El nombre de Rutherford se refiere a Samuel Rutherford, un teólogo escocés que, en el año 1644, defendía que los reyes deben estar sometidos a la ley, pues la normativa para los reyes se deriva de los hombres, mientras que la legislación deriva de Dios. Algunos atribuyen a este razonamiento el origen del contracto social de Rousseau. Pero otras facetas de Rutherford no eran tan liberadoras, pues Samuel Rutherford fue también conocido por oponerse a la libertad religiosa que se quiso instituir en su momento en Rhode Island. Sostuvo entonces que la tolerancia en la diversidad de religiones no formaba parte de las libertades epresadas en el Nuevo Testamento (1).
A pesar de la buena intencionalidad de su misión declarada, el Rutherford Institute es una organización de soporte jurídico cuya defensa de la libertad de expresión tiene los siguientes exponentes principales: la homofobia, la acción contra las escuelas que prohíben a los niños jugar con armas de plástico y, singularmente, todo el proceso que condujo a Bill Clinton a reconocer el asunto Mónica Lewinsky, en el denominado Paula Jones vs. Bill Clinton. También asistió jurídicamente a quienes consiguieron, con éxito, que los Boy Scouts pudieran excluir a los homosexuales de su seno (2).
Fundador:
John W. Whitehead
Fiscal constitucional
Autor de The Homosexual Power Agenda y The Second American Revolution
Presidente:
John W. Whitehead
Orientación religiosa:
Reconstructionista
Año de fundación:
1982
Miembros del consejo:
Misión declarada:
Defensa de las libertades civiles y de los derechos humanos
Orígenes de la financiación
Bill and Berniece Grewcock Foundation
Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation: $75.000
Padres de Erik Prince, fundador y presidente de Blackwater
Orville D. and Ruth A. Merillat Foundation
Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation
Fuentes
American Fascists, American Religious Right, American Theocracy, Blackwater: The Rise of The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, ExxonSecrets, Media Matters Action Network: Transparency, Muckety, NDDB, Religion Dispatches, Right Web, Right Wing Watch, Theocracy Watch, Sourcewatch, Saving Ourselves, Wikipedia + elaboración propia.
Referencias
- Rutherford Institute – Wikipedia – 28/04/2010 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_Institute
“He named the institute after Samuel Rutherford, a 17th century Scottish theologian who argued, in a 1644 pamphlet titled Lex, Rex, that kings must be subordinate to the law, because the rule of kings is derived from men, whereas the rule of law is derived from God. Rutherford’s arguments about the authority of kings influenced the development of the concept of the “social contract” by later philosophers such as John Locke and Rousseau. Samuel Rutherford was also known for being an opponent of Roger Williams’ experiment in religious liberty in Rhode Island. In a polemic against Williams, Rutherford said, “…all the Apostles and Apsotolike Church had but one Religion, toleration of many Religions not being a part of the New Testament liberty….” - Rutherford Institute – Wikipedia – 28/04/2010 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_Institute
“Early members of the Rutherford Institute’s board of directors included California millionaire Howard Ahmanson, Jr.,, as well as prominent fundamentalist activists such as Francis Schaeffer and R.J. Rushdoony of the Chalcedon Foundation, a West Coast Christian think tank in which the Christian Reconstructionist Movement was born in the 1960s. The early activities of the Rutherford Institute reflected this, and tended to focus on cases involving public primary and secondary education. It was especially active and often successful in trying to stop condom distribution in public schools, as well as sex education, AIDS prevention programs, and programs that taught certain types of tolerance.” - Chris Hedges (2006) – American Fascists. The Christian Right and the War on America – Cap 6: The war on truth – ISBN: 978-0-7432-8443-1 – Free Press, New York
“When used by the Christian Right, the term ‘liberty’ means the liberty that comes with accepting a very narrowly conceived Christ and the binary world view that acceptance promotes”
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