Was there a group of 'wealthy anti-Christian abolitionists', who funded John Brown?

Question

Thomas DiLorenzo is a American economics professor who writes about Abraham Lincoln and the US Civil War.

In a recent opinion piece for LewRockwell.com, A Disease in the Public Mind, Part II?, DiLorenzo referenced historian Thomas Fleming in a discussion about the causes of the US Civil War.

… there were twenty-five or so wealthy and very influential New England abolitionists who had abandoned Christianity, condemned Jesus Christ, and adopted the mentally deranged murderer of innocents, John Brown, a self-described communist, as their “savior,” funding his terroristic bloodbaths.

DiLorenzo goes on to name some examples:

• William Lloyd Garrison
• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Was there a group of 'wealthy anti-Christian abolitionists', who funded John Brown?

Answer 1

John Brown was a militant abolitionist. He led a militia in the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis - a conflict over the question of whether the Kansas territory would allow slavery or not.

He later organized the Harpers Ferry raid, an attempt to initiate a slave rebellion in the South.

Wikipedia has a well-sourced article on the funding of the raid which lists a number of prominent Massachusetts individuals that supported Brown financially.

Was Brown a "deranged murderer of innocents" or was he a freedom fighter? Were his backers "anti-Christian" or were they noble people who believed slavery was immoral? I guess that depends on your view of slavery and the reasons for the Civil War.

Theodore Parker, one of Browns' supporters, was a minister, albeit one with some unorthodox beliefs. I think it's fair to say that this part of the claim is more an affront on their character than factual claim.

Were his backers "promoting the Civil War"? This is difficult to tell. The tension between the North and the South had been building up for years. There had been murders and armed conflict between the two sides for years (see "Bloody Kansas"). They did finance Brown to start a slave rebellion (though some later denied knowing the full extent of Brown's plan) so I think it's fair to say that they probably were in favor of some sort of armed action against slave-holding states.