Bruce Logan
Encyclopedia
Bruce Logan is a New Zealand
conservative Christian who has been involved in opposition to liberal
social policies
within his country for over two decades.
in Auckland
, until he moved south to Christchurch
in the mid-1990s. He became curriculum director at Middleton Grange School
, New Zealand's largest evangelical
/Christian (Integrated) school at the time. While employed there, Logan also acted as Director for the New Zealand Education Development Foundation (NZEDF), which attempted to interest centre-right
political parties
in education
concerns such as school choice
, school bulk funding, the abolition of outcome-based education strategies and a deregulated post-compulsory tertiary education sector.
In Cutting Edge, Logan often reprinted articles from the Institute for Economic Affairs (United Kingdom), British journalist Melanie Phillips
, First Things
(United States) edited by Richard John Neuhaus
, and other Anglo-American and Australian social conservative publications.
He wrote several books for NZEDF, including A Questionable Conception (1998), which opposed comprehrensive sex education; A Level Playing Field? (1996), which advocated school "choice". He also wrote Marriage: Do We Need It? (1998) which explored the critical role marriage
plays in civil society
.
In 2000, the New Zealand Education Development Foundation metamorphosed into the Maxim Institute
. Logan served as its first director and also operated out of Christchurch-based offices, as the Institute had offices in Christchurch and Auckland. Middleton Grange provided premises for their Christchurch offices. Logan also published Evidence, the Institute's "policy journal", which ran for fifteen issues (2001–2005).
After the formation of the institute, Logan wrote Same Sex Marriage? (2000) for Affirm, a Tauranga
-based New Zealand Presbyterian organisation opposed to civil unions, and lesbian and gay
ordination
within its denomination. In 2004 he wrote Waking Up to Marriage which repeated and supplemented earlier conservative social scientific research which encouraged promotion of heterosexual marriage over heterosexual cohabitation, and legal recognition of lesbian/gay civil unions, for the Maxim Institute.
During his time at the institute, Logan campaigned against New Zealand's prostitution law reform
, euthanasia
, lesbian and gay civil unions in New Zealand
and other issues related to feminism
, family policy and bioethics.
In October 2005 a Christchurch Press reader noticed that a couple of sentences in the fortnightly column written by Alexis Stuart (Logan's daughter and Maxim supporter) were identical to sentences in an article by Logan published on the Maxim Institute website. It remains unclear as to who copied what from whom.
On 17 October 2005, Paul Litterick of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists
used Copyscape
http://www.copyscape.com/, a web-based plagiarism detection service, to analyse Logan's published newspaper work. He alleged plagiarism
in Logan's work, and published the results in the Fundy Post (Issues 18 and 19), an online chronicle of the alleged excesses of New Zealand conservative Christians and other faith-based elements. Litterick found that some of Logan's work was taken (in most cases with permission) from Anglo-American sources, which include the Heritage Foundation
, Institute for American Values
and National Fatherhood Institute, Maggie Gallagher
(a US social conservative journalist), Melanie Phillips
(UK), Conservative Christian Fellowship
(UK) and Digby Anderson
, Social Affairs Unit
(UK).
In November 2005, Logan retired from the Maxim Institute.
In 2006 he published a handful of articles: one article for New Zealand's non-denominational Christian newspaper Challenge Weekly, four others for the Otago Daily Times
, and two online opinion pieces for former ACT List MP and neoconservative Muriel Newman
's New Zealand Centre for Political Debate (now renamed the New Zealand Centre for Political Research). On 24 September 2006, Logan contributed an article to the New Zealand Centre for Political Debate opposing central government administration of welfare state
policies. On 14 April 2007, he followed this with another article critical of Sue Bradford
's private member's bill
to abolish parental corporal punishment
of children in New Zealand, which referred to the earlier abolition of corporal punishment in New Zealand schools in 1990.
On 26 October 2006, Logan was a workshop presenter at the conservative Christian organisation Family First's presentation of "Principles of Marriage and the Family" during a symposium entitled the New Zealand Forum on the Family at Butterfly Creek, Auckland
. He was not a keynote presenter at the symposium
in question.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
conservative Christian who has been involved in opposition to liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
social policies
Social policy
Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues...
within his country for over two decades.
Biography
Logan was Head of English at Orewa CollegeOrewa College
Orewa College is a Year 7 to 13 college/high school in Orewa on the Hibiscus Coast, north of Auckland, New Zealand.The 2007 roll is 1,696. The school has strong music, media, drama and sport departments with a prosperous international programme...
in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, until he moved south to Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
in the mid-1990s. He became curriculum director at Middleton Grange School
Middleton Grange School
Middleton Grange School in Christchurch, New Zealand, is a Christian co-educational state integrated school for Year 1 to 13. It is currently New Zealand's largest evangelical Christian school .- History :...
, New Zealand's largest evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
/Christian (Integrated) school at the time. While employed there, Logan also acted as Director for the New Zealand Education Development Foundation (NZEDF), which attempted to interest centre-right
Centre-right
The centre-right or center-right is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties, or organizations whose views stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. Centre-right can also describe a coalition of centrist...
political parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
in education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
concerns such as school choice
School choice
School choice is a term used to describe a wide array of programs aimed at giving families the opportunity to choose the school their children will attend. As a matter of form, school choice does not give preference to one form of schooling or another, rather manifests itself whenever a student...
, school bulk funding, the abolition of outcome-based education strategies and a deregulated post-compulsory tertiary education sector.
In Cutting Edge, Logan often reprinted articles from the Institute for Economic Affairs (United Kingdom), British journalist Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social...
, First Things
First Things
First Things is an ecumenical journal focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society". The journal is inter-denominational and inter-religious, representing a broad intellectual tradition of Christian and Jewish critique of contemporary society...
(United States) edited by Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus was a prominent Christian cleric and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United States where he became a naturalized United States citizen...
, and other Anglo-American and Australian social conservative publications.
He wrote several books for NZEDF, including A Questionable Conception (1998), which opposed comprehrensive sex education; A Level Playing Field? (1996), which advocated school "choice". He also wrote Marriage: Do We Need It? (1998) which explored the critical role marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
plays in civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
.
In 2000, the New Zealand Education Development Foundation metamorphosed into the Maxim Institute
Maxim Institute
The Maxim Institute is a research and public policy think tank based in Auckland, New Zealand. The Institute's work is oriented toward a conservative perspective on its issues of primary concern, which are now education policy, tax and welfare policy...
. Logan served as its first director and also operated out of Christchurch-based offices, as the Institute had offices in Christchurch and Auckland. Middleton Grange provided premises for their Christchurch offices. Logan also published Evidence, the Institute's "policy journal", which ran for fifteen issues (2001–2005).
After the formation of the institute, Logan wrote Same Sex Marriage? (2000) for Affirm, a Tauranga
Tauranga
Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...
-based New Zealand Presbyterian organisation opposed to civil unions, and lesbian and gay
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
ordination
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
within its denomination. In 2004 he wrote Waking Up to Marriage which repeated and supplemented earlier conservative social scientific research which encouraged promotion of heterosexual marriage over heterosexual cohabitation, and legal recognition of lesbian/gay civil unions, for the Maxim Institute.
During his time at the institute, Logan campaigned against New Zealand's prostitution law reform
Prostitution in New Zealand
Prostitution , brothel keeping, living off the proceeds of someone else's prostitution and street solicitation are legal and regulated in New Zealand...
, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
, lesbian and gay civil unions in New Zealand
Civil unions in New Zealand
Civil union has been legal in New Zealand since 26 April 2005. The Civil Union Act to establish the institution of civil union for same-sex and opposite-sex couples was passed by the Parliament on 9 December 2004. The Act has been described as very similar to the Marriage Act with references to...
and other issues related to feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, family policy and bioethics.
In October 2005 a Christchurch Press reader noticed that a couple of sentences in the fortnightly column written by Alexis Stuart (Logan's daughter and Maxim supporter) were identical to sentences in an article by Logan published on the Maxim Institute website. It remains unclear as to who copied what from whom.
On 17 October 2005, Paul Litterick of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists
New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists
New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists is an organisation, established in 1927 in New Zealand for the promotion of rationalism and secular humanism.The principal aims are stated as:...
used Copyscape
Copyscape
Copyscape is an online plagiarism detection service that checks whether similar text content appears elsewhere on the web. It was launched in 2004 by Indigo Stream Technologies, Ltd....
http://www.copyscape.com/, a web-based plagiarism detection service, to analyse Logan's published newspaper work. He alleged plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
in Logan's work, and published the results in the Fundy Post (Issues 18 and 19), an online chronicle of the alleged excesses of New Zealand conservative Christians and other faith-based elements. Litterick found that some of Logan's work was taken (in most cases with permission) from Anglo-American sources, which include the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
, Institute for American Values
Institute for American Values
The Institute for American Values is a neo-liberal and socially conservative organization in the United States.-Overview:Its president is David Blankenhorn. It has influenced both liberal and conservative politicians. It has been critical of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth. It supports...
and National Fatherhood Institute, Maggie Gallagher
Maggie Gallagher
Margaret Gallagher Srivastav , better known by her working name Maggie Gallagher, is an American writer, commentator, and opponent of same-sex marriage. She has written a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate since 1995, and has published five books...
(a US social conservative journalist), Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social...
(UK), Conservative Christian Fellowship
Conservative Christian Fellowship
The Conservative Christian Fellowship is an organisation allied with the British Conservative Party, established in 1990 by Tim Montgomerie and Conservative MP David Burrowes whilst they were students at Exeter University....
(UK) and Digby Anderson
Digby Anderson
Dr. Digby C. Anderson is the founder and former Director of the Social Affairs Unit, a public policy organization/economic think-tank created in 1980...
, Social Affairs Unit
Social Affairs Unit
The Social Affairs Unit is a right-leaning think tank in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1980 as an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs, it publishes books on a variety of social issues...
(UK).
In November 2005, Logan retired from the Maxim Institute.
In 2006 he published a handful of articles: one article for New Zealand's non-denominational Christian newspaper Challenge Weekly, four others for the Otago Daily Times
Otago Daily Times
The Otago Daily Times is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand.-History:Originally styled The Otago Daily Times, the ODT was first published on November 15, 1861. It is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper - Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a...
, and two online opinion pieces for former ACT List MP and neoconservative Muriel Newman
Muriel Newman
Dr. Muriel Newman is a former New Zealand politician. She was the deputy leader of the ACT New Zealand.-Early years:Newman was born in northern England, but arrived in New Zealand at the age of eight. She was raised in Whangarei. She gained a BSc in mathematics from University of Auckland, and...
's New Zealand Centre for Political Debate (now renamed the New Zealand Centre for Political Research). On 24 September 2006, Logan contributed an article to the New Zealand Centre for Political Debate opposing central government administration of welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
policies. On 14 April 2007, he followed this with another article critical of Sue Bradford
Sue Bradford
Sue Bradford is a New Zealand politician who served as a list Member of Parliament representing the Green Party from 1999 to 2009.- Early life :...
's private member's bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to abolish parental corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
of children in New Zealand, which referred to the earlier abolition of corporal punishment in New Zealand schools in 1990.
On 26 October 2006, Logan was a workshop presenter at the conservative Christian organisation Family First's presentation of "Principles of Marriage and the Family" during a symposium entitled the New Zealand Forum on the Family at Butterfly Creek, Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
. He was not a keynote presenter at the symposium
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...
in question.
Books
- A Level Playing Field? Christchurch: New Zealand Education Development Foundation, 1994. ISBN 0-473-03168-X
- Marriage: Do We Need It? Christchurch: NZEDF, 1998. ISBN 0-473-05628-3
- A Questionable Conception. Christchurch: NZEDF, 1996. ISBN 0-473-03261-9
- Same Sex Marriage? Tauranga: AFFIRM Publications, 2000. ISBN 0-9582113-2-9
- Waking Up to Marriage. Auckland: Maxim Institute, 2004. ISBN 0-473-09787-7
Newspaper articles
- "How a Government Taxes is the Best Indicator of its Character". Otago Daily Times. 4 July 2006.
- "Real Men Should Be Strong and Good". Otago Daily Times. 25 August 2006.
- "Individuals Rights Lost in Rush to 'Freedom'". Otago Daily Times. 15 September 2006.
- "Denial of Evil Utopian Delusion". Otago Daily Times. 10 October 2006.
Online writing
- "Welfare - who needs it?". New Zealand Centre for Political Debate (24 September 2006)
- "The rise of violence in schools". New Zealand Centre for Political Research (14 April 2007)
External links
- Maxim Institute, Logan's former employer
- Challenge Weekly
- Family First Lobby
- The Fundy Post. Blog site of Paul Litterick, responsible for Copyscape analysis of Logan's work.
- Muriel Newman's New Zealand Centre for Political Research, formerly New Zealand Centre for Political Debate
- Gaynz.Com Politics and Religion columns have frequently covered Logan, the Maxim Institute and other New Zealand conservative Christian organisations