Basham then linked to her Sept. 30 Daily Wire article about the liberal-leaning Hewlett Foundation giving money to Christianity Today. Specifically, she said the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has contributed $400,000 for CT’s general operating support, $75,000 for the publication to develop a mobile app, and $600,000 for it to cover U.S. elections.
As a result, Basham questioned CT’s claim of being pro-life. The “extensive abortion backing” of Hewlett, a non-governmental organization (NGO), “makes it a strange bedfellow for a Christian publication,” according to Basham. After reviewing CT’s tax filings, she said more than half of the magazine’s revenues now come from donations, up from about 20% five years ago.
Pro-Life Activists Sound Alarm About Liberal Donations
According to Hewlett, its media-related grants—such as those to Christianity Today—aren’t linked to any type of “editorial control” by the foundation. But since CT began accepting money from Hewlett, Megan Basham noted, the magazine has printed articles that subtly expand the definition of being pro-life. Some pro-life activists warn of progressive creep, with the left directing attention away from unborn babies toward issues such as racial justice.
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“Leftists know that the best way to get naïve Christians to jump on their bandwagon is to label their agenda as either a gospel issue or a pro-life issue,” said Seth Gruber, founder of the White Rose Resistance. “But he who fights everywhere fights nowhere.”
Basham also quoted Hayden Ludwig, executive director of Restoration of America, who said “dark money” can “act like a siren song,” hooking a publication and then “gradually [reorienting it] around a ‘progressive’ agenda to keep the [financial] spigot open.”
Ludwig called CT’s acceptance of grants from Hewlett “absolutely troubling,” saying Hewlett has “an anti-Christian axe to grind.” About CT, he added, “It’s sad to see a giant of Evangelical thought transform into just another pawn for the secular Left.”
Aaron Rench, founding partner of Canon Press, told Basham that if Canon Press did acquire CT, the Hewlett Foundation will no longer view CT as a “partner, nor will their funds be accepted.” Rench indicated plans to restructure the publication under “explicitly Christian stewardship,” without any secular funds.
“Christianity Today has lost the path and purpose of its founder,” said Rench. “We are dead serious about acquiring it and pushing it forward in the courageous spirit of Charlie Kirk.”
Kirk, 31, was assassinated on Sept. 10 during a campus event in Utah. After the conservative activist’s death, Douglas Wilson wrote, in part, “[Kirk] was a good man, full of life, full of questions, full of zeal. He was a patriot who was doing a lot of good for a lot of people.”
RELATED: Isabel Brown Lauds Charlie Kirk’s Courage To ‘Tell the Truth’
, CT officials insisted the magazine “is not for sale and has never been for sale.”){kind=link}