ACORN received PCUSA grants
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, September 21, 2009
ACORN, identified by the Associated Press as “a scandal-tainted” community organizing group that has been denied federal funding by the U.S. Congress, has received multiple grants from agencies of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The ACORN acronym stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Related Stories
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ACORN getting church funds
A 2008 grants and projects listing from the Presbyterian Hunger Program reveals a “general support” grant to ACORN’s office in Patterson, N.J. in the amount of $7,500. The Hunger Program grant gives the following description of ACORN’s work: “Organizes for public policy change around issues affecting the self sufficiency of ACORN’s minority and immigrant communities.”
Also appearing in the 2008 Hunger Program project book is a grant of $10,000 to the ACORN office in New Orleans, La. The purported purpose of this post-Katrina grant was “to meet immediate needs of low-income survivors, such as housing, income, heath care, and for community organizing to ensure survivors have a voice in the rebuilding and recovery process” (emphasis added).
In addition, the Jarvie Commonweal Service Committee, a group that is associated with the denomination’s General Assembly Mission Council, voted to approve a grant of $20,000 to New Jersey ACORN/American Institute for Social Justice, Inc., for its “Senior Citizen Anti-Predatory Lending Project.”
The committee administers a fund established by the late James Jarvie whose purpose is to provide housing and health care services for middle income elderly in the New York City area. Jarvie specified that investment income from the corpus be spent on services to elderly persons whose personal income exceeds eligibility limits for public assistance.
His instructions permit the Presbyterian Church (USA) to apply any surplus that might accrue in a given year to the denomination’s general fund. A Layman investigation of the Jarvie Program concluded that the committee deliberately limits the number of elderly persons that it admits to the program, thereby generating surplus income that can be channeled into General Assembly accounts. Denominational headquarters routinely budgets the receipt of $1 million annually from the Jarvie Fund surplus.
The PCUSA lists two ACORN grants in 2008 through its Self Development of People fund: $35,000 to a Bridgeport, Conn., ACORN office “to address the issue of security,” and $20,000 to an ACORN neighborhood organizing project in Providence, R.I. ACORN described its Rhode Island project as follows: “These 700 low and moderate income families will focus on developing leadership, organization-building and targeted campaigns designed to address utility company accountability issues … ”
In 2004, the denomination’s Self Development of People program granted $15,000 to Rio Bravo ACORN in Albuquerque, N.M. to organize “legal and other direct action” against “unscrupulous practices by developers and builders.”
The General Assembly Mission Council, and its Washington lobby, has often allied itself with ACORN. In 2005, it signed onto an ACORN lobbying effort against the Federal Housing Reform Act (HR 1461) and signed a joint statement with ACORN opposing funding for the No Child Left Behind program. In Florida, it joined ACORN in lobbying for a minimum wage bill. In 2004, it supported ACORN’s lobby for State Children’s Health Insurance money. In 1998, it joined ACORN in lobbying President Bill Clinton for a variety of social issues.
The PCUSA signed onto the “Let Justice Roll” campaign with numerous ACORN offices and the Interfaith Alliance, the Workers’ Interfaith Network, Progressive Christians Uniting, the Just Peace Institute/Living Wage Initiative, the National Council of Churches and others. “Let Justice Roll” is lobbying Congress for an increase in the minimum wage to $10 in 2010.
The PCUSA Web site lists ACORN among its “living wage education resources.”
ACORN community organizers have successfully fended off criticisms in 2008 that their voter registration activities in low income areas have resulted in fraudulent registrations. But the tipping point for this organization occurred when Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe entered ACORN offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., posing as a prostitute and her pimp. Armed with a hidden camera, they sought and received advice from ACORN employees on setting up a house of prostitution and transporting young girls from El Salvador to serve their purported clients. ACORN employees advised the couple on ways to lie about their profession and launder their earnings.
Initially ignored by most of the mainstream media, the story triggered public outrage when video tapes of the ACORN visits were posted on YouTube and highlighted by Fox News. In light of these revelations, the White House Press Office declared that conduct seen on the tapes was “completely unacceptable.” On Sept. 14, the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 to deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN and on Sept. 17, the U.S. House voted 345-75 to cut off all federal funding.