THE FAMILY

I write this blog with some reluctance. I don’t want to be guilty of bearing false witness. I also am not fond of crazy conspiracy theories, although this isn’t a conspiracy per se. Furthermore, this is a subject that is very difficult to get information about except through secondhand sources. However, I have reason to think there must at least some truth behind it since articles have appeared on Harper’s and The Los Angeles Times and NBC devoted some time to it. There is also a book on the subject The Family by Jeff Sarlet. He has been interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air, an NPR radio program, and by Hank Connor on Connor Calling on the University of Florida’s public radio station.

Every year there is in Washington, D.C., a National Prayer Breakfast. I never gave it much thought. I’m not sure exactly what a prayer breakfast is or why one would have one. Anyway, lots of important people including the President attend the prayer breakfast. On the surface it seems to be sponsored by groups from both houses of Congress, but this isn’t exactly true. The organizing force behind the National Prayer Breakfast is the Fellowship Foundation which is sometimes referred to as the Family.

So what? The history of the organization is spooky. It was founded in 1935 by Abraham Vereide. He claimed to have received a vision from God that Christianity had gone wrong by focusing on the poor, weak and suffering. The focus should have been on the those in power because that’s how things could be changed. Among things that needed to be changed was getting rid of Communists, labor unions, and Roosevelt’s New Deal. Vereide had an admiration for Adolf Hitler. Leadership of the Family today still use Hitler as an example of someone who got thing done.

Scared yet? Well, there are a lot of kooks out there with nutty ideas, only these kooks seem to have attracted a lot of very powerful connections. Through some sort of twisted relationships with various non-profits they own a house on C Street in Washington. They rent out rooms there for a low, low $600 a month. Know who lives there? Senators John Ensign (R-Nev.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Representatives Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

I can’t begin to explain how intricate the relations among the power brokers in Washington and this organization. And beyond that, they seem to make contact with numerous foreign leaders and even engage in back-channel diplomacy.

The Family isn’t a church. As a matter of fact, they don’t like churches much. It’s all about Jesus, but it doesn’t sound much like the Jesus I’ve read about who hung around with fishermen, a tax collector, and an assortment of sinners. King Herod and the Pontius Pilate and others in power were bad guys in the Jesus story.

Maybe I am paranoid, but I always worry when religion tries to use the power of the state for its own ends. Christianity has always been strongest and closest to the truth when it has been the underdog. As soon as it is advantageous to be a Christian, we’re in trouble.

Take a look for yourself at these sites and see what you think.

LA TIMES

NBC

HARPERS


Let me know if you start looking over your shoulder for well-dressed, smiling Jesus people following you. Then again, unless you’re got power and influence, they probably don’t care about you. If I suddenly disappear, put “I told you so” on my grave marker.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne









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