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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Corporate captivesThe Acton Institute attacks Health Care Without Harm and environmentally conscious religious activistsHealth Care Without Harm is a Washington, DC-based environmental group that has taken more than its share of heat from the chemical industry over its campaigns against the use of mercury in medical equipment, the incineration of highly toxic medical waste and the use of pesticides, cleaners and disinfectants. In recent weeks, a conservative religious public policy group has attacked not only the organization, but also religious leaders that support the group's campaign against the use of PVC, or vinyl plastic - the most widely used plastic in medical devices which Health Care Without Harm maintains is "harmful to patients, the environment and public health." The Rev. Gerald Zandstra, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Stewardship at the Acton Institute, has authored a far-ranging broadside warning religious leaders to be on their guard against "being used by radical environmental, leftist, organizations to whom they lend moral legitimacy," for their anti-corporate campaigns. In an essay entitled "Religious Leaders and Social Activism: Prophets or Captives?" the Rev. Zandstra, an ordained pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in North America, maintains that "Religious leaders are always in danger of being 'captured' by someone with a cause" because they have become important players, often lending "moral legitimacy" to a particular campaign. The Rev. Zandstra and the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty have been imparting their own "moral legitimacy" to corporations for more than a decade. In May of this year, the Rev. Zandstra and Father Robert Sirico, the president of the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Institute, spoke against environmental and human rights resolutions brought by a number of religious organizations at the oil company's annual shareholders meeting. At the meeting, the Rev. Zandstra - who in his current piece unapologetically acknowledges speaking against the "captured" priests and nuns - claimed that the religious activists were trying to "set the ethical tone for Exxon Mobil because [they believe] you [the company] cannot do it for yourselves." Religious activists believe that "our nation (sic) business leaders must be soulless, heartless creatures who, if left to their own devices would merely rape and pillage." He also praised the company for its "excellent" record "in human rights" and its "excellent" record in the environment. In another recent article, the Rev. Zandstra pointed out that Protestant pastors responding to his survey overwhelmingly concurred with the statement "Without close government supervision, corporations will abuse their power." While admitting that the Enron and WorldCom scandals may have fueled suspicion of corporations, the Rev. Zandstra believes that corporate leaders are falsely characterized as being predominantly concerned with profit-making, the bottom line and adding to their personal portfolios. At a recent weekend getaway with corporate leaders from a number of countries, the Rev. Zandstra found that these leaders were mainly concerned with "value creation," how to "add economic value to their companies for the benefit of shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers and society." But why is the Acton Institute waging war against religious social activists? "I think the attack points to our success in working with the religious community," Stacy Malkan, Communications Director for Health Care Without Harm told me in a telephone interview. "We have been very successful mobilizing the religious community for our campaigns because they are deeply concerned with health care issues and the environment. Our religious partners would no doubt be insulted by charges that they are dupes of the organization and the campaign." Here's a little background on the Acton Institute: Founded in 1990 by Father Sirico and Kris Alan Mauren, the Institute has become an important player in public policy debates and helps lead the attack against socially responsible clergy. Father Sirico has advised President Bush on "charitable choice" and was an early supporter of "welfare reform"; he edited a book for the Vatican aimed at reordering the Catholic Church's tradition of social justice teachings; and he helped launch the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship (ICES), a coalition of right-wing religious leaders aiming to counteract liberal environmental groups. Since its founding, the Institute has been fed handsomely by a gaggle of right wing foundations: Between 1991 and 2001, it received more than $2.5 million in grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the Scaife Family Foundation and John M. Olin Foundation, according to Media Transparency, a website that tracks "the money behind conservativemedia." In a recent op-ed piece in the Detroit News Father Robert Sirico, the Acton Institute's president, spelled out his philosophy: "Unnecessary regulation" and forcing companies "to cede their corporate governance to national and supra-national authorities" forces "creative initiative" to be "replaced with passivity...rather than innovation." In the end, this "results in less competition, loss of market share, higher consumer prices and increased unemployment." While the Rev. Zandstra supports the involvement of religious leaders in social issues, he warns that they need to question the agenda of the organizations they work with. "If the ideas being proposed stem from sound theological commitments, then the religious spokesman stands on sure ground," the Rev. Zandstra writes. "If, however, the cause is basically secular, the religious leader can be seen as simply trying to inject religious language into a non- (or even anti-) religious agenda." What are the Rev. Zandstra's problems with Health Care Without Harm, Building In Good Faith - one of the anti-PVC campaign partners - and the environmental health movement? They start "from a largely secular environmental philosophy, and seek to import religious justification," and, he argues, "this campaign to phase out vinyl building materials is just one piece of the greater anti-vinyl movement." The actual agenda of Health Care Without Harm is the elimination of PVC from healthcare facilities, in effect harming patients who need the materials, says the Rev. Zandstra. "This is quite simply an ideological crusade based not on concerns for human beings, but rather on an irrational bias against all things 'artificial,'" the Rev. Zandstra charges. "This is where the secular and naturalistic agenda of these groups becomes apparent." "The tragic part is that many of these religious leaders intend to do good," the Rev. Zandstra writes. "Unaware of economic or scientific realities, they fail to calculate the 'unintended consequences' of the policies that they advocate. They risk being used by more sophisticated people on the hard left who wrap their agenda around religion. Religious leaders need to be more careful not to lend moral legitimacy to harmful economic and environmental policies that, if put into full effect, would have devastating consequences." The subtext of the Rev. Zandstra's agenda is less about environmental and health care realities and more related to protecting industry. In late October, the Acton Institute's report entitled "Health Care Without Harm - or Harming Health Care?" written by Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a nationally syndicated columnist, maintained that "a long running campaign to rid hospitals and other health care facilities of medical vinyl products...has dangerously overstated the risks associated with vinyl use and diverted attention from much more serious health threats." Health Care Without Harm counters that the US Food and Drug Administration and National Toxicology Program have warned that DEHP, a toxic additive that leaches from vinyl medical devices, can be harmful to certain patients, including sick infants and pregnant women undergoing high risk procedures. "Why should the most vulnerable patients be exposed to potentially dangerous devices when non-vinyl plastic devices that don't leach toxic additives are available?" Stacy Malkan said. The Acton report "reflects its discomfort with religious organizations participating in a campaign to shape corporate decision making and its comfort with working closely with corporations," notes a Health Care Without Harm critique. "The purpose ... appears to be to drive a wedge between HCWH and member religious organizations and others by labeling HCWH an extremist organization." The HCWH website maintains it is "an international coalition of 431 organizations in 52 countries working to transform the health care industry so it is no longer a source of harm to people and the environment." According to Malkan, the organization has "a mainstream and common sense environmental agenda which includes working with the Environmental Protection Agency on Hospitals for a Healthy Environment - a four-way partnership with the American Hospital Association, and the American Nurses Association - which is aimed at having health care facilities agree to phase out the use of mercury and reduce wastes, and reduce persistent organic pollutants." "Health Care Without Harm is committed to bringing together a broad coalition of folks including health care providers, unions, religious leaders and environmental activists," says Stacy Malkan. "We are an issue-oriented organization and not the so-called usual suspects as the Acton Institute has charged." Shortly after the Institute attacked Health Care Without Harm, "Health Progress," The Official Journal of The Catholic Health Association of the United States devoted a special section of its November/December issue to "Environmental Responsibility and the Ministry." Sr. Sharon Zayac, OP, director of the Illinois-based Benincasa Ministries, wrote: "We will not be true providers of health care until we understand that our well-being is contingent upon clean air and water, healthy soils and food, toxin-free clothing and plastics and metals and building materials...We have an obligation to speak out for the health of the entire household. And if the very buildings in which we gather the sick are not healthy, what service do we provide? We must take on the task of reducing or eliminating what we can and challenging the many industries who supply us to live up to their responsibilities as well." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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