“It's the ideology of the cancer cell, undifferentiated growth, power for power's sake.”
These are the words of Journalist Jeff Sharlet in regards to the secretive Christian Fundamentalist international ministry known as The Fellowship Foundation; or better known as “The Family” through Sharlet’s book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, in which he uncloaks the group from the inside.
The organization has also been known as: International Christian Leadership, The International Foundation, Fellowship House, and A Family of Friends in Christ.
Origins of the Family
The Family was founded in 1935 by Norwegian immigrant and Methodist minister Abraham Vereide. Sharlet states that Vereide initiated the organization in order to oppose President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's “New Deal” and the spread of trade unions by promoting those in power through the name of Jesus.
According to Sharlet, Vereide believed that God came to him and reveals that all economic suffering is punishment for disobedience of God’s laws. God gives Vereide a second revelation saying that Christianity has been getting it wrong for 2,000 years. At its best it talks about the poor, the weak, the suffering and the down and out. “He believes that god tells him, using these words, ‘Abraham your mission is to serve the up and out. Those who are already powerful and if you can get their hearts rights with God, then they with their positions God has given to them will dispense blessings to those underneath them.’”
Sharlet states the group’s only publically known event is the annual National Prayer Breakfast which draws around 3,000 dignitaries representing scores of nations and corporate interests. Every United States President since Dwight D. Eisenhower has attended. Sharlet says that since 2002, participants have paid $425 each to attend, which allows the Family to make a profit of over $47,000.
According to Collection 459 in the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College, the following are some of the high end American political members of the Family:
Former President Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Sen. John Ensign, Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. Mark Pryor, Rep. Randy Forbes, Sam Irvin, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Ambassador Tony P. Hall, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Bart Stupak, Rep. Joe Pitts, former President Ronald Regan, former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, former President Franklin Roosevelt, former President John F. Kennedy, former Sen. Ted Kennedy, former Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury and Reagan Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, and Sen. Sam Brownback
President Obama, Uganda and the 2010 Prayer Breakfast
In a video posted by whitehouse.gov President Barack Obama is shown delivering a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb.4, in which he addresses a proposed Ugandan law that would make homosexuality a capital offense, punishable by death; a proposition the Family is allegedly supporting in hopes of making law.
The allegations come from a National Public Radio interview with Sharlet in which he accused Fellowship associates, Ugandan Legislators David Bahati and Nsaba Buturo, of initiating the recent Ugandan bill.
Addressing the proposed bill, Obama stated, “we may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are. Whether it’s here in the United States or…more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”
However, some believe Obama isn’t doing enough to combat the proposed law in Uganda and the power of groups such as the Family. One such person is Author of Patience with God, Frank Schaeffer.
In an interview with grittv.org Schaeffer states, “when the Family…organizes the National Prayer Breakfast it really ought to raise eyebrows in the least; especially now since the Family is so closely associated with this anti-gay legislation in Uganda which would seek the death penalty of gays.”
Schaeffer states that on Feb. 2, 2010, he met with “a number of religious leaders” in Washington D.C. to urge Obama to boycott the National Prayer Breakfast and to “name the Family and ask Doug Coe why he had not spoken up against this legislation and used his considerable international, behind the scenes, some would say nefarious power to do something about this.” He also stated that Obama needs to denounce and expose “these far right groups which are waiting in the wings to turn both this country and countries around the world into a theocracy.”
What is the Family?
According to The Fellowship Foundation’s 501(c)(3) mission statement, they strive “to develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as ‘ambassadors of reconciliation,’ modeling the principles of Jesus, based on loving God and loving others. To work with the leaders of other nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. It is said that youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved.”
In an email from Sharlet he disagreed with the organization’s statement claiming that what they truly promote is “Jesus plus nothing; that is, really Jesus plus everything. Everything gets filtered through Jesus. They want the ‘totalitarianism of Christ,’ where 200 world leaders are bound together through their organization seeking stability not democracy, peace, not freedom.”
“I find the critique of the Rev. Rob Schenck, himself a fundamentalist activist, persuasive: he calls it a religion of the status quo. That is, it's a religion dedicated to the maintenance of things as they are. They contribute to stasis of inequality, the repression of democracy, the celebration of the elite,” Sharlet states in the email.
Rev. Robert Schenck is the founder of the Washington, D.C. ministry, Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital; a Christian outreach organization that reaches top-level government officials located in Washington, DC, throughout the United States and around the world.
In agreement with Sharlet is former University of California, Berkeley, Philosophy Professor and Author Dr. Michael Bradburn-Ruster, who states, “[the Family] is a complete absurdity of corrupt politics and complete blasphemy of Christianity… it’s a diabolical amalgam between Fundamentalism and Machiavellian politics. I don’t know how much more toxic you can get.”
According to Bradburn-Ruster, the Family is the combination of a long history of American imperialism and exceptionalism. He says that the organization’s real concerns are always power and money and what the Family indicates is how deeply and secretively this pattern is continuing.
There are few who are willing to publicly speak about and support the Family. Those who do so, however, are members of the organization.
According to the Newsweek article, “House of Worship,” by Lisa Miller, David Kuo, a staffer in President George W. Bush's Office of Faith Based Initiatives, who has been affiliated with The Fellowship since college disagrees with Sharlet’s discoveries.
“For all the hysteria about Christian organizations, the irony that The Fellowship is being targeted as a bad egg is jaw-dropping. This is so not Focus on the Family, this is so not the Christian Coalition. There are other Christian groups that are truly insane. Who purport to follow Jesus Christ and who I would submit do not. The Fellowship is a loosely banded group of people who have an affinity for Jesus,” Kuo stated.
The Newsweek article states that Fellowship member and former U.S. Representative Tony Hall is another Family supporter. Hall states that the fellowship is “men and women who are trying to get right with God. Trying to follow God, learn how to love him, and learn how to love each other." When the congressman’s son died from leukemia, he states that "this family helped me. This family was there for me. That's what they do."
Nonetheless, there are more who support Sharlet’s discoveries than Kou and Hall’s refutation, such as Presbyterian Minister Ben Daniel, who himself is a former Family member.
In the article, “Doug Coe, The Fellowship, Hillary Clinton and Why You Should Care” by Daniel, he states, “it is an organization with eccentric beliefs—any group that tolerates the use of Nazis as positive role models should raise eyebrows—but it’s not just inappropriate heroes that are a problem. In my own personal experience as a former member of the Fellowship and through my research into the Fellowship’s work I have found strong evidence that the Fellowship can be spiritually abusive, particularly toward the young people who pay for the privilege of working long hours at retreat centers run by the Fellowship in and around Washington D. C.”
Daniel writes in the article that “life among the young people who live in the Fellowship’s homes is spiritually, emotionally, and physically regimented in ways that are cult-like in their intensity. Absolute commitment is required. In all things members are obliged to subject themselves to the will of the group, becoming empty vessels ready to be filled with Jesus and a vaguely articulated Fellowship vision.”
A Secret Society
Another principle Sharlet and Daniel expand upon is that secrecy and transparency is promoted throughout the entire organization.
“They are notoriously secretive. In fact they jokingly call themselves The Christian Mafia,” Sharlet states.
In his book Sharlet discusses a member of the Family's inner circle who wrote to the group's chief South
African operative “The Movement, is simply inexplicable to people who are not intimately acquainted with it. The Family's "political" initiatives have always been misunderstood by outsiders. As a result of very bitter experiences, therefore, we have learned never to commit to paper any discussions or negotiations that are taking place. There is no such thing as a confidential memorandum, and leakage always seems to occur.”
Prominent political figures have insisted that confidentiality and privacy are essential to the Fellowship's operation. In 1985, United States President Ronald Reagan addressed the issue of the Fellowship stating, "I wish I could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is private."
In 2009, Reverend Chris Halverson, said that a culture of pastoral confidentiality is essential to the ministry, “If you talked about it, you would destroy that fellowship.”
Members of the Family are instructed to pursue “political jujitsu” by making use of secular leaders "in the work of advancing His kingdom," and to avoid whenever possible the label Christian itself, lest they alert enemies to that advance, Sharlet writes in “The Family”.
One way this group keeps its secrecy is through the use of “Prayer Cells” in which high ranking political officials gather under the name of Jesus.
“The Family's use of the term "cell" long predates the word's current association with terrorism. Its roots are in the Cold War, when leaders of the Family deliberately emulated the organizing techniques of communism,” Sharlet wrote.
Sharlet states that the reason the Family operates primarily out of “cells” is they believe “democracy inadequate to the fight against godlessness.” The organization promotes that such cells should function to produce political "atomic energy," which creates deals and alliances that “could not be achieved through the clumsy machinations of legislative debate [and] would instead radiate quietly out of political cells that will appear to the world to be unrelated to any centralized organization.”
Discussing the after affects of the Family’s cells, Sharlet wrote in an email, “they've poisoned the [political] well for a lot of people through what I'd argue is their dishonesty. It's one thing to make a religio-political case in the public square, where people can agree or disagree. It's another to work behind-the-scenes, leaving people with a sense that they've been excluded from the main action, that democracy is a privilege, not a right.”
The Fellowship maintains a database of associates and members; but it issues no cards, collects no official dues and members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.
In a 2002 article on the Family by the Los Angeles Times, it is stated that the group’s members share a vow of silence about Fellowship activities. Members cite biblical warnings against public displays of good works, insisting they would not be able to tackle their diplomatically sensitive missions if they drew public attention. Members, including congressmen, invoke this secrecy rule when refusing to discuss just about every aspect of the Fellowship and their involvement in it.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Jennifer Thornett, a Fellowship employee, went so far as to state that "there is no such thing as the Fellowship."
Daniel reports that “questions also are being raised about the Fellowship’s honesty. The Fellowship Foundation is registered as a public charity in IRS Publication 78. According to a September 2002 article in the Los Angeles Times, they have a large annual budget, significant real estate holdings worth millions and dozens of employees. The Fellowship also has a clear leader in the person of Doug Coe, and their records are archived at Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Library. Yet publicly the Fellowship claims not to exist as an organization. Followers insist they are a ‘movement,’ a ‘vision,’ a ‘family,’ a ‘network of brothers,’ but they tend to downplay and even deny the existence of the Fellowship as a legal entity.”
Daniel writes that Fellowship members downplay and deny that the Fellowship’s primary goal is to evangelize wealthy and powerful men. There are frequent reminders that the Fellowship is a cross section of the Kingdom of God and that it’s for everyone, though according to Sharlet, “you don’t ask to join, you’re recommended.”
“People can only make choices based on their range of knowledge. They use concepts to base their reality and can’t understand the importance of something like this. [The Family’s secrecy] completely blinds people of their capacity to understand what’s going on,” Bradburn-Ruster says.
Political Role Models
Furthering his stance upon The Family, Sharlet drew attention to the group’s leader, Douglas Coe. In a report by NBC News Correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, Coe is shown on video expressing admiration for Nazi Dictator Adolph Hitler and the dedication of Chinese soldiers to the People’s Republic of China.
“I’ve seen pictures of young men in the Red Guard of China. They would bring in this young man’s mother and father, lay her on the table with a basket on the end, he would take an axe and cut her head off. They have to put the purposes of the Red Guard ahead of the mother, father, brother, sister, their own life. That was a covenant; a pledge. That was what Jesus said,” Coe states on the video.
“We were being taught the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin, and Mao. I would say, isn’t there a problem with that and they would even seem perplexed by the question. Hitler’s genocide really wasn’t an issue for them; it was the strength he emulated.” Sharlet stated.
Questionable Support
The Family has ties within every country on the globe and supports powerful leaders within them without discrimination, Sharlet states in an email.
In the interview with Newsweek, Kuo stated that, “the Fellowship’s reach into governments around the world is almost impossible to overstate or even grasp.”
Dictators, liberators, CEO’s, presidents and social nobodies; as long as the person in question has power, the Family will support them through the name of Jesus, Sharlet stated in the email.
Among the supported is former Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who in 2002 was found accountable for the torture of thousands of civilians in the 1980s. Also assisted was Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, former head of the Honduran armed forces who was linked to a death squad and the CIA before his death. Another despot the Family has lend a hand to is one of the century's most murderous dictators, Indonesian Gen. Suharto, Sharlet states in the Harpers article, “Jesus Plus Nothing.”
In a rare interview by Doug Coe, the Los Angeles Times quotes him addressing this issue stating that, "the people that are involved in this association of people around the world are the worst and the best, some are total despots. Some are totally religious. You can find what you want to find."
Corruption of Power
“[The Family] completely corrupts the congressional process. It is entirely divorced from the political process because they can justify whatever they do in politics by stating that God has chosen them,” Bradburn-Ruster states.
“Some of it feels like the worst kind of Nominalism. Where they are using the words of Jesus to make some people obscenely rich and justify mass slaughter,” Bradburn-Ruster said.
Sharlet writes that in 1979, the former Nixon aide and Watergate felon Charles W. Colson, born again through the guidance of the Family and the ministry of, Thomas L. Phillips, CEO of arms manufacturer Raytheon, estimated the Family's strength at 20,000. The number of "dedicated associates" around the world is smaller, around 350 as of 2009.
“[Michael Lindsay,] a conservative sociologist at Rice University, tried to quantify their power. He surveyed some 350 leading American Christian politicians. The Family got more votes as the most influential group in Washington than any other,” Sharlet said through email.
According to Bradburn-Ruster, “it’s profoundly dangerous. The people in the Family are not accountable; there is no system of checks and balances. They are absolutely convinced of their righteousness and it allows them to eliminate people and cultures to support a power system by using the word Fundamentalism or Jesus.”
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