#dark money

A must-read think-progresspiece looks at Alliance Defending Freedom, the Arizona-based legal group described as “the 800-pound gorilla of the Christian Right.” According to author Josh Israel, the 20-year-old organization has been using its significant resources

to advance a conservative evangelical Christian legal agenda, fighting against what it calls the “concocted” “constitutional ‘right’ to abortion,” laws that promote “social approval of homosexual behavior,” and the “myth of the so-called ‘separation of church and state.’”

ADF has played a role in some of the most prominent legal fights of the past two decades, including battles over Arizona’s SB 1062 (the religious freedom bill that would have permitted discrimination against gays and others), Citizens United, and the Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Wood contraception cases now before the Supreme Court. (ADF represents Conestoga and, according to Salon, Hobby Lobby’s religious owners are major donors to ADF, at least indirectly.) More recently, ADF has offered free legal help to anyone losing his or her job because of past support for California’s Prop. 8, a la Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich.

In comments to Israel, ADF spokesman Greg Scott touted the group’s victories on issues including birth control, school choice, and academic freedom. Arguing that the “suppression of Christian belief and practice is a primary target of freedom’s opponents,” Scott said ADF’s mission is to

“[uphold] the idea that no one should be either suppressed or coerced by the government when it comes to the expression of views or the free and peaceful exercise of one’s deepest convictions.”

Still, as Israel notes, ADF embraces a worldview that harkens back to the 3rd century — literally.

On the website for its legal fellowship program, the organization explains that it “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.”

“This is catholic, universal orthodoxy and it is desperately crucial for cultural renewal,” the explanation goes on. “Christians must strive to build glorious cultural cathedrals, rather than shanty tin sheds.”

Meanwhile, the organization has become a fundraising behemoth, bringing in much more money a year than any other similar group.

Find Israel’s full story (complete w/ charts) here.