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Well, not quite -- the concept was popularized in the 20s and 30s by Frank Buchman's Oxford Movement (later re-named Moral Re-Armament). The Family adopted it in 1935 and brought it to Washington in 1942, where they started organizing first congressional staffers and then congressmen into cells -- a term they were very comfortable with.
Yes, there's a lot about that in the book.
As for your second question -- Wayne Madsen's stuff is mostly conspiracy theory. Here are the facts: The Family first achieved electoral success in alliance with a quasi-fascist American group called the New Order of Cincinnatus. By the 40s, the Family had absorbed the right flank of the America First movement, but only those who were willing to abandon isolationism in the fight against communism. Many of these people were out and out fascists, such as Merwin Hart, but none of them were Nazis nor disloyal to the U.S. during the war.
But after the war, that's a different story. Two key Family members in Germany were Baron Ulrich von Gienanth and Manfred Zapp -- both of whom had been deported from America before the war as Nazi spies. FDR actually denounced Zapp in a speech. Von Gienanth was later revealed to have been the head of the Gestapo in pre-war America (this is straight from the history books stuff -- look it up) while Zapp was revealed as a spy by a massive investigation by J. Edgar Hoover which made for big front page news in the NYT -- again, easy to look up.
The surprising part was finding these guys advising U.S. congressmen after the war through the Family. The Family even intervened to get the travel ban lifted from Baron von Gienanth.
BUT -- and this is crucial -- they were no longer Nazis. Cold comfort, I know, but it is a crucial distinction. The Family never embraced fascism or Hitler. Rather, they embrace a model of Christianity with Christ in a fuhrer-type role -- that's what Coe is saying in the video and in the other sermons I've recordings of.
Author of THE FAMILY: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (HarperCollins, Spring 08)
by Ishmael on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:11:04 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
This is an organization that Hillary belongs to?
That is truly frightening.
"We already won the war, it's the occupation that's killing us."
by cal in cali on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:15:49 PM PDT
That's a semi-formal distinction within The Family. I've never said Hillary is a member. She's not. But her association is longstanding and significant.
by Ishmael on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:22:08 PM PDT
If I'm understanding this--and mind, this is based in large part on what of your writing has been published so far combined with my own personal experience and research on how cell-church/"discipling and shepherding" groups work--it would appear there are indeed multiple levels:
a) Initial recruitment (via National Prayer Breakfasts, etc.) b) "Friends" (recruitees into cell-church groups, equivalent to "flock" or "sheep" in neopente dominionist cell-churches) b) "Members" (equivalent to "shepherds"--group leaders--in neopente dominionist cell-churches)
Or am I on crack here?
Dominionist hell: it's not just for Sunday anymore
by dogemperor on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:38:35 PM PDT
by Ishmael on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:57:06 PM PDT
This is not happy confirmation by any means, but it does fit the pattern of other "pyramid-like" groups (most of which, sadly, do tend to be abusive).
And as weird as this sounds, I actually worry for Hillary at this point, especially if "The Family" uses other coercive practices and may well have recruited her (and my real worry is that they may be using abusive tactics for indoctrinating her in her "cell group").
by dogemperor on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 02:05:16 PM PDT
She is a sheep among wolves who think Jesus is like a Fuhrer?
by jazzyjay on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 04:23:09 PM PDT
Firstly, re the supposed Nazi stuff, I have heard a lot of that is tinfoil-hattery, hence wanted to confirm whether or not you were able to dig up more on that. (Mind, the "Christ-as-Reichsfuhrer" image may be potentially more disturbing to me in a way--that indicates that extremely abusive tactics have been a part of political dominionism since its very beginnings.)
Re cell-churches--the earliest I've been able to find of behaviour resembling modern cell-church tactics was in 1917-1918ish and continuing through around 1923 or so (with Assemblies targeting of Reformed Baptist churches in Poland and Russia) that I stumbled upon in some of my research on "Watchmen At The Walls", but this was primarily with church steeplejacking--if "The Fellowship" originated the use in political steeplejacking, this would indicate that possibly steeplejacking (and the use of cells for steeplejacks) have been a tactic that has been with neopentecostal dominionists (or at least the "Assemblies family" of dominionist churches) since the beginning and had a rather spectacularly rapid evolution to use in political dominionism briefly after its initial use in targeting other Christian churches for conversion from within.
This could well have major implications--it's one thing to say that such a thing evolved, it's another to realise that it well could literally be part of the core theology of these groups and has been from the beginning. (If so, again, that would give evidence that some of the very neopente dominionist churches at the heart of dominionist movement from their beginnings could well have started out from an inherently coercive movement that has its earliest evidence of coercive activity dating from the 1920s-1930s.)
Especially with "The Fellowship" nee "The Family" having been highly anti-Communist from its beginnings, and especially based on surprisingly early evidence of overt "Red-baiting" of candidates by "Assemblies family" radio preachers in the 1930s (Aimee Semple McPherson was pretty well the Rod Parsley or Creflo Dollar of her day) combined with "Red Baiting" being a part of the core theology of these groups since practically their beginnings...*if* the origin of cell churches is with Assemblies churches infiltrating Reformed Baptist churches in eastern Europe, it would be at least somewhat plausible for the tactic to have been potentially either exported there or possibly imported to the US (there's lots of swapping back and forth in tracing the history of things like "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" theology, with multiple import/export/import cycles!).
This would also strongly indicate that cell churches were either invented here in the States (and exported to Russia and China, and reimported to the US via South Korea and Argentina) or possibly the origin is Poland/Russia, with import to the US (with "The Family" being the oldest extant group besides steeplejacked "Reformed Baptist" churches promoting cell groups), exported to China, reimported via South Korea and Argentina.
(Yes, I am researching this stuff, because someday I too hope to have a book out :D And yes, your book is on preorder, sounds like it's really going to blow the lid off a lot of this!)
by dogemperor on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 01:35:39 PM PDT
... to Ishmael and his equally excellent clear answers are very helpful.
I first heard of cell churches in your writing...
Misled Into War: A Timeline/DowningStreetMemo.com
by highacidity on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 02:07:07 PM PDT
If you flip over the political belly of the Nazi movement you find a cult. The S.S. were a cult. Secrets and rituals.
McCain's daily Gaffe is a laugh a day.
by redtex on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 02:11:59 PM PDT
by mimi on Sat Apr 05, 2008 at 02:46:41 AM PDT
wide narrow
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