The reclusive billionaire, the mother of Blackwater’s Erik Prince, and the drive to fund this year’s most controversial referendum.
Among the local ballot measures to be decided on Election Day, California’s Proposition 8 is perhaps the most fiercely contested. Backers of the proposition to ban same-sex marriage in the state cast their campaign in apocalyptic terms. “This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon,” born-again Watergate felon and Prison Fellowship Ministries founder Chuck Colson told the New York Times. Tony Perkins, the president of the Christian right’s most powerful Beltway lobbying outfit, Family Research Council, echoed Colson’s language. “It’s more important than the presidential election,” Perkins said of Prop 8. “We will not survive [as a nation] if we lose the institution of marriage.”
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The campaign for Prop 8 has reaped massive funding from conservative backers across the country. Much of it comes from prominent donors like the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Catholic conservative group, Knights of Columbus. Prop 8 has also received a boost from Elsa Broekhuizen, the widow of Michigan-based Christian backer Edgard Prince and the mother of Erik Prince, founder of the controversial mercenary firm, Blackwater.
While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ public role in Prop 8 has engendered a growing backlash from its more liberal members, and Broekhuizen’s involvement attracted some media attention, the extreme politics of Prop 8’s third largest private donor, Howard F. Ahmanson, reclusive heir to a banking fortune, have passed almost completely below the media’s radar. Ahmanson has donated $900,000 to the passage of Prop 8 so far.
I first met Ahmanson in 2004, when he and his wife, Roberta, agreed to an interview request for an article I was writing for Salon. Their exchanges with me marked the first time since 1984 that Howard had agreed to make contact with a journalist, and the first time since 1992 for Roberta. Howard agreed to answer questions only by email because, according to Roberta, his Tourette’s Syndrome made chatting on the phone with a stranger nearly impossible. He functions “like a slow modem,” she said. Her dual role as her husband’s spokesperson and nurse quickly became apparent.
“My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives,” Ahmanson once said.
Few Americans have heard of Ahmanson—and that's the way he likes it. He donates cash either out of his own pocket or through his unincorporated Fieldstead & Co. to avoid having to report the names of his grantees to the IRS. His Tourette's syndrome only adds to his mysterious persona, as his fear of speaking leads him to shun the media. While Ahmanson once resided in a mental institution in Kansas, he now occupies a position among the Christian right’s power pantheon as one of the movement’s most influential donors. During a 1985 interview with the Orange County Register, Ahmanson summarized his political agenda: “My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives.”
The campaign to teach “intelligent design” in public school classrooms, the Republican takeover of the California Assembly, and the rollback of affirmative action in California—Ahmanson has been behind them all. He has also taken a special interest in anti-gay crusades. Ahmanson’s most controversial episode related to his funding of the religious empire of Rousas John Rushdoony, a radical evangelical theologian who advocated placing the United States under the control of a Christian theocracy that would mandate the stoning to death of homosexuals. With Prop 8 organizers claiming in a virtual mantra that their measure will not harm gays or take rights away from heterosexual Californians, Ahmanson has good reason to conceal his involvement in the campaign.
When Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. was born in 1950, his father, then 44 years old, was feting visiting kings and queens and basking in the opulence of his mansion on Harbor Island, an exclusive address in Southern California's Newport Harbor. Howard Junior was tended by an army of servants and ferried to and from school in a limousine. Watching the world glide by through darkened windows, he was gripped with a longing to cast off his wealth and disappear into anonymity. He burned with resentment toward his father, a remote, towering presence, referred to by friends and foes alike as “Emperor Ahmanson.” While Ahmanson Sr. showered local institutions in the Los Angeles area with charitable gifts from the fortune he amassed as the founder of Washington Mutual, his son was starved for attention.
Alexandra Penney is an artist, best-selling author, former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, and originator, with Evelyn Lauder, of the Pink Ribbon for breast cancer awareness. She had a one-person show at Galerie in Berlin in April and her work was shown at Miami’s Art Basel. She lives in New York, has one treasured son in Los Angeles and more amazing friends than could ever be imagined.
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Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
I don't like the sound of anything Ahmanson stands for, but he is perfectly at liberty to spend his money anyway he chooses to.
The more perplexing question to me, is why David Geffen, who is openly gay and worth billions, has donated a pretty paltry $100,000 to the No on Proposition 8 Campaign.
The same question could be asked of Ellen Degeneres, worth around $65M, who has also donated $100,00 and Ellen Degeneres just got married in California.
Seems to me that between them, Geffen and Degeneres could easily afford to outspend Ahmanson and it's embarrassing to both of them that they haven't.
Apologies, Degeneres' donation should read: $100,000
What a monster this guys sounds. I wonder if destroying gay people's legal recognition of their relationships will give him any satisfaction. I rather doubt it.
SMDunne- one hundred thousand dollars isn't paltry. It's a massive amount to give. Very few people could give as much as that.
Separate but equal has no place in America. Vote no on prop 8.
In my opinion, the group of people that are threatening traditional marriage, are people like me. People like myself who refuses to marry his/her partner and co-habitate happily along with our "bastard" childrens(I really hate that B word I used there, but Evangelical Christians call people like me sluts and children born out of wedlock with such a hateful word.). People like me have consciously rejected marriage. We are the ones who are giving traditional marriage the finger, not gay people.
For the same reason straight couple gets married, gay couple wants to get married to legally become family, to become one. What is wrong with that? It's almost like gays are saying, "Traditional marriage is awesome. We want that, too!" Compare "We're getting married!!" to "We're getting Civil Unioned!!" Compare "This is my husband." to "This is my Civilly unioned live-in partner." It's just not the same.
Like Ahmanson, I resent my background. I have grown up in a family with no freedom of religion. My mother believes "gay love" is mental disease. She also believes one can pray the "gay" and "addictions" away.We had nightly bible study(even on Sundays) where dinner was witheld if you didn't participate in reading of the sculpture and prayer sessions that lasted a good 45 minutes. I actually know the bible very very well. And, it took me 2 decades to runaway from that life, all that oppression and no room for questions.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think everything about Christianity is wrong. A lot of what it teaches, I actually think it's great. The bible teaches people to be a good person in day to day life. I still believe in some of the teachings such as do unto others as you'd like them to do to you. Stuff like that which helps me to be a better person i embrace, but other rubbish, I reject.
And I live in San Diego, so I've seen all the ads for an against it on TV, street signs, coworkers' bumper stickers.... I know that people who support prop 8 believes their intension is good and they are doing their God's work. I know they do, since I've talk to some. But, I believe more harm then good has been done on Earth in the name of religion, and there's a reason why we have a saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intensions."
I guess it's all really weird for me, since if prop 8 was proposed 5 years ago, I would have supported it. But today, i find myself thinking, "Enough already."
If this Prop passes it will be a very sad day...
We teach our children to share and be kind, shouldn't grown-ups do the same?
**EVERY** person deserves the same rights; regardless of gender, age, race, sexual orientation, social or economic status.
California VOTE NO on Prop 8!
Deschanel - Bruce Bastian, Robert W. Wilson, David Bohnett, David Maltz and John Stryker have all given at least $1 Million to the No on Proposition 8 Campaign. Many others have given amounts far in excess of $100,000. You can check out the list of some of the donors here:
http://achievementgap.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/honor-roll-no-on-prop-8- donors-contributors/
The New Testament forbids divorce among devout believers (Mark 10:1ff ... He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.")
Prop 8 should be rewritten to say "Marriage is defined as the first and only marriage between a man and a woman. Any other definition of marriage is illegal and damaging to society."
What a fascinating story. The poor little lonely rich boy takes out his aggression on the world. And, history has shown (I'm talking to you Ted Haggard Larry Craig) that the more anti-gay someone is, the more likely they're angry at their own homosexuality.
VOTE NO ON PROP 8-KEEP RELIGION OUT OF GOVERNMENT
Keep religious silliness out of our secular constitution(s) ...
Believe what you want -- but keep such non-sense out of our laws.
I recently attended the civil uinion of my friend Roger to his partner Ron with my wife, and from everything supporters of prop 8 have told me I expected an immediate diminishment of my love for my wife, oddly I felt nothing different. At the reception someone slipped and wished the happy couple luck on thier new marriage, surely this was it I thought, the complete destruction of my own marriage, once again I found I still was in love with my wife. As the night progressed I never once found that the expression of anothers love ever affecting my own marriage in any mesurable way. I was also surprised that despite predictions the vengeful hand of God seemed very much in abbeyance, I was so concerned I asked the minister who performed the ceremony when I could expect to find polygamy,incest and bestiality all acceptable as I had heard gay marriage was the gateway to all of them, unfortunately he had no ansewers just some spiel about if God is love how could affirmation of that love be an affront to Him, yadda, yadda.
It's been 5 months now and I am still waiting for my marriage to be snuffed like a candle in the winds of gay marriage, and for the complete moral break down of society the right has been promising me. I am begining to suspect that they may be incorrect, but it could be my understanding of thier message so if anyone can explain it to me without quoting the bible I'd really appreciate it.
I am not gay but I for one think it's not our choice for who the people of America want to marry. I would hate for anyone to refuse me to marry who I love and I'm sure anyone else would too- it's just the blind faith people of this country who make it that way.
Anyways they are not hurting their chances with religion just by voting no on question 8. Love is love.
Why is being gay somehow the unforgiveable sin? G.W. Bush lied, took the country to war costing billions, thousands die and people barely wimper.
Do not use the Bible to justify bigotry and hatred. If you disagree with how someone lives their lives tell them. And love them anyway. As soon as marriage was made a contract, it can no longer be considered the purview of the church.
We can argue what the Bible means. Jewish scholars argue that most of the translations referring to homosexuality are taken out of historical context. What does Jesus say about being gay? Nothing...
1 Lust (America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world)
2 Gluttony (America has the highest obesity rate in the world)
3 Greed(America is the nation that made greed sexy)
4 Sloth (slums, ghettos, etc)
5 Wrath(24,000 nuclear war heads, 800 billion millitary budget)
6 Envy (The top 2 percent hold the majority of the wealth)
7 Pride (We are the best country in the world, but the question is ..."Have you been anywhere else?")
My point is... gays are the new poster-children for the right to hate so they have someone to blame for all the things they think are wrong with the world. For Hitler it was the Jews... this is not new and has happened before and will happen again. Ain't life grand....
The Bible is not the word of God. If God wanted to tell us something he would have a radio talk show. After all, if he is god he can do anything and I don't thibnk he would pick a long story that has been rewritten & edited many times to get his ideas across
im not sure that the church is on the right track. what I mean is if the church really wants to "save" marriage then shouldnt they focus on mending the insanely high divorce rate of 51%. If marriage is such a sacred institution why hasnt the right spent millions trying to stop the popular tren of switching spouses after a mere 5 years of marriage to a first. i just think that the church should take astep back before they get too far ahead of themselves. no on prop 8 cuz mairriag itself is a failure so why not let the gay community try it?
Civil union: yes. Marriage: no.
Marriage is a religious institution. Civil union is a government sanctioned relationship. We cannot force society to accept the gay agenda; however, we can assign civil rights to neglected groups.
Just think about the following points:
1. Atheists are allowed to marry (civil union is a more correct term)
2. Some argue civil union is not is not the same as religious marriage, because the ceremony does not take place in a church
3. Why do religious people even care? Yes, they are believing that they are saving some souls, but let's face it: it's none of their business.
If we start making laws based on petty things and on the fact that some people's beliefs are different than others', then we are in big trouble.
Is Islam outlawed? Is Hinduism outlawed? Buddhism? No. That would be preposterous! It's called freedom of religion. So then stop imposing your religious beliefs on other people.
Church and State are separate for a reason so that your religious and yes non-religious rights are protected. If you move to abolish the separation of church and state you move to negate your own religious freedom. This being stated there is no reason to express any transitive properties but, what if we abolish the separation of church and state under an evangelical executive/legislative/judicial government what happens when a say Muslim, Jewish or any other religious or non-religious group takes over? What then religious right? What then?
If marriage is a religious institution, then the government shouldn't be licensing it for anyone. Civil unions for everyone, gay or straight. Get your legal union from the courthouse in the form of a civil union contract. Get your marriage from God, or your church, or your guru, or from your own love and commitment for your spouse.
Well that explains a lot. It's no surprise that this Prop 8 nonsense is the result of some nut job. When will religious zealots realize that christianity is about fixing oneself and helping others NOT, fixing others and helping oneself?!