Truthout: The "Family" - Who Really Is Behind This Secret Organization?

[Whoa_Nelly]

http://www.truth-out.org/c-street-review-is-fact-power-its-justification66406

What if someone were to tell you that your Congressman routinely bandies around phrases such as "Jesus plus nothing," used to mean the complete rule of Jesus, and compares the desired reach to that of Hitler or Ho Chi Minh? If this makes you at all apprehensive, then Jeff Sharlet's "C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy" is a must-read.

"Jesus plus nothing" is the mantra of the Fellowship, also known as the Family, a secret, fundamentalist Christian organization peopled primarily by devout policy makers and high-ranking individuals. Though the nonbeliever's view of religion can often be dismissive when faced with such catchphrases, in "C Street," a nonfiction account of the extended reach of the Family, these phrases fuel moral crusades with real, and terrifying, impact.

<snip>
Sharlet begins his story at the C Street Center Inc., a nonprofit offshoot of the Family in a red brick house on Capitol Hill to "assist in better understandings of the teachings of Christ, and applying it to their jobs."

Members of C Street, "the underground network of Christ's men in Washington," include Sens. Don Nickles (R-Oklahoma), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), John Ensign (R-Nevada), James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Bill Nelson (D-Florida), as well as Reps. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Frank Wolf (R-Virginia.), Joseph Pitts (R Pennsylvania), Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee) and Bart Stupak (D-Michigan), and believe they have been appointed by God.

More at link, including millions in military aid to nations such as Sri Lanka, supposedly all due to this powerful political/fundamentalist group.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. The true enemy.

(As I've said many times)

[Joanne98]

2. They need lots of attention in the next two years.

[patrice]

3. Oh the bitter irony of SUBSIDIZED CRONYS, such as Sam Brownback, preaching "Jesus + nothing" to the

rest of us! These royals pretend and pay a LOT of lip service to Freedom, but they don't actually know one DAMNED thing about it.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[DCKit]

7. Jesus, Freedom, The Constitution, Family Values, Conservatism... the list goes (n)on. nt

[patrice]

8. It's weird. They assume that the power that they have is proof of their superiority on these and

other issues.

If you think about their assumption that "God" gave them the power to do whatever they think "God" wants them to do, it's circular, self-justifying BLASPHEMY.

To assume that one knows "God" that perfectly (so perfectly, incidentally, that they are even be able to say that it is okay to lie to our soldiers and for innocent Iraqis to die), to assume that there is some kind of divine deal, some kind of "this in exchange for that", which THEY can calculate for others . . . It's! just! fucking! outrageous! Assuming that your own mind is the equivalent of God's in any way is BLASPHEMY and someone ought to publicly call all of them out on it way more than we do!!!!!!!!

[DCKit]

9. They don't just KNOW God, they know God's MIND.

Where are the lightening bolts?

[patrice]

10. "God" is just a cover for the naked lust for power over other people, if that weren't true,

they'd recognize their own blasphemy.

I tend to want to grant people some patience regarding their beliefs, as long as they aren't causing HARM.

But I'm losing my patience with what an enormous and very obvious failure what calls itself "Christianity" is. It appears that fewer people understand the basic tenets of their "faith" (HA! - what kind of faith is it that just KNOWS all this stuff and has everything all figured out?) than those who do. I do know some mainline Christians, though, who have been saying lately, that if Jesus came back he absolutely would not recognize what "his" church has become.

[DCKit]

12. I imagine that a lot of young Christians are leaving for the same reason.

Kids can tell hypocrisy and liars a mile off.

WTH, we need more humanists.

[patrice]

13. Humanism is not the evil it is made out to be and those who assume that it is make a

fundamental contradiction in their own beliefs: According to John, the "Word was made flesh", humans ARE the children of God, so Truth IS encoded in us/our lives and experiences. Those truths ARE as relatively unique as each of us is and it is our responsibility, as the free beings that God made us, to honestly discover our truths and live by their consequences, no matter what, not just to say they are whatever we think we want them to be (which is a popular and very mistaken characterization of Humanism). The configuration of this truth-identifying phenomenology belongs to the relationship between the configured, I:Not-I, as Lord Jesus so clearly demonstrated, therein lies each person's "salvation".

[RandomThoughts]

4. There interpretation of teachings.

I know many of those interpretations.

If they feel they are correct, they should be able to discuss them in the open.

Why would they feel they need to hide?

[patrice]

14. Excellent question! WHY do they avoid substantive cross-examination? nt

[peacebird]

5. Hillary Clinton is a member of the family as well....

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/2731

http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-hillary-clintons-religion-and-politics

"For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill. Is she triangulating—or living her faith?"

[Demeter]

6. Which Is Why I Refused to Vote for Her

She knows better.

[glinda]

11. Well that is an eye opener isn't it?