Dorries MP admits link to fundamentalist CCFON


9:30 am - April 26th 2010

by Sunny Hundal    


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Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has admitted how close her campaign on abortion was to the fundamentalist Christian group Christian Concern for our Nation (CCFON) for the first time.

In 2008 the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire spear-headed a campaign on abortion called ’20 Reasons for 20 Weeks’. Its aim was to reduce the legal limit for abortions in the UK. Around 1.6% of abortions in the UK take place that late in the pregnancy and they usually affect women suffering from domestic abuse or have other complications.

In a Libcon investigation then, we asked: Who is funding Nadine Dorries’ campaign?

We finally have a part of the answer. In an interview for the New Statesman magazine published this week, Dorries admits the website for the campaign was created by interns at CCFON.

The campaign website stated that it was not politically motivated or religious; however, I can reveal that it was registered and created by CCFON members, a fact not mentioned on the site.

When asked about the organisation’s involvement with her campaign, Dorries says it “helped out with the research”. She adds that it had “an army of interns” who proved “very useful”. And how was the slick-looking website funded? She pauses before replying: “One of their interns did the website for free.”

The article (by me) looks at the growing influence of Christian fundamentalists within the Conservative Party.

We revealed earlier that the domain name for the campaign website was also registered by someone at CCFON.

CCFON’s director Andrea Williams described herself as “fundamentalist” in a Channel 4 documentary ‘In God’s Name’ at the time (excerpt below). The documentary showed Nadine Dorries and Andrea Williams working closely together then.

CCFON isn’t a normal Christian organisation. Williams believes that abortion should be illegal, homosexuality is sinful and the world is 4,000 years old.

Full article on the new Christian Conservatives in this week’s New Statesman

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. earwicga

Around 1.6% of abortions in the UK take place that late in the pregnancy and they usually affect women suffering from domestic abuse or have other complications.

Really?

2. John Q. Publican

Earwica: yes. No-one with a choice waits.

3. Unity

Earwigca:

There is very little research on the whys and wherefores of late abortions, but what there is suggests that domestic abuse is one of number of relevant factors.

From memory, others that come into the frame include:

– unexpected relationship breakdowns; some women do start out with the full intention of having their child, only for their circumstances to alter during the pregnancy, when the suddenly find out that their partner is a complete bastard.

– fear of parental/family disapproval; this is most prevalent amongst teenagers, as you might expect, but there are a fair number of late abortion case that arise because young women have concealled their pregnancy until quite late on for fear of their family’s reaction to it.

– foetal abnormalities; many of which do not become apparent until quite late in the day

…and there are also documented cases where GPs have put up barriers to women seeking access to abortion services because of their personal views, even though they are, ostensibily, required to refer patients on another GP even if they won’t refer someone to an abortion service.

IIRC, the only published research in the UK is a small study undertaken by an academic at the University of Southampton.

4. Peter

Sunny,

“CCFON isn’t a normal Christian organisation. Williams believes that abortion should be illegal, homosexuality is sinful and the world is 4,000 years old. ”

– Erm … it’s perfectly “normal” (as in orthodox) to believe that homosexuality is sinful. Sure, I don’t agree with it, and didn’t agree with it when I was a Christian. But it’s probably the mainline position.

5. Gould

Sunny

CCFON isn’t a normal Christian organisation. Williams believes that abortion should be illegal, homosexuality is sinful…

Sounds pretty normal to me. Those are the positions of the Church of England, the Catholic Church, Baptists, and most Methodists I know.

and the world is 4,000 years old.

….okay, that isn’t normal.

6. Bartholomew

And working closely with CCFON is the Alliance Defense Fund.

Someone should ask Dorries about her views on Sam Solomon, a CCFON speaker and author of The Mosque Exposed, which sees Muslims as involved in a huge conspiracy to take over the west. The book is currently an EDL favourite.

http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/alliance-defense-fund-consolidates-links-with-british-christians/

7. sally

There are lots of things in the Bible, but these Christians fundies NEVER bother with those. Like helping the poor. You won’t find many of the American Right wing Christians concerning themsleves with those issues. They are only interested in social issues.

And that is because they are right wing conservatives who use religion as a fig leaf to hide their agenda. It is much easier to hide behind the Bible and claim that they have God on their side rather than admit that they are just a bunch of nasty brownshirts.

8. John Q. Publican

There are lots of things in the Bible, but these Christians fundies NEVER bother with those. Like helping the poor.

Not strictly true. The only hospital within 200 miles of where I grew up, and where my sister was born, was run on a charity basis by the Southern Baptist Mission. It was the only hospital within a land area equivalent to the whole of England and Scotland north of Warwick.

The ones who live Christianity are not the ones who talk about it most. We’ve known that since Paul was still writing.

9. sally

The bible says you should not eat fish on a sunday.

Funny I don’t here Dorries trying to pass a law on that one.

10. John Q. Publican

Sally: and? I fail to see how that connects in any way to what I just said?

11. Hayward

An example of right wing so called Christianity is a serious problem with the Exclusive Brethren in Australia

In 2007, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation current affairs television program ‘Four Corners’ aired an investigation into secret campaigning on behalf of the Liberal Party( in Australia that is in fact a Conservative party) by the Exclusive Brethren alleging that church elders had met with both the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard and the Treasurer Peter Costello and had allegedly provided them with their support.

The programme revealed that the Brethren had a vigorous and largely untold political history going back at least to 1993 in Australia and elswhere, and provided evidence of a trail spelling out how its members have spent millions in state and federal elections and overseas, including the USA where it gave generously to the campaigns of The Faux Texan, George W. Bush.

In the Australian state of Tasmania, tens of thousands of dollars was given in a campaign against the Greens in the Tasmanian State election claiming the Greens policies regarding transgender and inter-sex people would “ruin our families and society”. This led to a complaint to the Anti-discrimination Tribunal and the group issued an apology to partly settle that complaint.

The published apology however was paid for by an agency acting for the Liberal Party which has led to calls by Senator Bob Brown for politicians to declare their relationships with the group and called for an anti-corruption inquiry into their influence.

Kevin Rudd, current Prime Minister of Australia, said in 2007: “I believe this is an extremist cult and sect” and that “they split families and I am deeply concerned about their impact on communities across Australia.”

However despite these statements, in 2009 it was revealed that Rudd’s Government had actually increased funding, and were continuing to fund Brethren Schools by up to $62 million over the years 2009 to 2012 (an increase of $24.6 million compared to 2005-2008)

Which is interesting as wealthy Brethren, and many are rich, commonly structure their income so that they can draw social security payments. Similarly, the Brethren private school system is structured to allow it to receive the highest level of payment for schools in needy areas.
This as set out in “Behind the Exclusive Brethren” By Michael Bachelard Scribe, 2008

12. sally

“I fail to see how that connects in any way to what I just said?”

That is because I was not writing anything to connect to what you say.

13. John Q. Publican

Right; so that was not in fact a reply to me pointing out your mistake? Fair enough, sorry 🙂

14. sally

I did not make a mistake.

15. John Q. Publican

Ok, let’s do this.

Sally @7:

There are lots of things in the Bible, but these Christians fundies NEVER bother with those. Like helping the poor. You won’t find many of the American Right wing Christians concerning themsleves [sic] with those issues. They are only interested in social issues. [ My emphasis: Ed. ]

This is not true. I know of many counter-examples of right-wing, Texan, Southern-Baptist, Christians who have dedicated their entire lives to serving poor people. I adduced one particularly personal example, being that of the several hundred highly-qualified and potentially wealthy Christian fundies who have for the last forty years voluntarily run the only decent hospital within 500 miles of where I grew up in sub-Saharan Africa. That is definitely helping the poor.

Had you just said the last two sentences you’d have been on at least arguable ground, statistically. But you prefaced them with two mistaken statements of prejudice. One does see many Bible Belt Christians living their faith; though one also sees televangelists and Dominionist bigots. Your first two statements are simply not true as written.

So what you said was factually and politically mistaken; you made a mistake. I pointed it out and you replied with a non sequitur about Nadine Dorries. I appreciate that you are more or less an attack-dog sock-puppet of someone’s but I object to people attacking Christianity for things that aren’t true about it. I’m all in favour of them attacking it for things it does do, like serial child abuse and institutional corruption in the Catholic church. Or philandering and child prostitution among Bible Belt televangelists in the early 1990s. Etc.

I suspect I’m about to breach the rule about idiots in public, so I will now leave the record to speak for itself.

16. Gwyn

John, she did not make a mistake.

17. LJU

I have never heard or read the Williams believes that the world is 4000 years old. May I see your proof of this please?


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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  44. Richard Bartholomew

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  64. Links Between Christians and the Conservative Party Explored « Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

    […] Futher details appear in a follow-up piece by Sunny at Liberal Conspiracy. […]

  65. Sas Taylor

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  78. Tim Ireland

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  79. Andy Buckley

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  80. Revealed: Nadine Dorries and her real views on abortion | Liberal Conspiracy

    […] admitted that the ’20 Reasons for 20 Weeks’ website she fronted during in 2008, was created by the fundamentalist group Christian Concern for our […]

  81. Matthew 'TK' Taylor

    @rorylawless any use? http://j.mp/qTKOnB





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