Howard Ahmanson



Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is the shadowy, reclusive multi-milionaire heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr. (his reclusion seems to be partially caused by suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome). Junior uses his money to finance several right wing cults, think tanks, and causes. He is a major financial contributor to the Discovery Institute. He also provided $1,395,000 to the "YES on 8" campaign for Proposition 8. In 2014, Ahmanson has decided to up the stakes from indirect influence to campaign financing, providing major funding to the House of Representatives campaign of California State Senator Mimi Walters.

As a Calvinist, Ahmanson used to be part of R.J. Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionism movement. Though he claims not to support the death penalty for homosexuals, and has said that he "no longer consider[s] [it] essential" to stone people who have committed acts that the Old Testament deems immoral, he does not think it is immoral for a country to have this law or for someone to follow it. "But I don't think it's at all a necessity."

TIME Magazine covered the Ahmansons in their 2005 profiles of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, classifying them as "the financiers".

Due to his reclusivity, his wife, Roberta Ahmanson, performs most of his public communication duties on his behalf and is likewise a Christian fundamentalist.

Quotes

 * My goal is the total integration of biblical law into our lives