Rockford Institute
The Rockford Institute is an American conservative think-tank associated with paleoconservatism, based in Rockford, Illinois. It runs the John Randolph Club and publishes Chronicles magazine.
History
The Institute was founded in 1976 by Rockford College President John A. Howard as a response to American social changes of the 1960s. Allan Carlson served as president until 1997. He and Howard left to found The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, an offshoot of the Rockford Institute. It is also located in Rockford, Illinois. They took with them two publications: Religion and Society Report newsletter and the monthly, Family in America.
Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles, succeeded Carlson as president of the Rockford Institute. The Institute also retained the Ingersoll Prize.
In 1988 the Institute and Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor, invited Cardinal Ratzinger to give a lecture in New York in January. On May 5, 1989, Neuhaus and his Religion and Society Center were evicted from the Institute's New York office after he complained about what he said were "the racist and anti-Semitic tones" of Chronicles. The charge, which was supported by other leading conservatives, was denied by the institute. They said the office, called Rockford East, was closed for budgetary reasons and because of concerns that Neuhaus was not following institute policies. According to political commentator David Frum, the split was seen by leading conservatives as a sign of the division between the paleoconservative and the neo-conservative elements of the movement.
