THE ISSUE
“The Eden Bridge Foundation tells prospective donors their support will help build ‘the Kingdom of God’ on Earth with money flowing to Lancaster Bible College and other ministries. Over the past 14 years, the nonprofit has steered tens of millions of dollars to Christian schools, churches and charities,” LNP | LancasterOnline investigative journalist Brett Sholtis reported last Sunday. “But some donations to the 501(c)(3) Eden Bridge Foundation routinely go to Republican-aligned groups at the center of conservative political advocacy. An analysis of tax records shows donations associated with the private, religious school are used to shape public school policy.”
Why is a religious nonprofit attempting to shape public school policy and advance evangelical Christian beliefs in public spaces?
The obvious answer is this: Because it can.
It shouldn’t — theoretically, state and federal regulations prohibit nonprofits from pushing partisan views. They’re permitted to take public policy positions, but their messaging should not in any way favor or oppose a political candidate.
No one is stopping them, though, from crossing any lines.
So, as Sholtis reported, one of the Eden Bridge Foundation’s grant recipients, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, “helps public school boards remove library books and restrict LGBTQ+ students. Another, Alliance Defending Freedom, has fought in court to ban same-sex marriage and abortion and has helped state lawmakers write anti-abortion legislation. A third, Donors Trust, serves as a financial hub for libertarian and conservative causes.”
Technically, these recipients are all nonpartisan and tax-exempt, but “they almost exclusively advocate for Republican policy positions and politicians,” Sholtis reported.
They also advocate for a nation that favors evangelical Christianity over other faiths and they are trying to ensure that public schools cater to conservative, evangelical Christian families.
Their aims run counter to the vision of this nation’s founders, who included the establishment clause and the free exercise clause in the First Amendment to ensure that the U.S. government would not establish an official church and that Americans would be free to exercise whatever faith they wished (or none at all).
But, apparently, founding principles aren’t a priority for these organizations.
Consider that the Eden Bridge Foundation’s articles of incorporation and bylaws prohibit it from “carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation.” The foundation flouts its own rules without consequence.
The IRS and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General regulate these matters, but regulation doesn’t always translate to enforcement, clearly.
We’re tempted to ask why rules even exist if no one is enforcing them, but that’s the wrong question. The rules should be enforced.
So let’s ask this: What do rules actually mean to these ostensibly high-minded religious nonprofits? And why are these nonprofits disregarding what this nation’s founders clearly intended when the founders built a wall between church and state — a phrase that doesn’t appear in the Constitution but was used by Thomas Jefferson in explaining the First Amendment?
Those are rhetorical questions, perhaps. But if these nonprofits believe that what they’re doing is above reproach, why did Lancaster Bible College spokesperson Keith Baum stop responding to emails and phone calls from LNP | LancasterOnline in late March? And why, when he was reached by phone, did Eden Bridge Executive Director Robert Teague decline to comment?
This isn’t, as a writer of a letter to the editor published today suggests, a matter of conservative sources simply distrusting an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter. Sholtis regularly interviews local conservatives and scrupulously reports their comments.
The LNP | LancasterOnline Editorial Board is separate and distinct from this newspaper’s news department. But Sholtis is known as a journalist who follows his reporting where it leads.
And the growing prominence of the Independence Law Center in public school policy in Lancaster County and south-central Pennsylvania led him to report on a source of that law firm’s funding: the Eden Bridge Foundation.
Sholtis’ reporting examined the network of nonprofits that benefit from Eden Bridge’s largesse.
He noted that the foundation, formed in 2003 as the Ambassador Foundation, lists an address on the Lancaster Bible College campus in Manheim Township on its incorporation and tax documents.
According to the most recent data available, for the period from July 2021 through June 2022, Eden Bridge had $18.7 million in assets and gave away $7.7 million. And since July 2010, the earliest year for which some records were available, it has given $49 million to nonprofits — typically more than 100 entities each year.
These include many apolitical entities, including the ALS Foundation and a Montgomery County volunteer fire company.
But they also include the aforementioned Independence Law Center, the Harrisburg-based religious rights law firm that has sowed division in Lancaster County school districts.
Last week, despite the advice of Warwick School District Superintendent April Hershey and the objections of many district residents, the Warwick school board voted unanimously to enlist that law firm to advise it on new federal protections for LGBTQ+ students. Sadly, that ill-advised decision spells trouble for that district’s LGBTQ+ students.
We know this, because Independence Law Center is on a mission to make public schools less welcoming to students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
And it has sought to make it easier for school boards and individual parents to remove from school libraries any materials that might help students navigate issues of race, sexuality and gender.
As Sholtis reported, Michael Geer is the link between Eden Bridge and Independence Law Center.
Geer is the longtime CEO of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Family Institute, a Christian rights lobbying and advocacy group; Independence Law Center is a subsidiary of the institute. Geer is also president of the affiliated Pennsylvania Family Council. And he serves as vice chairman of Eden Bridge.
He didn’t respond to Sholtis’ requests to discuss Eden Bridge, either.
Lancaster Bible College has a reputation for being an uninviting place for LGBTQ+ students. As a private, religious institution, it is free to be guided by its own values. And the Eden Bridge Foundation is free to support it financially.
But that foundation shouldn’t be trying to shape public schools in the image of Lancaster Bible College.
And those of us who care about public education should pay close attention to what Eden Bridge and other evangelical Christian nonprofits are attempting to do. We should be aware of how they’re linked — thanks to Sholtis’ dogged investigative reporting, we now are — and note their lack of transparency.
Public schools are legally obligated to meet the diverse needs of all of their students, regardless of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or religion. Efforts to chip away at that obligation only will serve to harm vulnerable students. We should strongly resist those efforts.