Thinking Anglicans

Has any Ahmanson money reached the UK?

Link updated August 2012

I was recently asked this question.

The answer is in an earlier article, which quoted directly from Jim Naughton’s articles published in April this year Following the Money: Donors and Activists on the Anglican Right. Here it is again (refer to page 3 of the original for the footnotes):

By 2004, the AAC was a well-established advocacy group, not unlike others that flourished in Washington . It spent just under $600,000 that year on employee compensation, $124,000 on travel, and $114,000 in printing and publications. 39

It was also developing a global reach. Summarizing its expenditures for that year, the AAC says it spent more than $361,000 on “advocacy and diplomatic efforts with international partners on issues surrounding Anglican communion.” Three of those partners-the British evangelical organizations Anglican Mainstream ($60,000), the Church Missionary Society ($27,000) and the Oxford Center for Mission Studies ($7,000)-received gifts from the AAC during 2003-04. 40

The AAC was not the only Ahmanson-funded organization aiding conservative Anglicans in the United Kingdom . The International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians (INFEMIT), which is based at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies (OCMS), pursues philanthropic activities beyond the scope of an advocacy organization. 41 However, it plays a significant role in the Anglican controversy.

From 2000 to 2004, its American branch, INFEMIT USA , which lists the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Institute as its U. S. mailing address, contributed $357,414 to OCMS and $262,000 to the Network for Anglican Mission and Evangelism, (NAME.)

NAME held an international conference in Africa in 2004 which produced papers justifying the actions of foreign bishops who had claimed Episcopal churches as their own, or announced plans to found a missionary church in the United States. 42

According to IRS Forms 990, INFEMIT USA raised more than $2.75 million from 2000-2003. More than $2.6 million was contributed by an unnamed donor or handful of donors. It is not clear how much of this money was donated by Ahmanson, but he listed INFEMIT 14th on the list of charities to which he has given the most money. 43

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Cynthia Gilliatt
Cynthia Gilliatt
17 years ago

It should be noted that the amounts of money cited in this are far in excess of what is ever available to Integrity in the US. I don’t have the latest budget figures as published in the last edition of our news magazine, but be assured, it’s the other folks who have the big bucks. I think our budget is available on the Integrity website, which the curious may easily find. Thus when the other side cites with paranoid fear the vast homsexual-agenda propaganda machine, I have to laugh. Maybe it’s not our very limited money that has gained us… Read more »

New Here
New Here
17 years ago

Where’s Madame Lefarge when you need her?

Ford Elms
Ford Elms
17 years ago

If you pronounce INFEMIT as one would in French, the final ‘t’ is silent. Seems appropriate.

Cheryl Clough
17 years ago

Cynthia

Don’t forget to remember God’s grace. The problems of mistreating women and GLBTs has been going on for centuries (rippling out from the tolerance of slandering of Eve and dodging responsbility). If things have changed in recent times, it is from God’s grace and not our own works. If we forget that, everything we have done will unravel faster than you can say “where did it go?”

I love Zechariah 4:6 “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”

BabyBlue
17 years ago

Every time I try to put away my tinfoil hat, I have to get it out again. Repeating the same silly conspiracy theories about the scary IRD That is Seeking To Take Over the World doen’t improve with age. In fact, it just gets sillier. As I recall, Diane Knippers – the late president of scary IRD – found lodging at the YMCA in downtown Denver during General Convention 2000 – not exactly the Top of the Mark. At General Convention 2003 she was in the middle of chemo treatments for the cancer that eventually took her life – but… Read more »

Jay
Jay
17 years ago

Um, so, policital operatives like the late Ms. Knippers, or the current staff and directors of the AAC and IRD, are proven not to be political operatives because they stay in budget-conscious accommodations? Brilliant! The IRD, of which the AAC is a wholly-owned subsidiary, has a verifiable history, BabyBlue. The reason we Americans like to get at truth by “following the money” is because it works so well. Think Watergate; think Iran-Contra (which, incidentally, the IRD actively advocated on the death-squad side of the Central American conflicts); think corporate scandals such as Enron. Beyond all that, we have volumes of… Read more »

John D
John D
17 years ago

I’m truly sorry that Diane Knippers lost her battle with cancer, but that sorrow doesn’t preclude my labelling her aggressive actions against TEC as disingenuous and evil. Spare me the drama, BB, and hire a new rector for Truro.

Cynthia Gilliatt
Cynthia Gilliatt
17 years ago

As for the Sudan, the Diocese of Virginia has been active for some considerable time working with the Diocese of Renk. Helped build their cathedral. Continue to have a priest of ours over there with with for the duration. Starting new projects with them. As for IRD and tinfoil hats … sometimes when it walks and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. All you need to see that are eyes and an open mind. Wish people like the ABC would take off – not their tinfoil hats – but whatever blinders that they are wearing and see what’s… Read more »

Simon Sarmiento
17 years ago

What’s weird about bb’s comment is that neither the article published here, nor any of the comments prior to bb, even mentions IRD.

BabyBlue
17 years ago

The article above refers to Jim Naughton and the Diocese of Washington’s “Follow the Money” article, which of course is all about scary IRD taking over the world. Now it is interesting that the above parts omit IRD. Perhaps the word is finally out how silly these conspiracy theories sound and so they are trying a brand new angle to start all over again. By the way, where does Matthew Fox and his gang get their money? Ever checked that one out? Maybe we can start another conspiracy theory with that one – it outght to be a doozy! In… Read more »

J. C. Fisher
17 years ago

bb,

I’m reminded less of a tinfoil hat, and more of a tinned *mirror*, which you’re using to try and blind us to the facts.

Do you dispute the $ amounts given by Ahmanson, or don’t you? [Ascetic (by your standards) accommodations could well help channel those $ to more/better agit-prop!]

Jay
Jay
17 years ago

I don’t even get bb’s baiting. Maybe it’s the “if I ignore the facts and say ‘silly’ 48 more times it will become true”?

MaryO
MaryO
17 years ago

Actually, all of IRD’s tax returns are available at http://www.guidestar.org. If you look at the lists of places to which they have given money, and then look at their returns, you can make your own judgments.

Jay
Jay
17 years ago

Thank you for that link, MaryO. Even though, for the past three years, I have requested and received, by snail mail, the Form 990’s from the AAC and the IRD (and received them in reasonable time) (and made my own judgments), I registered on guidestar.org. The first thing I noticed on the IRD’s record is the classification: “NTEE Code R60 (Civil Liberties Advocacy)” http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?userHomePage=false&npoId=645689 ROFL!!! The irony is — well, pardon me for being redundant — jaw-droppingly absurd. Detail for code R60 from http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/nteeSearch.php?gQry=R60 — [category] R – Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy Private nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose… Read more »

ruidh
ruidh
17 years ago

It seems to me that Michael Fox gets money from (a) writing books that people want to buy, presumably to read, and by (b) having booked paying speaking engagements. It’s hard to whip up a conspiracy up out of that. Some very sophisticated political public relations campaigns have been arranged over the years by people trying to “make their own reality”. How many times have we heard of the immanent forcible disenrollment of TEC out of the Communion? At last report it’s supposed to happen at the next Primate’s Meeting. Just like it was supposed to happen at the *last*… Read more »

Father Ron Smith
11 years ago

One does have to wonder who finances the conservative African Primates to all these cosy get-together Meeting of the GAFCON. I’m sure their own provicncial funds don’t stretch that far.

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