Jim Wright Self-Proclaimed Demagogue

Jim Wright’s Reputation with Maryland Legislators

Called a “Self Proclaimed Demagogue”

This is a continuation of a series started HERE that provides much of the history of Jim Wright, along with his father Bob Wright, in the Shepherding Movement and intense political activism.

This is an article in the Annapolis Capitol that further gives some insight into the arrogance and bullying that Jim Wright became well known for in Maryland. What is sad is that these tactics continually backfired and in the end wound up harming the causes Jim Wright claimed to be supporting.  Most issues Jim Wright pursued ended up losing, often times in part because of his actions.  This is why the Moral Majority quickly kicked Jim Wright and the Maryland Chapter that was founded jointly by his father Bob Wright, out of the national organization, after Jim Wright embarrassed them nationally in the press with an attempt to close a bakery that Jim Wright claimed was selling “Pornographic Gingerbread Men.”

Family Rights Lobby Gets Chilly Reception

Jim Wright – Sleazy Tactics

Unethical Tactics Embarrass Pro-Life Movement

First Cookies then This

This is a continuation of a series begun HERE.

As has been noted in this series before, Jim Wright’s shenanigans throughout the 1980s were the target of a great deal of ridicule and they resulted in national embarrassment with the Moral Majority rejecting their Maryland Chapter and tossing them along with Jim Wright out of the organization. You can see see why with these types of campaigns that continued even after the Moral Majority wisely and quickly disassociated themselves from the sleazy tactics of Jim Wright and the Family Protection Lobby.

This article is presented without extensive comment as a further example of the scorched earth type tactics employed by Jim Wright in promoting his agendas. Keep in mind that much of the criticism of these actions came from fellow Pro-Life supporters. The issue wasn’t the Pro-Life position.  The issue was the underhanded and unethical tactics employed.  30+ years later Jim Wright hasn’t changed very much.  He still skirts the edge of slander and libel in his predictable and apparently compulsive attacks upon others.

Jim Wright Embarrasses the Anti-Abortion Campaign in Maryland

Jim Wright – Organic Church?

Jim Wright’s Misrepresentation of His Past

His Parents and Organic Church

This is an article in a continuing series started HERE.

For the past few years, Jim Wright has been holding forth on Facebook (before the Crossroad Junction Facebook Page operated by Jim and Marianne Wright was shut down by Facebook for Multiple Community Guideline Violations), the internet and his blog site with the claim that his parents, Bob and Mary Jane Wright, were pioneers in “Organic Church.”  Jim Wright bases his own claim of “leadership” as an “elder” in Organic Church in great measure upon his proclaimed heritage through his parents whose work he claims to be carrying on.

This is a heart-warming story.  It would be even more heart-warming if it were true.  As has been demonstrated on this blog time and time again however, Jim Wright is promoting stories that twist the truth and are often gross exaggerations and often, as in this case I believe, outright lies.

Shepherding Movement

Jim Wright’s Tainted Reputation

Annapolis Capitol Editorial

Jim Wright’s Reputation in Maryland

Jim Wright routinely refers to himself as something of a respected crusader from the 1980s.  He’s claimed to have been the subject of books and articles outlining his groundbreaking work in this area.  It all sounds marvelous until you actually research and see what he did and what was said about him.

As has been noted in a series of posts which starts HERE, which was started just following Jim and Marianne Wright’s Facebook Page being deleted by Facebook after multiple Community Guideline Violations, all Jim Wright really was in the 1980s was a young man placed in a position by his father in what appears to have been an act of nepotism and control to try and manage a family based “empire” of organizations which all circled around Bob Wright at the time.  Jim Wright today attempts to do the same thing with his own stable of LLC corporations and holding corporations and his unsubstantiated claims to be part of a “vast network of organic churches in Northern Virginia.”  It’s nothing new for Jim.  It’s a pretty established deceptive pattern.

Annapolis Capitol Editorial March 30, 1982

Family Protection Lobby and Related Scandals

Multiple Ensuing Scandals Involving the Wrights

From Gingerbread Men to Beyond

As was noted in previous articles in this series which starts HERE and referenced in Annapolis Capital Newspaper articles at the time, the short term association of the Wrights with the Moral Majority before the National Organization kicked out their embarrassing chapter, was also in part, a move by the Wrights to maintain control over the contributions.  The Moral Majority national office apparently processed the contributions and there was concern on the part of the local chapter that not all funds were being returned for direct use and control at the local level.  Given that much of the base for the Maryland Chapter was evidently tied into the New Covenant Churches of Maryland of which Bob Wright was the President, this was clearly not an acceptable situation and it’s my opinion that the separation of organizations would have likely occurred anyway, just over this issue, but as the local chapter had made the National Organization a laughing stock in the media, things moved that much more quickly.

The Republican Party Connection

From Moral Majority to Family Protection Lobby

Follow the Money

New Covenant Churches and the Family Protection Lobby

(This article is the third in a series demonstrating the ties of the Maryland Moral Majority, the Family Protection Lobby, the New Covenant Churches of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to the Wright Family and their connection with the Shepherding Movement.  The first article is HERE.)

As a quick recap, the Moral Majority of Maryland was formed in June of 1980, with Bob Wright as the Vice-Chair of the organization.  Jim Wright was appointed as the Director of the organization despite the fact that he was in his early 20s and had only graduated recently with a degree in Biology.  The Maryland Chapter of the Moral Majority was the 48th to form, no doubt because the state of Maryland was overwhelmingly Democrat and the perceived practical influence was not seen as very high.  The National Organization however, surely expected more than being made a National Laughingstock in the press with the decision of Jim Wright to make an issue of “Pornographic Gingerbread Men” in a local bakery.

Smaller Scope – Greater Control

Harvard Family Press Jim Wright

Jim Wright’s History of False and Exaggerated Claims

Family Protection Lobby

Jim Wright – False and Exaggerated Claims

As pointed out multiple times, Jim Wright has a history of false and exaggerated claims that stretches back to the 1980s when as a young man he embarrassed the Moral Majority and then went on to try to co-opt their membership into his own organization called the “Family Protection Lobby.”  Much of the activity of this fringe right-wing evangelical political group simply served as a means for Jim Wright to continue to try to garner attention for himself.  He rarely succeeded in accomplishing anything of any value, but he did often succeed in what appears to have been his primary purpose, which was to get his name in the papers.

Early Failures Compounded over Time