Planned Parenthood’s second-largest donor has given more than $1 million to ‘Christianity Today’
“Christianity Today,” which was founded by Billy Graham, is being heavily funded by a progressive organization that also donates millions to support Planned Parenthood, “The Daily Wire” reported.
Since 2022, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has donated more than $1 million to the publication, including $400,000 for general operating support, $75,000 to develop a mobile app and $600,000 to cover U.S. elections. This makes Hewlett one of the magazine’s top disclosed donors.
As watchdog groups such as Influence Watch have noted, since its founding in 1967, Hewlett has continuously supported Planned Parenthood, eventually becoming its second- largest private funder in the United States. Between 2000 and 2023, Hewlett gave Planned Parenthood more $100 million. After the 2022 Dobbs decision ended the constitutional right to abortion, Hewlett announced it was redoubling its efforts to ensure access in states that were moving to restrict the procedure.
Since Hewlett’s backing began, “Christianity Today” has published several articles challenging the traditional definition of pro-life as a commitment to protect the lives of babies in the womb, instead suggesting it should be expanded to include racial injustice and new federal entitlements such as paid family leave.
Seth Gruber, founder of White Rose Resistance, believes liberals have slowly and intentionally changed the definition of “pro-life” to mute the effectiveness of the movement.
“All the other extensions of justice that progressives insist are pro-life issues already have dedicated organizations and funding that outstrips that of the pro-life movement considerably,” he said. “And yet, they insist that we divert our scarce resources from stopping the legal murder of babies toward helping people that it’s not legal to murder before we’re ‘really pro-life.’ The left has taken huge advantage of this redefinition in order to smuggle in radical socialist priorities, all under the label of ‘pro-life.’”
In the past five years, ‘Christianity Today” has increasingly relied on donations rather than subscriptions for income, IRS filings show. In 2020, only about 20 percent of revenues came from grants and donations. Today, it’s more than half. The Lilly Endowment, founded by the Eli Lilly family of pharmaceutical fame, is another major backer, granting the magazine $8 million since 2016 for initiatives ranging from a national storytelling grant to developing tools for preachers.
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Hayden Ludwig, executive director of research at Restoration America, has spent more than a decade researching dark money networks.
“It’s absolutely troubling that `Christianity Today’ would go hunting for grants from an undeniably leftist mega-funder with an anti-Christian ax to grind,” he said. “But I can’t say I’m surprised, unfortunately, because bankrolling ‘conservative’ groups is the Hewlett Foundation’s M.O. as part of a larger strategy to infiltrate and undermine the right. It’s sad to see a giant of evangelical thought transform into just another pawn for the secular left.”
-Lee Hartman | Metro Voice
