Several recent posts by Truth Wins Out have documented Linda Harvey’s efforts to promote antigay violence, defamation, and denial of access to health care.

It’s amazing what one ostensibly Christian woman can accomplish on just $29,000 per year.

Yet that’s her budget, according to Harvey’s IRS 990 Form for 2010.

Harvey’s IRS filings are incomplete and sketchy. According to Guidestar, Mission America is missing from the IRS’s most recent list of tax-exempt organizations, yet the group’s tax-exempt status apparently has not been revoked.

From the available information, we see that Harvey claims to work 20 hours per week, claims to collect no income, and yet somehow spent almost $27,000 on a weekly AM radio show for which she is the host.

According to her filings, Harvey’s four main supporters in 2010 were:

• Thomas W. Harvey, same address as Linda
• Fieldstead & Company, the asset management company of right-wing philanthropist Howard F. Ahmanson. This same company employs Exodus director and financier Don Schmierer as program officer.
• Maclellan Foundation, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Talk To Action documents this foundation’s ties to far-right finance.
• George Edward Durell Foundation, Westerville, Ohio

The IRS filing implies that each foundation gave no more than $5,000 directly to Mission America, but altogether, these four sources can single-handedly supply Harvey with most of her annual revenue.

If Harvey keeps promoting antigay violence, then it’s only a matter of time before she appears on official lists of U.S. hate-group leaders.

In the meantime, we can ponder why Don Schmierer, a key director of Exodus and its holding entity, is so closely tied to one of Linda Harvey’s primary sources of cash.

Exodus International announced today that Randy Thomas — longtime spokesman and until February the organization’s executive vice president — will leave his position in July. (Hat tip: Ex-Gay Watch)

On his blog, Thomas describes the departure as a gradual and voluntary vocational choice. But then Thomas adds: “What’s next? The final decision wasn’t made until a few hours ago so … not quite sure as of yet.”

Exodus International’s finances have been burdened in recent years by the ill-timed purchase of a new headquarters and by the impact of U.S. economic difficulties on donations.

In 2009 — the most recent year for which Internal Revenue Service data is publicly available — Exodus International reported a calendar-year decline of $60,000 in cash on hand; the organization ended the year with $280,000 banked, according to the group’s IRS 990 form.

That form lists total revenue for 2009 of $1.1 million and expenses of $1.2 million, of which salaries, wages, and employee benefits constituted about $525,000.

Small U.S. ex-gay non-profit organizations will start to lose their non-profit status next year under new federal regulations that require all organizations to file with the Internal Revenue Service — no matter how small the organization’s budget is.

Ex-gay organizations such as Corduroy Stone in Lansing, His Way Out Ministries in Bakersfield, Life+Guard Ministries in Austin, and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays have until now straddled a line which enabled them to avoid filing in years when their annual budget fell below $25,000.

Now, these outfits will have to file regardless. Activists who for years have treated their non-profit as an afterthought or a hobby face administrative hassles, as well as exposure of their donors and leadership — or lack thereof. It is likely that some simply won’t bother to maintain their non-profit status.

It will be interesting to see how many of Exodus’ local activists survive IRS efforts to prune non-compliant and closed organizations.

In a blog post this afternoon, Exodus International president Alan Chambers preaches a bit more of the pious “name it and claim it” prosperity gospel that has corrupted and consumed Exodus over the past decade. Allow me first to briefly summarize Exodus’ Icarus-like attempts to rise far beyond its means:

• In good times mid-decade, Exodus hired staff instead of saving for hard times. On faith, Exodus believed that it enjoyed a special “blessing” (cash supply) from God.
• When good times turned sour, Exodus faith in mammon did not waver: The organization gave up its leased offices and bought a building with a million-dollar mortgage in early 2008, after Florida’s real estate market began to crash but long before it bottomed out.
• And when the U.S. economy lay in tatters, with no recovery in sight, Exodus last year acquired the costly Love Won Out ex-gay roadshow from Focus on the Family.

Earlier today, Exodus announced vague multiple staff reductions on its semi-private Facebook page. But on its public blog, Exodus made no mention of the payroll crisis and dismissed the apparent financial trouble as mere “lean summer months” — as if staff firings happen every summer:

Many of you who have been a part of Exodus know we often experience lean times in the summer months. This year is no exception and, combined with the economic downturn, these next couple of months will be a significant challenge for Exodus to meet all of our commitments. But in the midst of this trial, we know that God is good – all the time! His economy is not our economy!

“God is good” = “God’s economy.” Got that?

As I discussed this challenge with our staff we agreed to focus on these three simple truths that are both a blessing and a challenge.

Again, no mention of staff being sacked.

First, God owns everything. There is nothing that falls outside of His hand. Second, God is exceedingly generous. His fountain of blessing and goodness never, ever comes to an end. And, third, God wants each of us to participate in His generous nature because, when we do, we partake in His image and goodness.

We try to be cautious and give Chambers the benefit of some doubt. Maybe by “generous,” “blessing,” and “goodness” Chambers means acts of unilateral charity and self-sacrifice to bullied youths, ex-gay survivors, foreclosed homeless folks, the now-pregnant woman who was lied-to by the Christian pregnancy-prevention clinic, or the atheist or Buddhist or Muslim neighbor. He could have meant that, right?

Nope. This is what Chambers means by generosity, in the very next sentence:

Will you pray and ask if God would use YOU to extend His hand of generosity to our ministry during this challenging season?

We’ll spare you Chambers’ link to the Exodus donation form.

It’s clear (and sad) that Chambers — and his sidekick Randy Thomas — don’t affiliate with conservative Christianity for reasons of charity, self-sacrifice, justice, or truth. What draws them to conservative Christianity are the trappings of prosperity: Good times, big house, lots of political junkets to fabulous cities, cheery pious godtalk, life in Florida on someone else’s dime, and as much distance as possible from the damage that they cause to people.

Further to our story earlier today about a financial crisis at Exodus International headquarters …

The Minnesota Independent reports today that a key Exodus affiliate, Living Word Christian Church in Minnesota, has gone into foreclosure. It was bought at auction July 28 by a lender. Its leader, prosperity preacher Mac Hammond, was investigated by the IRS for alleged illegal borrowing from the church while the church’s finances faltered. The investigation was halted by a judge due to technicalities, according to the Independent.

This is the same Minnesota church and Exodus affiliate that hosted kill-the-gays youth activist Bradlee Dean last year and endorsed far-right Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Under terms of the foreclosure, Hammond has one year to raise money to buy the church back from its lender.

Exodus International announced today via its Facebook page:

Dear friends, please pray for us at Exodus. We have experienced an unexpectedly low giving season this summer coupled with much higher expenses (insurance, utilities, etc). Sadly, we have had to let several staff go. Your prayers are appreciated. For those who are also having to endure this unfriendly economy, our prayers are with you! Alan Manning Chambers

Perhaps Exodus wouldn’t be in quite this position if it had not spent the past decade supporting the borrow-and-spend economic policies and laissez-faire lending policies of the corporatist U.S. Christian Right. As a result of that economic program, the United States faces a prolonged recession, with no federal surplus to devote to economic reconstruction, no consumer savings to spend, near-record unemployment and homelessness, record levels of household debt, and no reasonable hope of a significant recovery until late in the decade. Had the Christian Right focused on real issues of national concern, instead of waging social warfare against fellow Americans, the ongoing fiscal catastrophe might have been avoided.

The financial prospects for Exodus are not encouraging. In a fatuous and inexcusably incompetent move, Exodus leaders bought an overpriced headquarters building in central Florida just as the real estate bubble was bursting. Florida was hit especially hard by the crash. Exodus also expanded its staff on “faith” that God had anointed them to unite antigay churches in political warfare against LGBT Americans, their families, and equality-affirming churches. Such self-adulation has come back to haunt Exodus before through sexual and political scandal; this time, self-adulation has sent Exodus crashing into a financial brick wall. Exodus must face the reality that its god — mammon — has fallen on hard times.

Exodus is holding clearance sales to get rid of its quack-therapy books. Its pseudo-Jewish ally JONAH is begging for donations of old clothing. Neither organization’s donor churches are quite so willing, for the time being, to pamper the superficial blatherings of leaders such as Randy Thomas when the churches’ own members — evicted from their homes — are living in their cars [update: and officially sanctioned homeless camps are forming in many major cities].

It will be interesting to see which programs Exodus sacrifices in order to preserve its delusion of service to God.

In an op-ed for CNN, Republican lobbyist John Feehery suggested today that the GOP begin to manage and discipline the Tea Party movement, rather than riding it like a “bucking bronco.”

Feehery stated that “the Tea Party is distinct from the Republican Party, probably as distinct as Sam Adams beer is from Bud Lite” and that “the folks who go to Tea Parties are not concerned primarily with tax policy.” Feehery contended that tea partiers are “mostly motivated by out-of-control spending, towering debt, and the pervasive feeling that government is too big, too powerful, too unaccountable and too cozy with Wall Street.” Feehery added:

While the Tea Party movement presents a threat to the Obama administration, it also presents a challenge to congressional Republicans. After all, many of the protesters have as low a regard for the GOP as they do for the Democrats, and they hold the previous administration in as much as contempt as they do the Obama White House.

Feehery blamed “the bailout of Wall Street and the creation of the Troubled Assets Relief Program” for “Middle America’s complete loss of faith in the Washington-Wall Street industrial complex.” But Feehery failed to name the source of those scandals: the GOP itself.

In just six years, social conservatives in the Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress tripled the national debt from $3 trillion to more than $9 trillion even as they gutted the nation’s industrial base, implemented tax cuts to prevent that debt from ever being repaid, and laundered billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of far-right evangelical political activists through so-called “faith-based initiatives.”

Instead of riding the resulting wave of anger among irrational and emotionally unstable Tea Party supporters, Feehery said that the GOP…

…should seek to get ahead of the stampede by offering good ideas that will reform the government and bring back into balance the role of the government to the taxpayers.

They should focus on three important areas: transparency, accountability, and thrift.

Transparency, accountability, and thrift: These are qualities that the GOP has utterly lacked. The “small government” party has, since the 1980s, doled out trillions of dollars in corporate welfare and expanded government regulation of every American’s lifestyle and religious beliefs.

Feehery revealed his own potential bias against complete transparency when he sidestepped massive corporate and evangelical graft. Feehery diverted his readers with a call for conservatives to further expand government in order to regulate a small fraction of government misspending: “who is cheating us on Medicare reimbursements, why HUD grants are going to political cronies, and who is getting special appropriations for members of the family.”

Instead of calling for accountability from the biggest wasters of tax dollars — the bloated and mismanaged Departments of Defense and Energy — Feehery fell back upon the tired fundamentalist tactic of blaming the Department of Education, where — despite obvious problems — only a tiny fraction of federal spending occurs.

By adopting a reform plan, Feehery suggested, the GOP can harness the best of the Tea Party movement while disabling the extremists.

But if the Tea Partiers can be said to be undermedicated, then perhaps Feehery has been breathing too much nitrous oxide. The GOP has already proven itself incapable of self-reform — and the Democrats, who have changed little since they gained control of Congress in 2006, may likewise be incapable of self-reform. After all, the same Democrats whose Republican-lite economic policies created the real-estate and Wall Street bubbles in the 1990s are firmly in control of the party now.

Americans continue to face the same difficult task that we have avoided since the end of the Cold War: The two ruling parties must be reinvented to serve basic modern economic, military, and human needs. We the voters must repudiate outmoded definitions of left and right, take time off from work and family to educate ourselves with facts and not rumors; and form new coalitions that are energetic, daring, intelligent, coherent, collaborative, non-violent, forward-thinking, and determined to put human interests ahead of those that presently control the two ruling parties: big business and big religion.

Until millions of Americans put aside their own pride, make sacrifices, and reject outmoded ways of thinking and acting, little will change — at least not for the better.

Details were scant on Thursday after Focus on the Family announced, and the Denver Post subsequently reported, that 75 staffers would be sacked in addition to the 200 who were terminated in November 2008.

“They’ve been praying over these things. They’ve been agonizing over these things,” [spokesman Gary] Schneeberger said of Focus leaders. “It’s a bad day. It’s never easy to say goodbye to family.”

Focus blamed the same $6 million revenue shortfall which previously prompted the announcement that the organization’s “Love Won Out” ex-gay roadshow would be transferred to Exodus International.

As I previously commented, that shortfall is not as bad as it sounds, given FOTF’s $138 million annual budget for 2009.

According to the Denver Post:

By the end of the ministry’s fiscal year on Sept. 30, Schneeberger said, officials expect to have collected 95 percent of the $138 million in revenue they budgeted.

“That is pretty amazing, from our perspective, given that some nonprofits are looking at . . . much bigger losses,” Schneeberger said.

Meanwhile, Exodus International is believed to be under stress from an ill-timed purchase of its new headquarters building at the height of the U.S. real-estate boom, as well as from a recession-based decline in donations to non-profits in general and culture-war organizations in particular.

Amplify managing editor Joe Sonka received an alarming plea for help in the mail from Focus on the Family this weekend:

Right now we’re facing a serious budget shortfall that threatens our ability to reach out to parents, families and married couples who count on our help. Income is down nearly $6 million from what we expected and planned for this year.

Sounds grim. But let’s put this crisis in perspective:

According to GuideStar’s copy of FOTF’s Form 990 for 2007, the organization received $145 million in revenue in that year — more than all national and regional gay-equality organizations combined. FOTF spent $146 million, resulting in a one-year loss of just over $1 million.

The current mid-year shortfall of $6 million dollars does not equal a $6 million loss; at worst, it means earnings will be lower than predicted. Another possibility: FOTF fund-raisers may be floating exaggerated budget expectations for the purpose of justifying a mid-year pitch for funds to fill an imaginary “shortfall.”

With $75 million in the bank, above and beyond annual revenues, the organization could continue deficit spending at 2007′s pace for decades.

FOTF’s political affirmation of crony capitalism, unbalanced federal budgets, costly warfare, and social conflict during the past decade contributed to the current American fiscal calamity. So it’s only fair that FOTF now make sacrifices to balance its budget by cutting spending or increasing revenue. It remains to be seen whether the organization’s large investors are gullible enough to increase assistance to a cause of their troubles.

Hat tip: Pam Spaulding

Citing past donations allegedly made by failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pro-equality groups, the antigay parents and spouses group P-FOX on Thursday publicly — and quite seriously — demanded a share of federal bailout money.

In better economic times, the mortgage giants provided aid to countless special interests — liberal and conservative — in order to promote stable homes, foster care and adoption, and youth development. Now the agencies are being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.

P-FOX offers no home, family, or youth services — in fact, it offers no services at all. The tiny and secretive organization’s annual budget averages less than $30,000. P-FOX refuses to identify its board members (though Family Research Council executive Peter Sprigg is known to have been one of them). P-FOX offers no membership benefits. Yet it is marketed by its few supporters as a group with growing membership (actual numbers are never disclosed) due to “thousands” of ex-gays who leave homosexuality “daily.”

P-FOX destabilizes families by encouraging mothers to harass, stigmatize, and ostracize not only their gay teen-age and adult son, but often the father who is recklessly blamed for a son’s homosexuality. P-FOX opposes granting children access to foster care and adoption at a time when many foster and adoptive parents are single or gay, and few two-parent heterosexual households are willing to accept minority or troubled children. Instead of giving children good homes, P-FOX persistently attempts to halt popular youth-development and comprehensive sex-education programs in Maryland and Virginia public schools.

According to Thursday’s press release,

Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), stated, “We support individuals’ rights to self-determination. We support families who have homosexual loved ones. We support those who have come out of homosexuality. We provide outreach and educate teens on same-sex attractions.”

To Freddie and Fannie, Griggs says, “We would like equal money. We want the same financial opportunity that gay groups enjoy.”

The first paragraph is blatantly inaccurate.

Since 1996, I have observed P-FOX supporting antigay discrimination, opposing factual sex-education and balanced presentations of religious viewpoints regarding homosexuality, and opposing legislative action against antigay murders and violent assaults.

• These activities do not, in any sane or logical fashion, qualify as support for “individuals’ rights to self-determination.” P-FOX redefines “self-determination” in terms of the ex-gay myth that people can choose their sexual orientation at any time. P-FOX supports a choice to deny and suppress one’s orientation, but not a choice to be sexually and spiritually honest.
• Furthermore, P-FOX’s online parental discussion groups regrettably do not “support families who have homosexual loved ones.” Despite criticism and high turnover, these e-mail and web-based forums cheer parents who angrily blame their spouses and schools — both for the fact that their teen and adult children are gay, and for the failure of ex-gay tactics to “change” sexual orientation.
• P-FOX offers no measurable support to “those who have come out of homosexuality.” That chore is handled (poorly, given its political distractions) by Exodus International.
• P-FOX does not “educate teens on same-sex attractions.” P-FOX tells teen-agers that their peers choose to be immoral, misinforms teen-agers about the pre-natal and early-life factors that determine sexual orientation, and warns antigay teen-agers and faculty that allowing any freedom of speech among gay teen-agers — or opposing bullying that specifically targets gay teen-agers — threatens their own freedom.