Wealthy “Social Justice” Evangelicals Screen 2008 Republican Presidential Candidates

Time has a short article on an unknown evangelical organisation with influence in the Republican party (links added):

The least known but one of the most eagerly courted, screening committees for the next G.O.P. presidential nominee met recently in Colorado Springs, Colo., amid the panoramic opulence of the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort…The political group, called Legacy, aims for mystique: it has received no media attention and is unknown even on the Web. Yet all the marquee ’08 Republican candidates have spoken to Legacy or met with its founders…”If you’re running for President,” said a close associate of President George W. Bush’s, “it is the place to go.”

…Legacy was started by two Dallas businessmen: Ray Washburne, a real estate and Tex-Mex-restaurant baron, and George Seay III, founder of the Seay Stewardship & Investment Co. and grandson of former Texas Governor Bill Clements. Its members are mostly young–in their 30s and 40s–and wealthy, through entrepreneurship, inheritance or both. They are Christians concerned with social justice, in the mold of Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame, and practice their faith without, as a Broadmoor attendee put it, “quoting Leviticus”–a reference to the harder-edged rhetoric at other gatherings of social conservatives…

Washburne was the subject of a long profile in the Dallas Observer ten years ago; some of his business ventures (particularly a short-lived magazine named Texas Business) appear to have ended in acrimony. Forbes has some more recent details, while a short bio of Seay can be seen here.

(Hat tip: Raw Story. Cross-posted to Talk2Action.)