Howard Ahmanson, Jr.

Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr (born 1950) is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father, Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of the causes of many Christian cultural, religious and political organizations. He has been highly influential and generous with conservative Republicans and Evangelicals. Image File history File links Ahmanson_junior. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. ... A millionaire is a person who has a net worth or wealth of more than one million United States dollars, euros, British pounds or units of a comparably valued currency. ... A philanthropist is someone who devotes his/her time, money, or effort towards helping others. ...

Ahmanson is an Episcopalian and lives in Orange County, California. He has been married to Roberta Green Ahmanson since 1986. He is somewhat reclusive and has Tourette syndrome;^{[citation needed]} his wife usually communicates with the media and others on his behalf. The word Episcopal is derived from the Greek επισκοπος epískopos, which literally means overseer; the word however is used in religious terms to mean bishop. ... Official website: http://www. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tourette syndrome (also called Tourettes syndrome, Tourettes disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, GTS or TS) is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple motor tics and at least one phonic tic, which characteristically wax and wane. ...

Biography

Ahmanson is the son of the American financier Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr (1906-1968). His parents divorced when he was 10, and his mother died shortly afterwards. Despite the trappings of wealth, he was a lonely child. Ahmanson has said, "I resented my family background, [my father] could never be a role model, whether by habits or his lifestyle, it was never anything I wanted." Howard Ahmanson, Sr. died when his son was 18, and Ahmanson Jr. inherited a vast fortune. Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

Ahmanson Jr. went to Occidental College, where he obtained a degree in economics. He then toured Europe, but he returned because of arthritis. He earned a master's degree in linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington and has fluency in several foreign languages. Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union Johnson Hall, one of the three original buildings of the 1914 campus Occidental College, located in Los Angeles, California, is a small coeducational liberal arts college. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... The University of Texas at Arlington (full official name), usually referred to as UT-Arlington or UTA, is the largest institution of the University of Texas System in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and is second in size (in the region) only to the University of North Texas. ...

In the 1970s Ahmanson became a Calvinist and joined R. J. Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionist movement. Ahmanson served as a board member of Rushdooney's Chalcedon Foundation for over two decades. In an article published in the Orange County Register on June 30, 1996, Ahmanson said he had left the Chalcedon board and "does not embrace all of Rushdoony's teachings." (Qtd. in Reason, Nov. 1998.) However, Max Blumenthal reported in Salon in 2004 that "until Rushdoony's death in 2001, Ahmanson served on the board of his think tank, Chalcedon, granting it a total of $1 million." Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought, articulated by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Calvin and his interpretation of Scripture. ... Rousas John Rushdoony (25 April 1916–8 February 2001) was the seminal leader of the Christian Reconstructionist theology in the United States. ... Christian Reconstructionism is a highly controversial religious and theological movement within Protestant Christianity. ... The Chalcedon Foundation is the name for the Christian Reconstructionist organization founded by Rousas John Rushdoony. ...

In the 1970s Ahmanson was instrumental in starting the career of conservative Christian intellectual Marvin Olasky who then became an important figure in the conservative Evangelical media and political scene where Ahmanson has also been a key behind-the-scenes player. Marvin Olasky Marvin Olasky (born June 12, 1950) is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas, a leading conservative pundit, and the editor-in-chief of World magazine. ... The term evangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion - good news) of the New Testament. ...

Ahmanson is a board member of the John M. Perkins Foundation and (along with his wife) the Claremont Institute. He was a member of the Council for National Policy in 1984-85, 1988 and sat on its Board of Governors in 1996 and 1998. He has written articles appearing in The Los Angeles Times, Philanthropy, Religion and Liberty, and other publications. The Claremont Institute is a conservative think tank based in Claremont, California. ... The Council for National Policy (CNP), is a conservative American educational group, membership of which is only available by invitation. ...

TIME Magazine covered the Ahmansons in their 2005 profiles of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, classifying them as "the financiers."

Howard Ahmanson Jr. is a trustee of The Ahmanson Foundation, which was established by his father and is still operated by members of the Ahmanson family. The Ahmanson Foundation serves Los Angeles County non-profit organizations "by funding cultural projects in the arts and humanities, education at all levels, health care, programs related to homelessness and underserved populations as well as a wide range of human services."

Controversial Beliefs

Ahmanson has been and may still be a Christian Reconstructionist. He was deeply involved with the Reconstructionist movement and a lifelong friend of R. J. Rushdoony. Ahmanson told the Orange County Register in 1985, "My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives." After a $3,000 contribution to Linda Lingle, a Republican running for governor of Hawaii, was returned in 2002, the Ahmansons admitted they had an image problem and let the Orange County Register do a five-part series on them in 2004 to give the public a more accurate view of their work and beliefs. Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and political movement within Protestant Christianity. ... Rousas John Rushdoony (25 April 1916–8 February 2001) was the seminal leader of the Christian Reconstructionist theology in the United States. ...

Ahmanson seems to have moderated his views to adopt a broader but still extremely far-right Dominionist political theology. He is reported to have "never supported his mentor's calls for the death penalty for homosexuals," (The Observer, March 6, 2005), but as the Orange County Register reported in 2004, "he stops just short of condemning the idea," saying that he "no longer consider[s] [it] essential" to stone people who are deemed to have committed certain immoral acts. Ahmanson also told the Register, "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." (Orange County Register, August 10, 2004) Also in 2004, when asked by Max Blumenthal for Salon if "she and her husband would still want to install the supremacy of biblical law," Roberta Ahmanson replied: "I'm not suggesting we have an amendment to the Constitution that says we now follow all 613 of the case laws of the Old Testament ... But if by biblical law you mean the last seven of the 10 Commandments, you know, yeah." (Salon, January 6, 2004) This article is on the religious concept of dominionism. ...

Political, Cultural, and Religious Financing

Howard and Roberta Ahmansons' personal philanthropic organization is Fieldstead and Company, AKA the Fieldstead Institute, an unincorporated entity which has never had an online presence or telephone number. Fieldstead's Senior Program Officer is Steven Ferguson, an expert in public policy funding and a member-at-large of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS). OCMS is part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians network (INFEMIT), which previously shared its address with the Ethics and Public Policy Institute. At that time, between 2000 and 2004, the EPPI contributed $357,414 to OCMS and $262,000 to the Network for Anglican Mission and Evangelism (NAME) which was then supporting the secession of American Episcopal dioceses from the ECUSA over such issues as the ordination of a gay bishop. INFEMIT and OCMS, also a recipient of funds from the Ahmanson-funded American Anglican Council (AAC), aim to redefine missionary evangelism among Evangelicals, training them in missions as an activity that can include the normal professional activities of laymen. Ahmanson himself has written for an OCMS publication. Steven Sean Ferguson (born May 8, 1980 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a swimmer from New Zealand, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Fieldstead does not disclose its finances, but in 2004 they gave the Orange County Register a list of the top 20 organizations they support in order of the total amount the had given up to that point: Fullhart-Carnegie Museum Trust, Perry, Iowa; Drew University, Madison, N.J.; Discovery Institute, Seattle, Wash.; Claremont Institute; St. James Episcopal Church, Newport Beach; Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich.; American Anglican Council, Washington, D.C.; Food for the Hungry, Phoenix, Ariz.; Mariners Christian School, Costa Mesa; Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C.; Biola University, La Mirada, Calif.; Orange County Rescue Mission, Santa Ana, Calif.; The Chalcedon Foundation, Vallecito, Calif.; INFEMIT USA, Washington, D.C.; Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C.; World Vision, Federal Way, Wash.; Maranatha Trust, Washington, D.C.; National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, Cincinnati, Ohio; SEN USA, Hobart, Ind.; InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Madison, Wis. Drew University is a small, private university located in Madison, New Jersey. ... The Discovery Institute is a conservative Christian think tank, structured as a non-profit educational foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. Its areas of interest, social and political action include intelligent design, public school education, and transportation and bi-national cooperation in the international Cascadia region. ... The Claremont Institute is a conservative think tank based in Claremont, California. ... St. ... Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Biola University is a private Christian university, located in the city of La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California with a satellite campus in Vista. ... The Hudson Institute is a conservative think tank founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York by the futurist Herman Kahn and other colleagues from the RAND Corporation. ... World Vision, founded in the United States in 1950, is an international Christian relief and development organization whose goal is working for the well being of all people, especially children. ... InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, commonly referred to as InterVarsity, IVCF or simply IV, is an interdenominational, evangelical Christian ministry for college students. ...

Ahmanson has funded the magazine Chalcedon Report, the magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation. He funds the Claremont Institute and has been an important donor to the Reason Foundation. He has donated to numerous political candidates and organizations associated with the United States Republican Party. Some of his donations have been returned because of his views and associations. The Chalcedon Foundation is the name for the Christian Reconstructionist organization founded by Rousas John Rushdoony. ... The Claremont Institute is a conservative think tank based in Claremont, California. ... The Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank founded in 1986 that also publishes Reason magazine. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ...

Ahmanson is the chair of the California Independent Business Political Action Committee (PAC) and a member of the Republican state central committee. Since the 1980s, he has successfully worked with a small number of conservative businessmen and multi-millionaires, principally Rob Hurtt of Container Supply Corporation, to organize political action committees and increase conservatives' control of the California state government. Ahmanson and created the Capitol Resources Institute, which became a major lobbying force for Christian conservatives in Sacramento. The Ahmansons made political donations to the 1993 California school voucher initiative (which failed) and a 1992 voucher initiative in Colorado. Donations from the Ahmansons, Howard's associate Rob Hurrt, and the PACs they are involved with added up to almost $3 million split between 19 conservative candidates and various causes in 1992. Hurtt himself was elected State Senator in 1994 and became chairman of the Republican campaign committee for the State Legislature. At that time, the GOP was only four seats away from majority control in 1994. This political success has been seen as the result of planning undertaken at the Third Annual Northwest Conference for Reconstruction in 1983 by Wayne Johnson, who, according to The Public Eye, helped craft California's 1990 term limits initiative and "managed the campaigns of several Ahmanson-backed candidates in 1992." The Ahmansons supported Proposition 22, a ban on same-sex marriage in California. Howard Ahmanson contributed $62,500 to the Western Center for Law and Religious Freedom which aided the citizens and leaders of the Kern County school district defend their choice to ban One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for its "profanity" and "vulgarity." (Other Ahmanson political initiatives and their results are discussed in Blumenthal's 2004 Salon article.) In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group organized to elect or defeat government officials in order to promote legislation, often supporting the groups special interests. ... In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group organized to elect or defeat government officials in order to promote legislation, often supporting the groups special interests. ... California Proposition 22, known also as Prop 22, was a proposition proposed and passed in 2000 that barred Californias recognition of same-sex marriage. ... Kern County is a county located in the southern Central Valley of California. ... One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish title: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez which was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and Row). ... Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel García Márquez (born March 6, 1928) is a Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher, and political activist. ...

Through Fieldstead, Ahmanson is a primary backer of the Institute on Religion and Democracy and has supported groups such as the American Anglican Council on projects to resist efforts to liberalize mainline Protestant churches, particularly with respect to issues concerning homosexuality. The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) describes itself as an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches’ social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Mainline is also rail terminology for the main and often most transited portion of a railroad, which is usually double- or more track. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings over time. ...

Ahmanson is also a major backer of the Discovery Institute, whose Center for Science and Culture opposes the theory of evolution and manages a public relations campaign promoting Intelligent Design. The Discovery Institute is a conservative Christian think tank, structured as a non-profit educational foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. Its areas of interest, social and political action include intelligent design, public school education, and transportation and bi-national cooperation in the international Cascadia region. ... The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. ... A speculative phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ...

Ahmanson has been the major funder for 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 Pro-Life Council. 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) from 1990 to 1993. Fieldstead has acted as co-publisher with Crossway Books to publish the "Christian Worldview Series" of books under the title Turning Point, in which some critics have perceived the influence of Reconstructionist ideas. Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF), founded in 1977, is an evangelical Christian 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States. ... The Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank founded in 1986 that also publishes Reason magazine. ... The Rutherford Institute is a public interest law firm and resource center based in Charlottesville, Virginia. ... Paul M. Weyrich (born October 7, 1942 in Racine, Wisconsin) is a disabled US conservative political activist and commentator. ... The Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American foreign policy think tank based in New York City. ...

Through Fieldstead, Ahmanson's wife Roberta, a former religion reporter, has funded and been directly involved with some programs of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities (now known as the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities). These include the CCCU's World Journalism Institute, its Washington Journalism Center, its Summer Institute of Journalism, and its Fieldstead Journalism Lectures. Roberta Ahmanson is is currently working on a book called They Got It All Wrong that covers major news stories she believes were "not covered accurately ... because they left out religion." A organization designed to help Christian institutions of higher education communicate with one another. ... The World Journalism Institute (WJI) is a journalism school whose mission statement is to recruit, equip, place and encourage journalists of faith to enter the mainstream newsrooms of America. ...

Fieldstead funds a summer seminar at Calvin College that started in 1996 with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Ahamansons also fund Christian scholars such as James Davison Hunter, a chaired professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of Virginia. The Ahmansons pledged support of $1 million through 2005 for Hunter's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, which publishes The Hedgehog Review. This journal receieved an award from the Modern Language Association in 2000 as the best new academic journal. Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ... The Pew Charitable Trusts is a charitable trust that is the successor to seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Religious studies is the the designation commonly used in the English-speaking world for a multi-disciplinary, secular study of religion that dates to the late 19th century in Europe (and the influential early work of such scholars as Friedrich Max Müller, in England, and Cornelius P. Tiele, in... Mascot Cavalier Website www. ... The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Fifth Edition The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of literature and literary criticism. ...

Ahmanson has funded a four-year series of conferences on holistic development co-sponsored with Food for the Hungry International, held in Thailand, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, and the Philippines, an international photo exhibit and book on the victims of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, support for music education for elementary students in public schools in Orange County, California, sponsorship of Stanley Spencer: An English Vision, a retrospective exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, and the Palace of Fine Art in San Francisco. Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijani: Dağlıq Qarabağ or Yuxarı Qarabağ, literally mountainous black garden or upper black garden; Russian: Нагорный Карабах, translit. ... Official website: http://www. ... Categories: Museum stubs | Museums in Washington, DC | Art museums and galleries in the U.S. | Smithsonian Institution | National Mall ...

The late Rev. John Perkins, an African American minister who promoted racial reconciliation was financially supported by Howard Ahmanson. Confessions of an Economic Hitman John Perkins (b. ...

Phillip E. Johnson Phillip E. Johnson (born 1940) is a retired UC Berkeley American law professor and author. ... The wedge strategy is a political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, an organization that works to promote a Neo-Creationist religious agenda centering on Intelligent design, and is the hub of the Intelligent design movement. ... Teach the Controversy is a slogan the Discovery Institute uses to promote intelligent design[1] and advance an education policy for US public schools which introduces creationist explanations for the origin of life to public-school science curricula. ... The Discovery Institute is a conservative Christian think tank, structured as a non-profit educational foundation, founded in 1990 and based in Seattle, Washington, USA. Its areas of interest, social and political action include intelligent design, public school education, and transportation and bi-national cooperation in the international Cascadia region. ...

External links

• The Ahmanson Foundation
• Patrons of the Evangelical Mind, by Michael S. Hamilton and Johanna G. Yngvason, Christianity Today (July 8, 2002)
• Rich in Faith, by Peter Larsen, a five-part series profiling the Ahmansons from the Orange County Register (August 8-12, 2004)
• 'A gold sewing machine in heaven' Orange County Register (August 8, 2004)
• 'The world is your oyster' Orange County Register (August 8, 2004)
• Giving generously to their causes: A list of the top 20 organizations the Ahmansons support Orange County Register (August 8, 2004)
• Conservative Group Amplifies Voice of Protestant Orthodoxy, by Laurie Goodstein and David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times (May 22, 2004) (Reprinted at The Yurica Report)
• Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence, by Frederick Clarkson. Part three in a series, The Public Eye, a publication of Political Research Associates (March/April 1994)
• The Battle for the Mainline Churches, by Frederick Clarkson, The Public Eye, a publication of Political Research Associates (Spring 2006)
• Invitation to a Stoning, by Walter Olson, Reason (November 1998)
• Following the Money, by Jim Naughton, a two-part series from The Washington Window (April 2006), a publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington D.C.
• Avenging Angel of the Religious Right, by Max Blumenthal, Salon.
• California's Education Alliance, by Jerry Sloan, Freedom Writer (May 1995), a publication of the Institute for First Amendment Studies
• CNP leads the way in California, by Jerry Sloan, Freedom Writer (January/February 1996), a publication of the Institute for First Amendment Studies
• Tide Ebbs for California GOP, by Jerry Sloan, Freedom Writer (December 1998), a publication of the Institute for First Amendment Studies
• Anti-gay millionaire bankrolls Caravaggio spectacular, The Observer
• From Genesis To Dominion: Fat-Cat Theocrat Funds Creationism Crusade by Steve Benen, Church & State (July/August 2000), a publication of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
• Who's Behind The Culture War: Contemporary Assaults on the Freedom of Expression by Mark Schapiro (New York: Nathan Cummings Foundation, 1994), a book excerpt published in The Public Eye
• Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (Common Dreams) Contains false and misleading information according to the Orange County Register
• Christian Reconstructionism (Political Amazon)
• Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. (NNDB)
• Howard Ahmanson, Board of Directors (Discovery Institute)
• Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. (SourceWatch)