The Rutherford Institute and What You Should Know-

 Author Anonymous

Founded in 1982, the Rutherford Institute is a nonprofit legal network headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia with chapters in three dozen states. It operates with an annual budget of about $11 million and 12 staff attorneys in five regional offices, plus 250 volunteer attorneys around the country. It has been involved in hundreds of cases, often in defense of individuals' rights to practice their religion. For example, Rutherford joined the ACLU and others in supporting the right of Native Americans to use peyote in their traditional religious rituals, just as Christians use wine in sacraments.

The Rutherford Institute has also undertaken many cases that advance an anti-civil liberties agenda. Nationally it has been involved in attempts: to prevent the National Endowment for the Arts from funding art it viewed as "blasphemous";  to deny gay students the right to organize student groups on campus; to defend the militant anti-abortion tactics of Operation Rescue; and to uphold a Louisiana law enabling the teaching of "creation science" in public schools. 

A Rutherford chapter was organized in 1990 with over two dozen volunteer attorneys headed by Theodore Vander Wel of Bellevue. Rutherford actions in this state have addressed several right-wing concerns: 

Anti-Gay: In 1994 the Rutherford Institute helped defray the legal expenses of Megan Lucas of Orcas Island in her much publicized attempt to prevent a gay couple from gaining custody of the son she already had given up for adoption. Her claim faltered after reports of her history of substance abuse and allegations by her husband that she had threatened to harm the child. In April, 1994, the state Court of Appeals ruled that her petition to adopt the child was "utterly devoid of merit"; the state supreme court declined to hear an appeal.

AIDS Prevention: In 1992 the Rutherford Institute sent a letter to school board members in several districts discouraging them from holding hearings to consider condom distribution programs. An official of the Washington State School Directors Association advised local districts that the letter gave a distorted view of state law, saying, " ... school boards should not be intimidated out of considering condom distribution programs because of the Rutherford Institute letter."

School Censorship: In 1991 a lawyer for the Rutherford Institute threatened to sue the Walla Walla School District for using the elementary reading series Impressions, claiming its fantasy stories violate the separation of church and state. As Rutherford attorney John Herrig put it, "Impressions teaches religion -- a secular religion in a public school. That religion is Wicca, or witchcraft Satanism ... In short, we feel that the Impressions series is fostering spiritual pornography." Herrig warned that Rutherford was willing to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, he said, could cost the district a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees.

School district officials voted to continue using the series, and the Rutherford Institute never sued. In 1994 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim brought by the American Family Association in California that Impressions promoted witchcraft or denigrated Christianity; the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Illinois made a similar ruling earlier in the year.

Anti-Abortion: In 1991 the Rutherford Institute attempted to block Initiative 120, which guaranteed Washington women the right to choose abortion. Its unsuccessful lawsuit sought to bar the initiative from the ballot because of alleged flaws in its wording.

A review of Rutherford Institute newsletters, reports, and direct mail appeals going back seven years shows a long pattern of attacks on liberals in government and President Clinton in particular. Whitehead consistently puts forward an apocalyptic conspiracist vision of devout Christian activists under concerted attack by corrupt and repressive government officials allied with godless and immoral secular humanism.

From time to time the Rutherford magazine carries broad-based articles to buttress its claim that it is just like an American Civil Liberties Union for people of faith. In the September 1996 issue with a cover story on "Politics & Religion: A Recipe for Disaster," there are interviews with mainstream political commentators such as E. J. Dionne, Jr. And Larry Sabato--and even a column by Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

But more in keeping with its essential conspiracist worldview is the August 1995 issue "A Nation on the Edge" with an article claiming that the government response following the Oklahoma City bombing "served to underline many Americans' greatest fear" a "strong-armed government moving the country toward a dictatorial state." That same issue features a straight-faced interview with militia demagogue Linda Thompson. The interview raises some soft criticisms but overall serves to promote her conspiracist views as at least worthy of consideration. While advising against violent dissent, Whitehead, writing in the same issue, clearly indicates dissent is needed against current government practices, and is quick to find blame for government abuses of force:

Sadly, the specter of statist violence is now rearing its ugly head in so-called free nations, including the United States. 

Part of the blame for the rise of violence in modern life rests with those who have advocated a valueless secularism. Without the checks and balances of traditional religion and its moral absolutes, the only way to maintain order is by using force.

Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, rounds out the issue of Rutherford magazine with a litany of all the reasons he hates government under Clinton and his liberal allies. Claiming that "Liberals have dominated politics in this country for more than sixty years," Weyrich paints a paranoid picture of life in the US where "God-fearing, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens" live under a statist globalist tyranny. He then concludes that a nation with a government that is in opposition to his hard right view of Consitutional and godly laws, "will deserve the hatred of God and its people."

The Rutherford Institute promotes a Christian fundamentalist version of the secular humanist conspiracy theory and Whitehead's writings clearly reflect a right-wing Christian conspiracist subculture. His 1987 book, The Stealing of America, is a good example of his beliefs. According to Whitehead, there is an atheistic secular humanist plan to subvert America into tyranny by diverting it from a society "operated from a set of presuppositions largely derived from the Christian ethic." According to Whitehead, "As the memory of the Christian base that once provided a foundation for freedom has faded, the tendency has been toward centralized, authoritarian government."  Whitehead warns that the "loss of traditional values" and the "rise of cosmic secularism" in the US has created conditions with "ominous parallels to pre-Nazi Germany and the beginning of claims of total ownership by the state." He writes that "the secular state will inevitably lead to authoritarian government" and that an "individual in such a society is at the mercy of the elite who control the state."

Whitehead suggests that the secular state in the US has launched a campaign to "circumscribe" and "persecute" the Christian church. According to Whitehead, "The secularist state recognizes, however, that Christianity cannot be completely eradicated. Therefore the state attempts to restrict the freedom of the church in a number of ways." Because of the pervasive nature of this plot, Whitehead urges Christians to engage in acts of resistance to the current immoral secular state through a variety of means, including legislation, litigation, and even civil disobedience. Throughout his published works, Whitehead portrays contemporary US society as controlled by evil forces conspiring against faithful Christians.

Sara Diamond has discussed the political activism of the Rutherford Institute in Facing the Wrath: Confronting the Right in Dangerous Times.

According to Diamond:

"Active since 1982, the Rutherford Institute represents a variety of
Christian 'civil liberties' litigants, anti-abortion demonstrators, students asked not to read Bibles at public schools, parents whose home school facilities fail to meet government regulations. No doubt, Christians deserve as much legal protection as anyone else. But with much of the ACLJ and Rutherford case load, there's a fine line between defending the interests of clients and stepping on the rights of other people. In a recent commentary sent to Christian radio stations, Rutherford Institute president John Whitehead argues that workplace seminars on gay rights are a form of 'religious discrimination' against employees who are 'told to rid themselves of stereotypes about gays and to accept homosexuality as a valid lifestyle choice.' In an odd assertion of victim status, Whitehead claims Christian military personnel may jeopardize their careers if they 'speak out against homosexuality....The immediate remedy is for the military to exempt
religious people from compelled personal acceptance of homosexuality.'

"The Rutherford Institute extends the concept of 'religious discrimination' to its own movie review of Steve Martins's latest comedy. 'Leap of Faith' is a spoof on the classic 'Marjoe' and 'Elmer Gantry' type characters who use flashy tent revivals to bilk a gullible audience. Unable to crack a smile, Rutherford's magazine reviewer charges the film with 'silly humanism' for its presentation of 'religion and everything associated with it, good or bad, as stemming from man,' [sic]."

The politics of the Rutherford Institute represent a form of theocratic Christianity that characterizes the hard right of the evangelical world. This worldview assumes that true Christians are battling a vast demonic conspiracy. 

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