Buckham is a lay (non-ordained) evangelical minister, who served as an elder of the Washington D.C. chapter of the controversial and politically active church Maranatha Campus Ministries, and later as a deacon of a small church in Frederick, Maryland.
Abramoff scandal
Most of the $3.02 million in revenues of the U.S. Family Network came from clients of Jack Abramoff. $1,022,729 of that money was then paid by USFN to Buckham and his wife, Wendy, during a five-year period ending in 2001, via their lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group.[2]
In January 2006 Buckham closed Alexander Strategy Group, and left the lobbying business. Buckham said that the company was fatally damaged by publicity from the federal investigation into the affairs of Abramoff.[3]