached upon¨ by Henri Orombi/Uganda...not a bad offering (soon we will see if the California Supreme Court agrees).

Anonymous said...

Huge blessings to you, LR. A luta continua!

David G. said...

It's too bad the market didn't wipe out Howies nest egg,...oh what a shame that would have been.

Should it happen in my lifetime, I'll spring for the kegs.

Leonard said...

You must be kidding, David. The geezer/buzzard probably has all of the large bills/big notes/Foreign money secured under his bed (probably a twin) and sleeps in his clothes.

David G. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David G. said...

Well if I could read Spanish, I could have changed the above post to my liking,...but I Cannot, so here is another post (in the Queen's ENGLISH).

It's not a twin .... but a small trundle bed... that has never had the bottom side pulled out.

In fact the plastic is still covering the mattress!!

David G. said...

Sorry,

Just Bitchin as usual.