If the Maxim Institute isn't a Christian Right pressure group, then what about these footnotes and contributors to Evidence, its so-called 'policy journal?' As one of the Christian Right's leading watchdog opponents, I have a complete run of the Maxim Institute's 'policy journal,' Evidence. During the weekend, I decided to examine the Institute's protestations that it is "not" a conservative Christian pressure group. Is the devil in the detail, though? The Institute isn't connected to any fundamentalist church or political party. However, its statement of purpose doesn't specifically exclude conservative Christian philosophical and ideological bias. When I examined its contributors and footnotes, I soon discovered why. Evidence 1: In his article on 'tolerance,' Paul Henderson cites one Josef Budziszewski. Budzisewski is a conservative Catholic 'natural law' theorist. His work is entitled The Revenge of Conscience (Dallas: Spence: 1999), and argues that 'natural law' is inbuilt in the case of homosexuality and abortion, so we 'naturally know' both are wrong. Evidence 2: Rita Joseph discusses population control and the United Nations. Joseph is an Australian anti-abortion activist, and the article was originally published in News Weekly, the National Civic Council's publication. NCC is Australia's oldest Catholic Right organisation. At the end of his article about "killing the family,' Michael Reid cites the UK Family Matters Institute. I visited their website and discovered that they have links to the UK Christian Institute, which opposes recognition of UK civil partnership legislation and unsuccessfully campaigned against same-sex adoption. Bernard Moran is President of Auckland SPUC, "journalist" for the gutter glossy Investigate, and editor of SPUC's four---page glossy bimonthly tabloid newsheet, Pro-Life Times. He is author of an article about alleged population decline within New Zealand. Evidence 3: Michael Reidd cites Budzisewski's Revenge of Conscience twice during his article, "Considering Conservatism." If I were a National Party member, I'd read this premature obituary for their party, which attacks it for not being dominated by social conservative apparatchiks. Evidence 4: Bruce Logan cites Mary Ann Glendon, a conservative Catholic communitarian opponent of free market economics and social liberalism in his attack on the Human Rights Commission. [The World Made New: Random House: Toronto: 2001]. Evidence 5: Logan cites David Popenoe of the so-called US 'marriage movement' for the first time as the Institute attacks lesbian/gay relationship recognition for the first time, in an attack on Labour's pluralist family policy which recognises diverse family models. John MacNeill cites Patrick Fagan of the US Heritage Foundation in the footnotes to his article on diversity, democratic participation and lawmaking. Fagan's online paper attacks sidelining of sectarian religious dogma in Europe and North America. Evidence 6: David Popenoe himself contributes an article to Evidence, where he explicitly acknowledges the involvement of US Christian Right antigay groups like Focus on the Family and Family Research Council in his article about his social conservative 'marriage movement.' Antifeminist author Alexis Stuart cites Robert Bork, an extremist social conservative and failed right-wing Republican nominee to the US Supreme Court in footnotes to her article [R.Bork, Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline: New York: Regan Books: 1997]. Evidence 7: Logan attacks inclusive New Zealand family and spousal policy initiatives again. He cites the late David Orgon Coolidge's article "The Question of Marriage" from Chris Wolfe's (ed) Homosexuality and American Public Life: (Dallas: Spence: 1999). Logan used the same source when he wrote his monograph on Same-Sex Marriage? -for Affirm, the fundamentalist Presbytarian organisation that opposes lesbian and gay ordination within their denomination. Michael Reid also attacks New Zealand's inclusive family and spousal policy reforms in the same issue. He cites Popenoe, William Bennett (Republican conservative cultural activist and compulsive gambling addict), as well as Lynn Wardle of the Marriage Law Project, a conservative Mormon opponent of lesbian/gay relationship recognition. Bennett and Wardle have both cited the work of Paul Cameron, the discredited US fundamentalist junk scientist expelled from the American Sociological and Psychological Association. Wardle was an earlier guest of the Education Development Foundation in a conservative seminar on family policy at Greenlane Christian Centre in 1999, reprinted in EDF's Cutting Edge, Evidence's predecessor. Evidence 8: Alexis Stuart cites Thomas Aquinas and Touchstone, a US fundamentalist cultural commentary journal, in an attack on social liberal intellectuals. Aquinas is a mainstay of conservative Catholic 'natural law theory.' Evidence 9: Logan cites Mary Ann Glendon again, in an article on 'authority.' [See above citation for reference] In one of his recurrent articles about marxism, Paul Henderson cites fundamentalist 'worldview expert,' David Noebel's Understanding the Times (Oregon: Harvest House: 1991). Evidence 10: Bruce Logan acknowledges that he attended World Congress of Families III in Mexico (April 2004). Once again, Logan cites Popenoe and Patrick Fagan in his footnotes. John MacNeil's anti-euthanasia article cites the US National Right to Life News (January 2004)- the United States equivalent of SPUC. He also refers to Sydney's conservative Catholic Weekly (03.08.03) in his footnotes. McNeill and Amanda McGrail cite Popenoe again, in footnotes to their attack on the Civil Union and Relationship (Statutory Reference) Bills. Evidence 11: Carolyn Moynihan writes about 'virtue' and maturity in children. Moynihan is a former editor of the defunct New Zealand anti-abortion newspaper Humanity, hag-iographer of the late unlamented Patricia Bartlett and her Society for Promotion of Community Standards, and now runs a conservative Christian online magazine called Family Edge. In an advert for Compass (Maxim's youth indoctrination annual seminars), it notes that the next one will be held at Trevor Yaxley's Lifeway Academy. Yaxley endorsed Destiny Church's anti-CUB/RSRB "Enough is Enough" march. Samuel Gregg (Acton Institute) is a conservative Catholic activist and advocate of free markets and social conservatism. At the same time that the New Zealand Herald publishes his work. Evidence prints one of his articles about 'natural law' and conservative Catholic sectarian dogma as the sole guide to 'moral' legal and judicial policies on abortion and homosexuality. Gregg cites Thomas Aquinas in his footnotes, as well as John Finnis and Robert George, two keynote US conservative Catholic philosophers. So, the Maxim Institute isn't a fundamentalist pressure group? Its own policy journal suggests that it is an active vehicle for conservative Christian ideological bias, and Evidence's own footnotes suggest that. Sorry, Bruce, Michael, Paul, Amanda, Greg, Alexis and Scott. You may be 'born again' but the rest of us weren't born yesterday. Craig Young - 4th November 2004