Political Research Associates

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The Public Eye” redirects here. For other uses, see The Public Eye (disambiguation).

Logo of Political Research Associates

Political Research Associates (PRA) (formerly Midwest Research, Chicago, 1981-1987) is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.

1 Mission
2 Criticism
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Mission

PRA studies the U.S. political right wing, as well as white supremacists, anti-Semitic groups, and paramilitary organizations. It has a full-time staff of six. The director is Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale. Dr. Jean V. Hardisty was the director from 1981 to 2004. Chip Berlet is the group's senior analyst. Researchers include Tarso Luís Ramos and Pam Chamberlain.

PRA publishes a journal, The Public Eye, three times a year, which reports on specific and current movements or trends within the U.S. political Right, and also produces special reports, past examples of which include "Calculated Compassion," which details attacks on gays and lesbians, and "Decades of Distortion," which alleged scapegoating of welfare recipients. ^[1]

Part of the series on Christian reconstructionism
Ideas
Theonomy Reconstructionism Church-state separation Christian Zionism
Advocates of Christian reconstructionism
R. J. Rushdoony Greg Bahnsen Gary North Gary DeMar Kenneth Gentry David Chilton D. James Kennedy Marvin Olasky Paul Weyrich
Christian reconstructionist organizations
Chalcedon Foundation National Religious Broadcasters Free Congress Foundation
Influences on Christian reconstructionism
Abraham Kuyper John Cotton Francis Schaeffer
Critics and observers of Christian reconstructionism
TheocracyWatch Chip Berlet Chris Hedges Edmund Morgan Political Research Assoc
Financiers of Christian reconstructionism
Howard Ahmanson Jr
v • d • e

The group provides public speakers, and has staff on hand to answer queries from journalists, researchers, and activists. Its annual funding of approximately $700,000 per year comes from foundation grants, individual contributions, and the sale of research materials. Expenditures are directed toward staffing, general & administrative expenses, programs and fundraising.^[2] . Among its major donors are the Public Welfare Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

PRA is supported by a number of progressive and liberal activists, including Anne Braden of the Southern Organizing Committee, and Suzanne Pharr of the Highlander Research Center. Pharr has written that PRA "sets the standard for researchers and political analysts of integrity," and describes the group's research as "thorough, thoughtful, carefully researched, and presented within a broad context of understanding of the complex relationships and activities of the Right." ^[3]

[edit] Criticism

Stanley Kurtz of the conservative magazine National Review described PRA's researchers as "conspiracy mongers" for a 1994 report on the religious right. According to Kurtz, PRA used guilt by association techniques to associate conservative Christians with theocratic Dominionism: "By quoting a pathetic Dominionist extremist’s desperate efforts to prove his own influence, clever liberals can now argue that the ultimate goal of all conservative Christians is the re-institution of slavery, and execution for blasphemers and witches.^[4] PRA responded to Kurtz by stating that the report was "a serious study of the Dominionist Christian Reconstructionist movement."^[5]

The David Horowitz Freedom Center accuses PRA mainstay Chip Berlet of engaging in "smear" tactics and accuses PRA of promoting a "hard-left agenda".^[6] The article on PRA at Horowitz' Discover the Networks (DTN) site says the organization's purpose is to promote the Marxist doctrines of "dialectical materialism" and "progressive internationalism". It says PRA endorsed the adoption of the Plan of Action from the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, "largely a forum for anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric".^[7]^[8]