Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:09, 28 May 2006

Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr (born 1950) is an American millionaire philanthropist who funds the causes of traditionalist Christianity as a cultural, religious and political conservative. He has been and may still be a Christian Reconstructionist and was deeply involved with that movement from the 1970s to the 1990s, although he seems to have moderated his views somewhat in this regard since the mid 1990s. He is an Episcopalian.

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, 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.

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.

Ahmanson then 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 "does not embrace all of Rushdoony's teachings."

In the 1970s Ahmanson was instrumental in starting the career of right-wing Christian intellectual Marvin Olasky who then became an important figure in the conservative Evangelical media and political scene.

Ahmanson wife is Roberta Green Ahmanson; they were married in 1986. Howard Ahmanson is somewhat reclusive and has Tourette's syndrome; his wife usually communicates with the media and others on his behalf.

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

The Ahmanson's philanthropic organization is the Fieldstead Institute.

Philanthrophy

Through Fieldstead, Ahmanson is a primary backer of the Institute for 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.

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.

Through Fieldstead, Ahmanson's wife Roberta 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): the CCCU's World Journalism Institute, its Washington Journalism Center, its Summer Institute of Journalism, and its Fieldstead Journalism Lectures.

Ahmanson 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.

Ahmanson has funded the magazine Chalcedon Report, the magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation on whose board Ahmanson served for over two decades until he began distancing himself from them in the 1990s.

Ahmanson 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.

External links

• "Rich in Faith," a five-part series profiling the Ahmansons from the Orange County Register
• Laurie Goodstein and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Conservative Group Amplifies Voice of Protestant Orthodoxy," The New York Times
• Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence
• Invitation to a Stoning, Reason Magazine Online
• Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr.
• Howard Ahmanson, Board of Directors - Discovery Institute
• Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. article at Sourcewatch
• Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
• Avenging Angel of the Religious Right, Salon Magazine.
• From Genesis to Dominion
• Christian Reconstructionism

• 1950 births
• American philanthropists
• Discovery Institute fellows and advisors
• Living people