American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

Last updated
American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)
Founded1973 (1973)
Type 501(c)(3) Charity
Registration no.23-7325778 (EIN)
Location
Area served
United States
Key people
  • Raymond E. Drake, President
  • John Horvat II, Vice-President
Revenue
$8,530,115 (FY 2012) [1]
Employees
100
Volunteers
75
Website tfp.org

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, also known as The American TFP, and legally incorporated as The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc. is a Traditionalist Catholic American advocacy group. [2] [3] It is an autonomous organization which forms part of the larger social conservative, anticommunist and monarchist [4] international Tradition, Family, Property (TFP) movement founded by Brazilian intellectual, politician, and activist Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

Contents

History

Founded in 1973, it is one of many "Tradition, Family and Property" groups (TFPs) and like-minded organizations worldwide, all of which are inspired by the work of the Brazilian intellectual, politician, and activist Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. The first American group was incorporated in 1975 and established its first hermitage in 1977 in Yonkers, New York. The Yonkers location was subsequently closed and the hermits establishing their permanent hermitage on 70 acres in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. [5]

The Foundation for a Christian Civilization ("Foundation") was incorporated in 1973, drawing on earlier ties between Brazilians, who traveled to the US to develop a North American affiliate. The American TFP developed early connections with leaders of the religious and political right, including Paul Weyrich of The Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation and Morton Blackwell of the College Republican National Committee and the Reagan administration. [6] [7] Founded to help fundraising for a Catholic counterrevolution against left-wing ideologies and communism, it subsequently became a civil cultural organization that aims to uphold and promote what they consider to be the values of Christian civilization. The Foundation later merged in June 1992 with American TFP to form a single corporation identified as The Foundation for a Christian Civilization. [5]

Organization

The organization solicits funds as a non-profit charity, [2] not as a diocesan organization. [8] Its annual public reports to the Internal Revenue Service indicate that between 2002 and 2014 it disbursed $1,800,000 to support the St. Louis de Montfort Academy and $1,500,000 to support related organizations in North and South America, most significantly Canada Needs Our Lady, Associação dos Fundadores and the Tradición y Acción organizations of Colombia and Peru. [9]

Activities

TFP has continued its ties with the political right as a participating sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference, [10] and by signing statements issued by the Heartland Institute that opposed housing finance reform legislation, [11] and discussions of climate change in comprehensive energy legislation [12] and in the State Department funding authorization. [13]

TFP Student Action is the university campus outreach of the TFP. [14] Its activities include distributing fliers and other literature on the streets of universities, sponsoring speakers on campuses, hosting student conferences, and organizing protests and petitions, especially against abortion and LGBT student groups at Catholic universities. Its most recent campaign is against the 96 Catholic colleges and universities that allow LGBT student groups. [15] In April 2009, volunteers of TFP Student Action traveled to the major cities of New Hampshire [16] and Maine [17] to distribute literature against same-sex marriage.

The American TFP provides the staff to run Saint Louis de Montfort Academy, a boys' boarding school in Herndon, Pennsylvania, that provides students with a traditional Catholic education. [18] It also operates Call to Chivalry summer camps, which express Oliveira's view [19] of nobility, chivalry, and the benefits of the feudal past. [20]

The Return to Order campaign is an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation. In 2019, it organized a petition against the Good Omens miniseries as mocking God's wisdom and making Satanism appear normal, light, and acceptable, but they targeted the petition at Netflix rather than Amazon Prime Video which distributes the series. [21] In 2021, they staged a protest at the 59th New York Film Festival due to the festival showing the Paul Verhoeven film Benedetta , which they deemed blasphemous for its portrayal of lesbianism within the confines of a convent. [22]

Criticism

The American TFP has been cited in several articles by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for their anti-LGBT views. [23] According to the SPLC the TFP is a "virulently anti-LGBT". [24]

Jesuit priest James Martin, referring to the American TFP and to the organization Church Militant commented that “These online extremist hate groups are now more powerful than local churches”. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Poverty Law Center</span> American civil rights NGO, founded 1971

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Research Council</span> American evangelical activist group

The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical 501(c)(3) non-profit activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against access to pornography, embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, divorce, and LGBT rights—such as anti-discrimination laws, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions, and LGBT adoption. The FRC has been criticized by media sources and professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association for using "anti-gay pseudoscience" to falsely conflate homosexuality and pedophilia, and to falsely claim that the children of same-sex parents suffer from more mental health problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Family Association</span> American nonprofit organization promoting fundamentalist Christian values

The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States. It opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. It also takes a position on a variety of other public policy goals. It was founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Penny Lernoux was an American educator, author, and journalist. She wrote critically of United States government and Papal policy toward Latin America.

The Arlington Group was a coalition uniting the leaders of prominent Christian conservative organizations in the United States. Founded in 2002 principally through the efforts of American Family Association President Donald Wildmon and Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul Weyrich, the group sought to establish consensus goals and strategy among its members and translate its combined constituency into an overwhelming force within the Republican Party, particularly at its highest levels. Its membership and purpose overlapped to a high degree with the Council for National Policy; but the group is much more narrowly focused, choosing to emphasize such issues as same-sex marriage, abortion, and confirmation of like-minded federal judges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courage International</span>

Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate and Courage for short, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church that counsels "men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love". Based on a treatment model for drug and alcohol addictions used in programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Courage runs a peer support program aimed at helping gay people remain abstinent from same-sex sexual activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira</span> Brazilian intellectual (1908–1995)

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was a Brazilian intellectual and traditionalist Catholic activist, best known for the foundation of the Tradition, Family and Property organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America Needs Fatima</span> Catholic advocacy group

America Needs Fatima is a campaign of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), a Catholic 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It advocates faith and morals based on the teachings of the Virgin Mary, particularly based on the visions of an apparition of her reported by three children in Fátima, Portugal in 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraldo de Proença Sigaud</span>

Geraldo de Proença Sigaud, S.V.D. was a Brazilian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Jacarezinho from 1947 to 1960, and as Archbishop of Diamantina from 1960 to 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tradition, Family, Property</span> International Traditionalist Catholic movement

Tradition, Family, Property is an international movement of political/civic organizations of Traditionalist Catholic inspiration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol M. Swain</span> American political scientist (born 1954)

Carol Miller Swain is an American political scientist and legal scholar who is a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University. She is a frequent television analyst and has authored and edited several books. Her interests include race relations, immigration, representation, evangelical politics, and the United States Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illinois Family Institute</span> American Christian organization

The Illinois Family Institute (IFI) is a Christian organization based in Tinley Park, Illinois. Founded in 1990, its stated mission is "upholding and re-affirming marriage, family, life and liberty in Illinois", and it is affiliated with the American Family Association. The organization's legislative arm is the 501(c)(4) lobbying group Illinois Family Action, founded in 2010. The organization's executive director is David E. Smith, who in 2006, succeeded Peter LaBarbera, founder of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chick-fil-A and LGBT people</span>

Issues arose between Chick-fil-A and the LGBT community in June 2012 after Dan T. Cathy, the fast food restaurant's chief executive officer, made a series of public comments opposing same-sex marriage. This followed reports that Chick-fil-A's charitable endeavor, the S. Truett Cathy-operated WinShape Foundation, had donated millions of dollars to organizations seen by LGBT activists as hostile to LGBT rights. Activists called for protests and boycotts, while supporters of the restaurant chain and opponents of same-sex marriage ate there in support of the restaurant. National political figures both for and against the actions spoke out and some business partners severed ties with the chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luiz of Orléans-Braganza</span> Claimant to the defunct Brazilian throne (1938–2022)

Prince Luiz Gastão of Orléans-Braganza was the eldest son of Prince Pedro Henrique of Orléans-Braganza and Princess Maria Elisabeth of Bavaria, and head of the Vassouras branch of the Imperial House of Brazil and pretender to the title of Emperor of Brazil from 1981 until his death in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute</span> Roman Catholic traditionalist association

The Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute (IPCO) is a Roman Catholic traditionalist association of private law, which claims direct legacy of the Brazilian Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), and follows the beliefs of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. The IPCO headquarters are located at the former seat of the Brazilian TFP in Higienópolis, São Paulo, Brazil.

Adolpho Lindenberg was a Brazilian civil engineer, architect, writer and political activist. A cousin and disciple of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the founder of Tradition, Family and Property, he was the president of the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute, from its creation in 2006 until his death, in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orlando Fedeli</span> Brazilian traditionalist Catholic

Orlando Fedeli was a Brazilian Traditionalist Catholic historian, teacher and political activist. He was the founder and president of the Montfort Cultural Association, in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-gender movement</span> International movement opposed to the concept of gender identity

The anti-gender movement is an international movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology", "gender theory", or "genderism", terms which cover a variety of issues, and do not have a coherent definition. Members of the anti-gender movement are largely on the right-wing and far-right political spectrum, such as right-wing populists, social conservatives, and Christian fundamentalists. It has been linked to a shift away from liberal democracy and towards right-wing populism. Anti-gender rhetoric has seen increasing circulation in trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) discourse since 2016. Different members of the anti-gender movement variously oppose some LGBT rights, some reproductive rights, government gender policies, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and gender studies academic departments. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has linked the anti-gender movement to the risk of "extreme violence" against the LGBTQI+ community. UN Women has described the anti-gender, gender-critical and men's rights movements as extreme anti-rights movements that "use hateful propaganda and disinformation to target and attempt to delegitimize people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and sex characteristics."

References

  1. ↑ "Charity Ratings and Donor Resources". Charity Navigator.
  2. 1 2 ""Fundraising Disclosure Notice", TFP Student Action". Archived from the original on January 3, 2011.
  3. ↑ "The Counter-Revolution: Who We Are". The American TFP. 17 April 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "The Colonial TFP" (PDF), Crusade Magazine, 65, Hanover, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property: [1], September–October 2003
  5. 1 2 ""Mary Queen of the Third Millennium, Inc. v. The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc.", United States Patent And Trademark Office, December 3, 2008" (PDF).
  6. ↑ Power, Margaret (2011), "Transnational, Conservative, Catholic, and Anti-Communist: Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)", in Durham, Martin; Power, Margaret (eds.), New Perspectives on the Transnational Right, New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, pp. 96–97, ISBN   978-0-230-62370-5
  7. ↑ Lernoux, Penny (1989), People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, New York: Viking, p.  343, ISBN   0-670-81529-2
  8. ↑ ""Office of the Chancellor", Pastoral Bulletin, Archdiocese of Miami, October 17, 2007" (PDF).
  9. ↑ The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (IRS Form 990N), New York: Foundation Center, 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2015
  10. ↑ Rick Santorum to CPAC: "Let's Talk About How We Can Build a Great America Again", The American Conservative Union, March 7, 2014, archived from the original on 2016-01-11, retrieved March 6, 2015, Participating Sponsors: … Tradition, Family, Property…
  11. ↑ Free-Market Leaders Urge Senate to Reject Housing Finance Overhaul, The Heartland Institute, April 23, 2014, retrieved March 6, 2015, Coalition members include leaders from … Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
  12. ↑ "[Open Letter to Senator Pete Domenici]" (PDF), Environment & Climate News, 6 (4), The Heartland Institute: 7, May 2003
  13. ↑ "[Open Letter to Congressman Henry Hyde]" (PDF), Environment & Climate News, 6 (6), The Heartland Institute: 15, July 2003
  14. ↑ "TFP Student Action". TFP Student Action.
  15. ↑ ""Scandal: Research finds pro-homosexual clubs at 96 Catholic universities"". Archived from the original on September 7, 2009.
  16. ↑ ""Gay marriage protesters make noise in Nashua"".
  17. ↑ "Protesters take aim at bill for gay marriage — Politics — Bangor Dail…". archive.ph. July 19, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Saint Louis de Montfort Academy".
  19. ↑ Lernoux, Penny (1989), People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism, New York: Viking, p.  339, ISBN   0-670-81529-2
  20. ↑ Power, Margaret (2011), "Transnational, Conservative, Catholic, and Anti-Communist: Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP)", in Durham, Martin; Power, Margaret (eds.), New Perspectives on the Transnational Right, New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, p. 99, ISBN   978-0-230-62370-5
  21. ↑ Flood, Alison (June 20, 2019). "Thousands petition Netflix to cancel Amazon Prime's Good Omens". The Guardian . Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  22. ↑ Shafer, Ellise (26 September 2021). "Catholic Protesters Congregate Outside 'Benedetta's' New York Film Festival Premiere". Variety. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  23. ↑ "Extremists of Many Stripes Gather at Values Voter Summit 2011". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  24. ↑ "National Organization for Marriage Has a Rough Start to 2013". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  25. ↑ Bruni, Frank (3 February 2018). "Opinion | The Scariest Catholic in America (Published 2018)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 February 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.