Rutherford Institute Offers Assistance to Snowden Family

[struggle4progress]

Posted: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:41 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:41 PM EST
The Rutherford Institute
Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC — The Rutherford Institute has offered its full and complete assistance to attorney Bruce Fein and the Snowden family as they confront the United States government's accusations that Edward Snowden violated the Espionage Act by publicly releasing classified information about the National Security Agency's (NSA) expansive spying powers. Fein, who serves on the Board of Directors for The Rutherford Institute, will accompany Lon Snowden, father of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, to Russia ... Attorney Bruce Fein has had a long career in Washington, serving as a former Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States, an adjunct scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a resident scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a lecturer at the Brookings Institute and an adjunct professor at George Washington University ...

http://www.nbc29.com/story/23125572/rutherford-institute-offers-assistance-to-snowden-family

[struggle4progress]

1. PROFILE: The Rutherford Institute (IFAS June 1994)

... In 1982, attorney John W. Whitehead, writer/filmmaker Franky Schaeffer, and other "concerned Christians" formed a new organization to act as "the legal arm of Christian civil liberties in this country" ... Schaeffer contended that "modern-day courts issue laws which are contrary to God's law." And Whitehead believes, according to an article by Martin Mawyer published in the May 1983 issue of the Moral Majority Report, "that courts must place themselves under the authority of God's law." Mawyer's article explains, "The Institute states that 'all of civil affairs and government, including law, should be based upon principles found in the Bible.'" That statement is a simplified definition of Christian Reconstruction, an important movement within evangelical Christianity ... Like Reconstructionists, Whitehead sees the mission of the Christian church as one of domination. "The church," Whitehead writes, "has a mandate from the Creator to be a dominant influence on the whole culture" ...

http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/fw/9406/rutherford.html

[struggle4progress]

2. Who Backs Paula Jones? (CNN 17 January 1998)

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Jan. 17) -- The case of Paula Jones vs. Bill Clinton has some critics pointing the finger firmly at the group that is paying Jones' legal bills ... For quite some time, no one owned as to who was paying the bills for Jones' legal challenge. But in the midst of the case, the Rutherford Institute stepped forward to help with her expenses ... The institute is a 15-year-old foundation which, in its own words, is an "international, non-profit, legal and educational organization that specializes in the defense of religious liberty and human rights" ... The Charlotte, Virginia-based institute is said to have put up as much as $200,000 for Jones' legal bills ...
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/01/17/jones.backers/

[struggle4progress]

3. Group Behind Paula Jones Gains Critics as Well as Fame (NYT 18 Jan 1998)

By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: January 18, 1998
... Using the enormous publicity from Jones v. Clinton, Mr. Whitehead has sent out a letter over Ms. Jones's signature to nearly a million people asking for donations to the Rutherford Institute. It is by far the largest solicitation Rutherford has undertaken in its 13 years of existence ...
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/18/us/group-behind-paula-jones-gains-critics-as-well-as-fame.html

[struggle4progress]

4. David Barton, Jon Stewart, and the Myth of Raymond Raines

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 5/2/2012 10:16 am

... The St. Louis case concerned 10-year-old Raymond Raines who, his mother said, was given detention because he sought to pray over his lunch. When lawyers for the Rutherford Institute heard about the case, they filed a lawsuit against the principal and issued a press release denouncing the school system.

"I know it sounds bizarre, but we have substantial evidence to believe it happened," said Timothy Belz, the St. Louis lawyer working with the Rutherford Institute.

On NBC-TV's "Meet the Press," Gingrich described the situation as "a real case about a real child. Should it be possible for the government to punish you if you say grace over your lunch? That's what we used to think of Russian behavior when they were the Soviet Union."

But school officials said the incident never happened. Rather, they said, Raymond was disciplined for fighting in the cafeteria ...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-barton-jon-stewart-and-myth-raymond-raines

[struggle4progress]

5. The Right's Sudden Concern About Arpaio's Prison Camps

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 8/7/2012 10:52 am
Over the last few weeks, Arizona pastor Michael Salman has become a Religious Right cause célèbre and the current poster boy for religious persecution. In the Religious Right's version of events, Salman has supposedly been harassed and persecuted by local officials for years simply because he wanted to hold bible study meetings at his home.

In reality, Salman had been attempting to illegally build a church in his back yard and was found guilty of dozens of code violations, resulting in a sixty day jail sentence, which Salman is now serving ...

“This is where you would put Osama bin Laden, not Michael Salman,” says Rutherford Institute founder and attorney John Whitehead in an interview yesterday...

Oddly, nobody on the Right seemed particularly concerned about the conditions in the compound until now.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rights-sudden-concern-about-arpaios-prison-camps

[struggle4progress]

6. The Rutherford Institute - John W. Whitehead

In Facing the Wrath: Confronting the Right in Dangerous Times, sociologist Sara Diamond describes the political activism of the Rutherford Institute:

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...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' ...

http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-15.html

[snooper2]

7. When the far left and the far right meet, SNOWY is in the middle LOL

[The Magistrate]

8. That He Is A Tool In The Hand Of Our Hard Right, Sir, Has Long Been Obvious

[Berlum]

10. There you have it, Sir.

[xfundy]

9. Snowden's dad will end up sorry he invited him.

There's always "payment" in some way when cancervative groups like Rutherford are involved.