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One of the most well-funded organizations currently attempting to foist their agenda on “mainline” (United Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian) Protestant Christian denominations is the Institute on Relition and Democracy (I won't help them with a Web link here...you can easliy find them if you care to).

They have been given millions of dollars by extreme right-wing foundations in order to push our churches further to the right. If you would like some information about the funding of the IRD, click here.

Interestingly enough, in the “P.S.” of a letter sent out by the IRD in Nov. 1999 is found the statement “You might be curious where UMAction gets its funding.” It goes on to state “We rely entirely upon the generosity of United Methodists like you.” That's funny...none of the granting organizations listed as major donors to the IRD are United Methodist-oriented. The letter also states “We obviously cannot out-spend the Church bureaucrats with their multi-million-dollar budgets.” The IRD has collected and is spending millions of dollars, so their words are not only misleading, but downright untruthful.

Here are Web pages about some of their sources:

• The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
  (The Bradley Foundation was apparently part of a large anti-Clinton consipiracy. Here's a link about that topic.)
• Scaife Foundations
  (Richard Mellon Scaife was a primary funder of many anti-Clinton activities and also provided money for the position offerred to Ken Starr at Pepperdine University. more about Scaife...)
• Castle Rock Foundation
• John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.

Here's a link to a report on the website of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington by Jim Naughton:

Following the Money

In addition to the foundations mentioned above, the article linked above also describe the involvement (both financial and otherwise) of the Ahmanson family, who have given millions of dollars to conservative causes and candidates, but whose involvement with Christian Reconstructionism (a.k.a. Dominionism) should be alarming to those who care about both our church and our country. According to an article found in the publication "Zion's Herald:"

Christian Reconstructionism is a hard-line Calvinist movement that advocates replacing American democracy with a fundamentalist theocracy under strict biblical codes. For example, they would impose the death penalty "by stoning" on everyone from adulterers and homosexuals to incorrigible children and those who spread "false" religions.

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