I hate to break it to everyone, but while "The Family" as we now know it, never limited itself to influencing Republicans. While 99% of its association is mostly with members of the GOP, there are such Democrats as Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson and Mark Pryor. However, their biggest Democratic friend is no longer in Congress. She happens to be our current Secretary of State.
Clinton fell in with The Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the Senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, The Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."
Furthermore, The Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.
What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including New Age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.
Fundamentalism is not the religion of the GOP, it is the established religion in Washington and it to some extent maintains control over both parties. I was raised in a church that preached it as the religion of the status quo: Respect authority and the power and always know your place. It helps the poor in poverty waiting for their treasures in heaven while the wealthy amass greater riches on earth. It keeps women from achieving their potential and the races separate. And it keeps us from finally passing something like a public health care system or the Employee Free Choice Act. If we want to take on this group, we better understand that we'll have to fight both parties to do it.