Today's Menu:
Jeff Sharlet: The Family, The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Jesus plus nothing
Gov. Sanford & Sen. Ensign sex scandals connected to "The Family"
The Family Admires the leadership qualities of the likes of Adolph Hitler , Lenin & Mao
All that matters is "The Will To Power" in the name of Jesus
The rich and powerful are successful because they are God's Chosen Righteous Ones
"The Gospel of Prosperity" taken to its logical conclusion- As Typical Americans such as Pastor Hagee, the late Rev. Falwell, Billy Graham, Bush, Cheney ,Condi Rice et al would be proud of "The Family" since Hagee et al like "The Family" has no time for the poor-"Let Them Starve !"-
Odd isn't it how so many Americans think it is a badge of honor to hate the poor , the homeless and the disadvantaged.
The Family aka The Fellowship An American Christian Evangelical sect for the rich and powerful founded in the 1930s now located in Washington DC which preaches a somewhat Fascistic form of Christianity. They believe that Christianity's characterization of Jesus and his teachings is all wrong. They teach that Jesus favored the rich and the powerful whom he called the "The Righteous" who's duty is to rule over the nations.
" And the number of those in power involved with the Fellowship is truly astonishing. Beginning with the election of President Eisenhower, members of the Fellowship have never been far from the centers of power. Ambassadors, generals, cabinet members and members of Congress all participate in a web of loyalty carefully nurtured by Coe and the Fellowship. As Sharlet quotes Rev Rob Schenk of Faith and Action’s description of the group’s methods:
"The big Christian lobbying groups push and shout; the Family simply surrounds politicians with prayer cells. They don’t try to convert anyone. They don’t ask for anything. They’re as patient as a glacier. … Coe doesn’t demand doctrinal loyalty only a willingness to do business behind the scenes, and liberals are free to join him in the back room."
...politicians and corporate leaders have met within this network of prayer groups and fellowship. The levels of involvement vary, the interplay of friendship and policy is hard to dissect. Yet this grand collaboration has played out in support for dictators and strongmen around the world – Suharto, Siad Barre of Somalia, the Philippines' Marcos and so many more. The alliances formed in the “private” realm of prayer and faith underpin a global “submerged” movement through which Coe and his elite followers move towards a world ruled by Jesus plus nothing at the hands of strong men with no accountability to any outside the network. As Sharlet notes:
"Jesus plus nothing equals power, “invisible” power, the long, slow, building power of a few brothers and sisters."
Above Qoute from:"FDL Book Salon Welcomes Jeff Sharlet: The Family, The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" By: Siun May 25, 2008 at FireDogLake.com
The Family has an extremist Fascist style ideology which believes that its purpose is to nurture those in power around the globe.The main requirement is that they serve Jesus or at least The Family's and their current leader Doug Coe's version of Jesus who was in their view pro-unfettered capitalism & elitist. They believe that the message of Jesus has been misinterpreted and that Jesus was on the side of the rich & powerful who are the righteous ones chosen by God and not the meek and the poor, the weak, the lame or disadvantaged. They further argue that Jesus was not meek and mild but was an energetic robust athletic machismo man's man who wanted to bring about the rule of the righteous over the rest of humankind.
The Family is a Christian Evangelical organization for Powerful Men including Politicians. CEOs ,Leaders of various countries. The Family rejects the notion of morality as a secular construct which applies to ordinary people but not to these politicians leaders etc who are God's chosen. Their membership includes various brutal dictators who see nothing wrong with killing hundreds of thousands of their own citizens to further their power and bring about political systems which are more in tune with God's and the Family's ideology. God they claim is anti-communism, anti-socialism and is in favor of an elite of the Chosen of God to rule over the earth.
The Family appears to have a philosophy which could be summed up in Nietzches famous statement that all that matters is "The Will to Power" and that they see themselves as " Beyond Good and Evil". Their philosophy to a certain extent is compatible with that of Any Rands elitist and somewhat fascistic philosophy of "Objectivism" which also promotes the idea of the extraordinary individuals who must be allowed to rise above the crowd who are rather dull and unintelligent.It can also be compared to the philosophy of Leo Strauss who is the main philosopher whose ideas are adhered to by Neoconservatives. Neoconservatives also have an elitist view of the world in which the few are to rise above the masses and take their rightful place as the world's leaders. Strauss also believed that morality and religion were merely ways to control the masses. He too believed that it was proper to manipulate the masses by various means of propaganda and the so called Noble Lie or The Big Lie.
Congressmen who are members use "The Family's" facility known as "The Cedars" to conduct illegal political activities and as a meeting place where they can meet with like minded people and for instance make loans to one another off of the books.
They also use the Cedars as a place to conduct it appears extramarital affairs. They believe in a male dominated family and a male dominated society.
Hillary Clinton for example says that it was The Family who organized an all female prayer circle which gave her the support she needed get through the rocky times as it were with her husband Bill Clinton.
A Congressman sought help from the group because he believed his wife was "demonically possessed" because she complained that she was not sexually satisfied which the members believed was evidence of "demon possession.
Jeff Sharlett says they are a danger to society because they believe that " Their oath to one another as more important than their accountability to the public"
Rachel Maddow: More on C-Street, The Christian Mafia- jeff Sharlet
And Maddow talks about the secrecy of "The Family" and "The Family's" bizarre religious beliefs or philosophy. And we hear parts of sermons given at the Church.
Creepy GOP Christian Cult (Part 2 of 3) C Street
Senator John Ensign and Gov.Sanford Sex scandals- Zack Wamp
Jeff Sharlet first wrote an expose of The Family for Harpers Magazine in 2003.The Family uses a number of front organizations to spread its philosophy and to further its agenda.
" Jesus plus nothing:
Undercover among America's secret theocrats " By Jeff Sharlet at Harper's Magazine, March 2003
The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.
The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.”
The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast, which it established in 1953 and which, with congressional sponsorship, it continues to organize every February in Washington, D.C. Each year 3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations, pay $425 each to attend. Steadfastly ecumenical, too bland most years to merit much press, the breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can “meet Jesus man to man.”
And The Family's connections with various brutal right-wing extremist regimes:
...During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand “Communists” killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise. “We work with power where we can,” the Family's leader, Doug Coe, says, “build new power where we can't.”
...There they forge “relationships” beyond the din of vox populi (the Family's leaders consider democracy a manifestation of ungodly pride) and “throw away religion” in favor of the truths of the Family. Declaring God's covenant with the Jews broken, the group's core members call themselves “the new chosen.”
The brothers of Ivanwald are the Family's next generation, its high priests in training.
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Jeff Sharlett here answers a question about what seems to be a bizarre and unbelievable assertion by Sharlet about "The Family's" attitude towards various dictators such as Adolph Hitler , Lenin, Mao etc. The Family admires for instance Adolph Hitler for his ability to manipulate through his speeches vast numbers of people who not only believe whatever he tells them but also do his bidding believing it is for their own good and the good of their country.
"Jeff Sharlet answers questions about his book "The Family." at Progressive Eruptions July 12, 2009
When I was working on that story, I remember debating how much Hitler we should put in the piece. That is, we wondered how fair it was to dwell on The Family’s invocations of Hitler as a model of “total commitment.” As it turns out, it was quite fair. After I left Ivanwald, a team of researchers and I spent years combing through hundreds of thousands of documents in archives around the country. We discovered that as far back as the 1940s, when The Family began organizing congressmen, the group’s founder, Abraham Vereide, was praising Hitler’s “youth work” as a model to be adopted by Americans. He denounced Hitler himself, but he admired fascism’s cultivation of elites, crucial to what he saw as a God-ordained coming “age of minority control.”
The Family has put that concept, which they call “Jesus plus nothing,” into action for decades, from their early successes fighting the New Deal in the 1930s and 40s to their recruitment of war criminals such as Herman J. Abs, known as “Hitler’s banker,” into postwar European leadership, to their facilitation of U.S. support for dictators ranging from Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti to Suharto of Indonesia to Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, now their “key man” for Africa. The fetish for strongman leadership has continued with Vereide’s successor, Doug Coe, who leads the group today. Throughout his letters in the Billy Graham Center Archive at Wheaton College, I found references to the leadership model of Hitler. In one sermon, variations of which he’s given many times, Coe says: “Jesus said ‘You got to put Him before mother-father-brother-sister.’ Hitler, Lenin, Mao, that’s what they taught the kids. Mao even had the kids killing their own mother and father. But it wasn’t murder. It was for building the new nation. The new kingdom.”
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The Family operates for the most part in secret and through front organizations thoughit hosts a major public event each year in Washington called "The National Prayer Breakfast" to which many prominent members of Congress and Senate and the government including a number of past presidents have attended. Though this year President Obama sent a message of thanks to the group but declined to attend.
"FDL Book Salon Welcomes Jeff Sharlet: The Family, The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" By: Siun May 25, 2008 at FireDogLake.com
Jesus plus nothing was an account of the time Jeff spent at Ivanwald, one of the houses in Washington DC run by the “Fellowship” where he was welcomed into their prayer community. His new book takes us beyond his stay to explore the historical roots of the Fellowship in the early American Awakening of the 1730s and the breadth of power the Fellowship has acquired.
The Fellowship is often called a “stealth church” and only catches the public eye once a year during the National Prayer Breakfasts which it hosts. Its leader, Doug Coe is described by Time magazine’s February 8, 2008 issue as one of The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. These events – which use the trappings of the Presidential office and congress – are seen by outsiders as rather “bland” civic religion, stripped of denominational involvement (though at least one Jewish leader has commented on his surprise at the Christian focus given the setting). As Sharlet reports, the Prayer Breakfast movement is the one public face to a much deeper and more secretive organization.
While the Prayer Breakfasts are “nondenominational,” Coe and the Fellowship have a very specific goal. Sharlet describes it in his 2006 article God's Senator on Sen Brownback as follows:
They were striving, ultimately, for what Coe calls "Jesus plus nothing" -- a government led by Christ's will alone. In the future envisioned by Coe, everything -- sex and taxes, war and the price of oil -- will be decided upon not according to democracy or the church or even Scripture. The Bible itself is for the masses; in the Fellowship, Christ reveals a higher set of commands to the anointed few. It's a good old boy's club blessed by God.
Founded in 1935 by Abraham Vereide, an anticommunist, antilabor crusader who saw evangelical fervor as the ideal organizing principle for defeating socialists, the organization is now headed by David Coe who is frequently described as “God’s Ambassador” by members of congress, the Pentagon and others in power.
And the number of those in power involved with the Fellowship is truly astonishing. Beginning with the election of President Eisenhower, members of the Fellowship have never been far from the centers of power. Ambassadors, generals, cabinet members and members of Congress all participate in a web of loyalty carefully nurtured by Coe and the Fellowship. As Sharlet quotes Rev Rob Schenk of Faith and Action’s description of the group’s methods:
The big Christian lobbying groups push and shout; the Family simply surrounds politicians with prayer cells. They don’t try to convert anyone. They don’t ask for anything. They’re as patient as a glacier. … Coe doesn’t demand doctrinal loyalty only a willingness to do business behind the scenes, and liberals are free to join him in the back room.
"From the powerful we oppose like Sen. Brownback to those we proclaim our best allies like Al Gore, politicians and corporate leaders have met within this network of prayer groups and fellowship. The levels of involvement vary, the interplay of friendship and policy is hard to dissect. Yet this grand collaboration has played out in support for dictators and strongmen around the world – Suharto, Siad Barre of Somalia, the Philippines' Marcos and so many more. The alliances formed in the “private” realm of prayer and faith underpin a global “submerged” movement through which Coe and his elite followers move towards a world ruled by Jesus plus nothing at the hands of strong men with no accountability to any outside the network. As Sharlet notes:
"Jesus plus nothing equals power, “invisible” power, the long, slow, building power of a few brothers and sisters."
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