From rstepp@uga.edu Sun Feb 6 21:58:44 2000 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id VAA38524 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2000 21:58:43 -0800 Received: from scaup.prod.itd.earthlink.net (scaup.prod.itd.earthlink.net [207.217.121.49]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id VAA13906 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2000 21:58:42 -0800 Received: from [63.24.235.90] (1Cust90.tnt3.athens.ga.da.uu.net [63.24.235.90]) by scaup.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id VAA06906 for ; Sun, 6 Feb 2000 21:58:40 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: jrstepp@earthlink.net Message-Id: In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 17:58:28 -0600 To: indknow@washington.edu From: "R. Stepp" Subject: Re: Biodiversity PR Edward, I hardly want this to turn into an attack against RAFI, as I mentioned some of their work has been honorable. In response to your query about where the information about christian right groups funding RAFI came from--it was directly from their own financial reports. Only 3 years are available--for some reason the 95-96 report has become inacessible as of late. However the following groups funded RAFI; some repeatedly between 96 and 98 world council of churches 96-97-98 united church of canada 98 inter-church action 97-98 canadian lutheran world relief 97 lutheran world relief 97 inter pares 96 It is perhaps understandable that these groups would fund RAFI. The christian right is against life patenting and genetic modification in all instances because it alters god's creations. RAFI is similiarly opposed but with different justifications. Regardless they still make strange bedfellows. And I in no way want you to construe this as an attack agaisnt your own work with RAFI or elsewhere. You seem like a reasonable fellow to me. Best, R.Stepp >I'm sorry to say that your post makes clear that you are misinformed on >several counts. > > > >First, as for "right wing fundamentalist Christian groups" funding RAFI, I >am afraid that somebody has been feeding you nonsense. In 5 years working >at RAFI I heard some strange criticisms (generally from industry and >conservative governments); but that is about the strangest theory on RAFI >that I've heard yet. > > > >The foundations that support RAFI are about as far from Christian >fundamentalists as you can get. .