Republican Gomorrah

by Max Blumenthal

  The Nation Magazine, Media Matters for America, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast provided outlets for much of the reporting contained in this book. Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Betsy Reed at Nation offered early and essential support as well as excellent editorial judgment. David Brock inspired my interest in journalism, then made my career possible. I am immensely grateful to him, Darrin Bodner, and everyone at Media Matters for their support, especially under very trying circumstances. Thanks to Tina Brown, Edward Felsenthal, and Bryan Curtis at the Daily Beast for their innovation and immense generosity. Arianna Huffington at the Huffington Post was an aggressive and early supporter of my reporting. Like most books about the Christian right, this one has benefited from the research and insights of Frederick Clarkson and Bruce Wilson at TalkToAction.org.

  This book is also the product of the support and influence of countless friends and family members. I dedicated this book to my mother and father, who pushed me to initiate what once seemed like a daunting intellectual undertaking and gave me the support I needed to see it through. My brother, Paul, is a secret weapon on the frontlines of democracy and a natural voice of reason. My grandmother, Claire, has given me her wisdom and humor on an almost daily basis. Steve, Kathy, Jon Michael, and Rebecca Carroll have been like a second family to me, including and especially during this project. With his unique perspective and creative spirit, Jan Frel has been as much an adviser as a friend. I am also grateful for the friendship of Laila Al-Arian, who has thrived under unjust and unfair circumstances with the heart of John Starks. Patricia Valencia urged me to pursue writing and encouraged me when few others did. Also thanks to Jon Jordan, Hillel Schwartz, Dave Tozer, Devon Harris, Ali Gharib, Shama Zerom Davis, Nathan and Tasha Sabatino, David Neiwert, Simon Mayer, Joseph Dunham, Phil Munger and Judy Lundquist, Sandra Harper, Michael Harwin, Chris Hedges, Louis Vandenberg, and Hillel Schwartz.

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION: ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM

  3 Mica, head-butted: ABC’s The World Newser, September 2, 2008, http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2008/09/rnc-delegate-he.html.

  3 “fuckin’ redneck” Levi Johnston: Dillon, Belenkaya, and Moore, New York Daily News, September 2, 2008, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/republican_race/2008/09/01/2008-09-01_bristol_palins_pregnancy_was _an_open_sec.html.

  4 “a man steeped in falsehood”: Richard Halworth Rovere, Senator Joseph McCarthy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 15.

  4 “I will not get into the gutter:” PBS’s The American Experience, 2002-03, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/34_eisenhower/eisenhower_politics.html.

  5 “the paranoid style of politics”: Richard Hofstadter, speech from Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford University, November 1963, and “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Harper’s (November 1964): 77-86.

  5 Eisenhower clung to a short book: In 1956, Look magazine profiled Eric Hoffer, identifying him as “Ike’s Favorite Author.”

  5 “hedging and a little uncertainty”: Personal to Robert J. Biggs, February 10, 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1051. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/1051.cfm.

  7 “A rising mass movement”: Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (New York: Harper & Row, 1951), p. 41.

  7 “Faith in a holy cause”: Hoffer, The True Believer, p. 14.

  7 gaining the approval . . . of . . . Bertrand Russell: Tom Bethell, “The Longshoreman Philosopher,” Hoover Digest, no. 1, 2003.

  7 “All mass movements are interchangeable”: Hoffer, The True Believer, p. 17.

  8 “instead of wanting freedom”: Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom (New York and Toronto: Rinehart & Company, 1941), p. 3.

  8 “there is no greater mistake”: Ibid., p. 240.

  8 “security and a feeling of belonging”: Ibid., p. 4.

  9 “The function of an authoritarian ideology”: Ibid., p. 238.

  9 “the head of a dreadful company”: Steve Arterburn, Wild at Heart (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), p. 29.

  11 “hardcore pro-lifer” and “prayer warrior”: Palin interviewed by James Dobson on Focus on the Family radio, Colorado Springs, Colorado, October 22, 2008.

  12 Christie Todd Whitman published: Christine Todd Whitman and Robert M. Bostock, “Free the GOP: The Party Won’t Win Back the Middle As Long As It’s Hostage to Social Fundamentalists,” Washington Post, November 14, 2008.

  13 “military-industrial complex”: Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation, January 17, 1961.

  CHAPTER 1: GOD’S GOVERNMENT

  17 Y. K. Rushdoony and his wife fled: Speech by Mark Rushdoony at Chalcedon’s 40th anniversary, Cumming, Georgia, September 16, 2005, http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/article.php?ArticleID=185.

  17 reaching back to the year 315: Ibid.

  17 conservative theological authorities: Ibid.

  18 “Don’t go to the civil courts”: Interview with R. J. Rushdoony by Joseph McAuliffe, http://forerunner.com/revolution/rush.html. Also see the Bible, Corinthians, 1:6.

  18 Rushdoony’s friendship with Robert Welch: Chad Bull, “Stalwarts of Freedom: An Inside Look at the John Birch Society,” Faith for All of Life, September /October 2006, http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/article.php?ArticleID=2334#_edn1.

  18 a “Master Conspiracy”: Robert Alan Goldberg, Enemies Within (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 22-65.

  18 Buckley denounced the John Birch Society: Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm (New York, Hill and Wang, 2001), pp. 154-156.

  19 Bircher role in JFK assassination: “J.F.K.’s Assassination: Who Was the Real Target?” Time (November 28, 1988): 4. Also see William Martin, With God on Our Side (New York, Broadway Books, 1996), p. 78, on initial reports blaming the extreme right for the assassination and the right-wing backlash. Erstwhile Francis Schaeffer mentor Carl McIntyre distributed a packet entitled “A Communist Kills Our President But the Right Wing Is Blamed.”

  19 “The key to the . . . Society’s effectiveness”: R. J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1973), p. 74.

  19 “Welch always saw things”: Rushdoony interviewed by Marghe Covino, “Grace Under Pressure: The World According to Rev. R. J. Rushdoony,” Sacramento News and Review 6, 28 (October 20, 1994).

  19 “humanistic spectrum”: Walter Olson, “Invitation to a Stoning,” Reason Magazine, November 1999.

  20 “Reconstructionism seeks to replace”: Frederick Clarkson, “Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence,” Public Eye, March/June 1994, http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisre1.html.

  20 “God’s government prevails”: Ibid.

  20 Ron Paul on the John Birch Society: “Ron Paul Congratulates the John Birch Society on 50th Anniversary,” The New American, April 28, 2008.

  21 advocated stoning evildoers: Olson, “Invitation to a Stoning.”

  21 “The facilities should be separate”: Martin, With God on Our Side, p. 57.

  21 Falwell and J. Edgar Hoover: Ibid., p. 69.

  21 “Rushdoony distrusts democracy”: Larry B. Stammer, “The Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony Advocated Rule by Biblical Law,” Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2001, p. B-7; from Ed Dobson and Ed Hindson, Heritage Foundation Policy Review, 1986.

  21 Rushdoony wrote in response: Olson, “Invitation to a Stoning.”

  CHAPTER 2: CREATING A MONSTER

  23 Calvin . . . outlawed cursing: Jim Bell, James S. Bell, and Tracy Macon Summer, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Reformation & Protestantism (New York: Penguin: 2002), p. 153.

  23 Schaeffer and Jacobs: Interview with Frank Schaeffer, January 21, 2009.

  24 Schaeffer and Carla: Ibid.

  24 Frank discovered his father sobbing: Ibid.

  24 Schaeffer and Page: Ibid.

  24 Schaeffer an
d Bono: Ibid. Also see “U2Literary.com Reading List,” http://www.u2literary.com/ReadingList.htm.

  24 Schaeffer and Leary: Michael Hamilton, “The Dissatisfaction of Francis Schaeffer,” Christianity Today 41, 3 (March 3, 1997): 22.

  24 “The hippies of the 1960s”: Francis A. Schaeffer, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1985), p. 14.

  25 Schaeffer appeared beside a suburban sewage drain: Francis and Frank Schaeffer, DVD of “Dr. Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live? (Muskegon, MI: Gospel Communications, 2005).

  25 “I was trying to get those people interested:” Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come (New York: Basic Books, 2006), p. 15.

  26 Schaeffer and Ford: Hamilton, “The Dissatisfaction of Francis Schaeffer.”

  26 Schaeffer and Falwell: Ibid.

  26 the concept of “co-belligerency”: James Risen and Judy Thomas, “Wrath of Angels” (Boulder, CO: Perseus, 1999), p. 129.

  26 “the low IQs”: Interview with Frank Schaeffer. Also see Frank Schaeffer, Crazy for God (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007), p. 300.

  27 “establishment elite”: Schaeffer, The Complete Works, p. 71

  27 Schaeffer . . . rebuffed R. J. Rushdoony’s requests: Interview with Frank Schaeffer.

  27 “the nearly verbatim lifting of certain material”: Gary North, Political Polytheism (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989), p. 196.

  28 Schaeffer and LaHaye: Interview with Frank Schaeffer.

  28 once boasted to Schaeffer: Schaeffer, Crazy for God, p. 332.

  28 “Thank God for Francis Schaeffer”: James Dobson, speech at National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention, Nashville, Tennessee, February 19, 2002.

  29 “If you want to understand Operation Rescue”: Gary Wills, Under God (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 324.

  29 Schenck, who had converted: Interview with Rob Schenck, Washington DC, September 20, 2003.

  29 “God will hold you to account”: Max Blumenthal, “God’s Country,” Washington Monthly, October 2003, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0310.blumenthal.html.

  29 Kopp, a former resident: Ibid.

  30 “It’s your ‘passive’ following”: Ibid.

  30 Dobson hosted Frank Schaeffer: Interview with Frank Schaeffer.

  31 “think-tank of the Christian right”: Gary North, R. J. Rushdoony, R.I.P., (LewRockwell.com, February 10, 2001), http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north33.html.

  CHAPTER 3: WHAT GOD WANTS HIM TO DO

  32 As his wife, Roberta . . . , told me: Interview with Roberta Green Ahmanson, Los Angeles, California, November 22, 2003.

  33 He burned with resentment toward his father: Max Blumenthal, “The Avenging Angel of the Religious Right,” Salon.com, January 6, 2004, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/01/06/ahmanson/index.html.

  33 Ahmanson and Leonetti: Associated Press, “Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson; prominent Southern California philanthropist, 83,” June 25, 2005, http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050625/news_1m25ahmanson.html.

  33 Leonetti and Clemons: Steve Clemons, “Shame on Howard Ahmanson: California Voters Approve Gay Marriage Ban,” Washington Note, November 5, 2008, http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/11/california_vote/.

  33 But he was without direction: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  34 Ahmanson’s physical and psychological problems: Ibid.

  34 At Occidental College: Ibid.

  34 the theologian mocked wealthy liberals: R. J. Rushdoony, The Politics of Guilt and Pity (Fairfax, VA: Thoburn Press, [1970] 1978), pp. 3-4. Also see pages 19 and 25 for more on wealthy liberals and “Negroes.”

  35 Ahmanson became a full-fledged Calvinist: Interview with Roberta Green Ahmanson.

  35 Roberta Green Ahmanson explained: Ibid.

  36 an assignment about the Christian right: Ibid.

  36 Ahmanson and Roberta Green: “Rich in Faith; Part 2, Unconventional couple,” Orange County Register, August 10, 2005, http://www.ocregister.com/news/2004/ahmanson/.

  37 the first time since 1984: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  CHAPTER 4: MARCHING THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS

  38 Ahmanson and California Assembly: Ibid.

  38 Ahmanson and book banning: Ibid.

  39 Stoos and Chalcedon: Jerry Sloan, “John Stoos Reveals . . . a Hidden Agenda?” April 1995, Freedom Writer; Public Eye, http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/fw/9504/stoos.html. Also see Scott Glover, “McClintock Advisor Looks to Bible as Basis for Law,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2003, http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/30/local/me-stoos30.

  39 Ahmanson’s McClintock fundraiser: Daryl Kelley and Megan Garvey, “Isolated at Home, McClintock Finds New Friends,” Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2003, http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/28/local/me-mcclintockmain28.

  39 Ahmanson and Prop 209: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  39 Ahmanson and Rice: Ibid.

  39 Rice-Hughes . . . became born-again: Ramona Cramer Tucker, “Enough Is Enough: Donna Rice-Hughes,” Today’s Christian Woman 18, 5 (September/ October 1996): 42, http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/1996/sepoct/6w5042.html?start=.

  40 Olasky and CPUSA: Marvin Olasky: “Marxism and Me,” from Paul M. Anderson, “Professors Who Believe” (Westmont, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), p. 173.

  40 Olasky and Ahmanson: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  40 Olasky, Rove and Bush: Gary Wills, Head and Heart (New York: Penguin Press, 2007), p. 518. Wills calls Olasky “a convert to Rousan John Rushdoony’s Christian Reconstruction theology—which is also called Dominion Theology.” When I reported the same for Salon.com in “Avenging Angel,” Olasky angrily demanded a correction.

  41 “unlikely guru”: T. Christian Miller, “Philosophically, Bush Gets Inspiration from an Unlikely Guru,” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2000, http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jul/27/news/mn-60012.

  41 “religion of Zeus”: Jake Tapper, “Bush’s ‘compassionate’ advisor singles out Jews,” February 25, 2000, Salon.com, http://dir.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/02/25/olasky/index.html.

  41 Ahmanson and Chapman: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  42 John Jones, a Republican judge: Laurie Goodstein, “Issuing Rebuke, Judge Rejects Teaching of Intelligent Design,” New York Times, December 21, 2005, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E6DC1430F932A15751 C1A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Also, for full Jones opinion, see http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/051220_kitzmiller_342.pdf.

  42 “Spying is legitimate”: Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Independent Republic: Studies in the Nature and Meaning of American History (Thornburg Press, 1978) pp. 542-544.

  42 Progressive Methodist minister Andrew Weaver explained: Frederick Clarkson, “The Battle for the Mainline Churches,” The Public Eye Magazine, Spring 2006, http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v20n1/clarkson_battle.html.

  43 Ahmanson and IRD: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  43 Hewitt’s greatest regret: Interview with Don Hewitt by Larry King, December 2, 2002, CNN, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0212/02/lkl.00.html.

  43 a grant of over $1 million: Blumenthal, “Avenging Angel.”

  43 Ahmansons versus Robinson: Ibid.

  44 Northern Virginia churches and Akinola: Michelle Boorstein, “Conservative N. Va. Priest Installed as Anglican Bishop,” Washington Post, May 6, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/05/AR2007050501215_pf.html.

  44 Akinola’s anti-gay bill: The Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, “Standing Committee Meeting Held at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter,” February 22-25, 2006, Aremo, Nigeria, http://www.anglican-nig.org/communique_ibadan2006.htm.

  44 the IRD and Karsh: John Dorhauer, “The IRD’s Next Front Line: Gambling on Your Xenophobia,” Talk2Action, September 12, 2007, http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/9/12/164049/560/shadow_war.

  44 Rushdoony on freedom: R. J. Rushdoony, “The Fear of Freedom,” California Farmer, February
1, 1975, reprinted on The American View, http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=914.

  46 “Such symptoms result:” Fromm, Escape from Freedom, p. 4.

  46 Ahmanson and Focus on the Family: People for the American Way, “Buying a Movement: Individual Donors,” 1996, http://67.192.238.59/multimedia/pdf/Reports/buyingamovement.pdf. The report notes that Ahmanson and former California State Senator Rob Hurtt co-founded Capitol Resource Institute, the California arm of Focus on the Family, bankrolling it with $1 million.

  CHAPTER 5: THE PERSONAL CRISIS INDUSTRY

  47 Half of his original employees followed him: Dale Buss, Family Man (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2005), p. 119.

  48 Dobson repelled by Pomona’s racial diversity: Gil Alexander-Moegerle, James Dobson’s War on America (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997), p. 154.

  48 Dobson’s radio following: Dan Gilgoff, The Jesus Machine (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), p. 7.

  48 Dobson invited to meeting on Iran: Max Blumenthal, “Bush Met with Dobson and Conservative Christian Leaders to Rally Support for Iran Policy,” Raw Story, May 14, 2007, http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bush_meets_with_Dobson_Christian_right_0514.html.