"Templeton Contributes $1 Million to Counter Soros" -- Or Maybe He Doesn't
A couple of days ago NewsMax kindly sent me an email alerting met to this NewsMax story which claimed that "world famous financier Sir John Templeton has donated $1 million through his foundation to a political group that will encourage religious conservatives to vote this November." The NewsMax piece, which was basically just a rewrite of this Washington Times story from the 22nd, indicated that:
A new independent-expenditure group, backed by the John Templeton Foundation, is targeting what political analysts regard as President Bush's electoral ace in the hole — religious conservative voters.
Let Freedom Ring Inc. will seek contributions to help "counter the millions of dollars being spent to attack and discredit President Bush by leftist organizations such as those supported by billionaire George Soros, Hollywood liberals and others," said Colin A. Hanna, the new group's president.
His organization has $1 million in start-up money from the Templeton Foundation, whose president is retired pediatric surgeon and conservative philanthropist Dr. John M. Templeton Jr.
Both NewsMax and the Wash Times cited the Barna study that showed that "88 percent of evangelicals are likely to vote, making them the religious group with the greatest voting propensity," and that evangelicals are also the group which is most satisfied with Bush's performance in office, with 89 percent of them giving him a favorable evaluation. You know, because he's helping to usher in Christ's coming by bringing about the apocalypse.
A story about Hanna in a local Pennsylvania paper says:
Hanna is working on a documentary about President Bush’s faith as well as the religious convictions of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga. He plans to distribute the documentary nationwide in DVD form this summer.
He also is tailoring his message for the "politically passive churchgoer."
About 4 million evangelical Christians did not vote in the 2000 election, he said. He also estimated about 6 million to 8 million people of all faiths stayed away from the polls.
And so Let Freedom Ring is going after those voters by making patriotic, religious commercials to inspire them to vote for Constitution-loving, godly candidates who aren't John Kerry.
But the NewsMax piece brings Sir John Templeton, and not just his foundation, into the story. It compare him with George Soros (both are self-made billionaires who have donated a lot of money to their pet causes, but Templeton is good and Soros is evil), and indicates that:
Today, the 91-year-old Templeton lives in Nassau, the Bahamas.
In 1992, Templeton sold his widely respected Templeton Funds in 1992. He turned from finance to philanthropy using his own John Templeton Foundation, which had been established in 1987.
But until his $1 million donation to Let Freedom Ring, Templeton had largely avoided politics. His foundation supports to the tune of $40 million a year causes relating to spirituality and religion.
And that's why this story seemed a little odd -- Templeton, while a firm believer of in "free enterprise" and "character development," isn't an evangelical Christian or someone with an interest in politics. He's something of an iconoclast who donates millions each year to "exploring the connections between religion and science." He "often focuses on the importance of humility, saying social and religious conflicts usually result from egos run amok."
Here's part of an interview which he gave to the Saturday Evening Post a couple of years ago:
Post: Do you think that our current emphasis on culture diversity in American schools, beginning in elementary grades, and exposing students to writings of other religious--such as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc.--may water down the longstanding influence of Christianity in our nation?
Templeton: It gets back to your word "competition." In those areas of life that practice competition, the discipline or field is not watered down; it is expanded. Competition leads to better methods, so in general, the field expands if you allow free competition. Study any area where there is competition, and you'll find the products are better, less costly, and more reliable. Products also develop more rapidly, so competition is one of our blessings in those areas that have been studied, and I believe it will be a blessing when we get more competition among religions.
Post: Would it be easier to give a child a firm grounding in Christianity before the large emphasis on other faiths?
Templeton: Obviously, when you forbid competition, your particular viewpoint catches on more quickly, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you've helped a child.
I can't believe that the evangelicals whom Let Freedom Ring is courting would agree with Templeton's plan to allow some healthy competition between religions by exposing students to them all and letting the kiddies pick the one that works best for them. I also don't think that Templeton seems like the type who would want his money being used to make a documentary about Bush, Santorum, and Miller (for no other reason than Templeton's insistance on the virture of humility).
So, I found it odd that Templeton was supporting Let Freedom Ring. Especially after I read this bit in a Philadephia Inquirer article from a few years back:
Templeton finds the implicit egoism of religious evangelism especially troubling, because "when you love you don't try to impose your faith on other people."
That view may have some personal resonance. Templeton's son, Jack, a retired pediatric surgeon who now serves as president of his father's Radnor-based John Templeton Foundation, is an evangelical Presbyterian.
Jack Templeton declined to discuss his relationship with his father, but a foundation spokesman said that despite their differences, the elder and younger Templetons are close.
. . . But make no mistake: John Templeton, an American-born British subject who was knighted in 1987 and makes his home in the Bahamas, is a committed universalist.
So, it wasn't too suprising to find this "clarification" from Monday's NewsMax:
The NewsMax report, as well as reports in the Washington Times and Tennessee’s Herald-Chronicle, reported last week that financier Sir John Templeton’s foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, had donated $1 million to Hanna’s Let Freedom Ring. These reports indicated the Templeton donation was made to support efforts to encourage religious conservatives to vote in November’s presidential election.
Hanna clarified these reports by indicating that neither Sir John Templeton nor The Tempelton Foundation had donated to his group.
He did indicate that Sir John Templeton’s son, Dr. Jack Templeton, M.D., is chairman of Let Freedom Ring and did not preclude the possibility he had made a donation on his own. Dr. Templeton also is president of the Templeton Foundation.
"What I have not said in that correction is, whether or not the extent to which Dr. Jack Templeton made a contribution because of the nature of a 501c4 where that disclosure is not required,” Hanna said.
He declined to confirm or deny that Dr. Templeton had made a $1 million donation to his group. Unlike political action committees, Let Freedom Ring is a non-profit organization that is not required by the Federal Election Commission to disclose the names of its donors.
Since Hanna told that local paper that his group had raised more than $1 million, with most of it coming from "a large contributor, which Hanna declined to identify," and since Jack Templeton is the chairman of Let Freedom Ring, I think it's quite probable that Jack Templeton gave Hanna's group $1 million. Whether he donated his own money, or is playing fast and loose with money from his 91-year-old father's foundation, remains to be seen.
P.S. This is my favorite Templeton Foundation program, as mentioned on the Foundation's website:
The primary purpose of the Maxim Research Grants Program is to increase our understanding of an approach to character education that involves learning and using maxims, proverbs, aphorisms, and wise sayings.
I wonder if I could get a grant to study how bad metaphors affect character. I've already got a lot of research done, and if the Foundation is giving away $40 million a year, I think I deserve a cut.
4:53:19 AM 
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