If you haven't heard about "C-Street" yet.. or "The Family," or "The Fellowship" then let me tell you its a little wacky and I have a feeling its only going to get wackier.
Sometimes its tough being an elected official. You have to get really good health care, have a staff of people bring you stuff, and most people tell you you're great a lot. But a very conservative group of Senators and Congressmen were having a rough time, so they all moved into a quaint little house on C Street.
Nothing says GOP like a good old fashioned frat house? College was a time when you could screw around with women, forget your homework, and ponder whether your teachers mom would have had an abortion?
But that's exactly what happened. Senator John Ensign of Nevada was screwin' around with the ladies. The Fellowship of C-Street Electeds came together to pray about what they should do. Evidently, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) gave Ensign a pelvic exam ... and the flood doors opened.
I think its high time, Sen. Brownback and Rep. Tiahrt tell us the truth about what they knew. Were they involved in the cover-up? Were they at the prayer group? Did they council Ensign?
Since this building is registered as a non-profit church with 501c3 status, has the IRS confirmed that there has been no political activity in the "church?
According to the Wiki article
"The movement in the U.S. is incorporated in the United States as a tax-free 501(c)(3) organization operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation. While they conduct no fundraising operations, they reported revenues of more than $12 million in 2003 from donations. Their primary activity is to develop small support groups for members of Congress. Prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense."
Has there been an investigation into its tax status? Do these elected officials live tax free in this building? Who is donating to this "Church?" Lobbyists, CEO's of major corporations, or institutions in which these elected officials are making laws about or sending earmarks to?
Why has there been no mention of an investigation into this?
Ensign isn't the first. Other things have happened in the conservative cult. Apparently there was some kind of exorcism. It's unclear if this was to a moderate elected official who tried to vote with the democrats, its unclear. But I hear that Kansas Rep. Jerry Moran won't even walk down C Street for that very reason. Bless his heart.
Tiahrt and Brownback must answer questions about their involvement in this cult? Do they believe in the radical agenda of this "church?" Do they believe in exorcism? Were they involved in the exorcism? Is this their first exorcism?
Tonight on Rachel Maddow, author Jeff Sharlet (who literally wrote the book on The Family) talked about a link between Kansas Senator Sam Brownback now seeking the Governor's seat despite his 51% approval rating in Kansas, and Rep. Todd Tiahrt who is being groomed to be a new Super Decean at the C-Street Fellowship as well as the new Kansas Senator. (Video Above)
From Jeff's book -- this is what he was referencing:
The day I worked at C Street I ran into Doug Coe, who was tutoring Todd Tiahrt, a Republican congressman from Kansas. A friendly, plainspoken man with a bright, lazy smile, Coe has worked for the Family since 1959, soon after he graduated from college, and has led it since 1969.
Tiahrt was a short shot glass of a man, two parts flawless hair and one part teeth. He wanted to know the best way "for the Christian to win the race with the Muslim." The Muslim, he said, has too many babies, while Americans kill too many of theirs.
Doug agreed this could be a problem. But he was more concerned that the focus on labels like "Christian" might get in the way of the congressman's prayers. Religion distracts people from Jesus, Doug said, and allows them to isolate Christ's will from their work in the world.
"People separate it out," he warned Tiahrt. "'Oh, okay, I got religion, that's private.' As if Jesus doesn't know anything about building highways, or Social Security. We gotta take Jesus out of the religious wrapping."
"All right, how do we do that?" Tiahrt asked.
"A covenant," Doug answered. The congressman half-smiled, as if caught between confessing his ignorance and pretending he knew what Doug was talking about. "Like the Mafia," Doug clarified. "Look at the strength of their bonds." He made a fist and held it before Tiahrt's face. Tiahrt nodded, squinting. "See, for them it's honor," Doug said. "For us, it's Jesus."
Coe listed other men who had changed the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their "brothers": "Look at Hitler," he said. "Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden." The Family, of course, possessed a weapon those leaders lacked: the "total Jesus" of a brotherhood in Christ.
"That's what you get with a covenant," said Coe. "Jesus plus nothing."
With Frat Brothers like this... who needs voters? Thus I call you to action! There must be an investigation to uncover what was going on, if there were behind the scenes deals made for donors to the church, if political favors were exchanged by funneling money, were donations given to elected officials to fund political activity. Help demand an investigation by the IRS and by Congress!
UPDATE: See also, Jeff's piece in Rolling Stone about Brownback - God's Senator.
"I am a seeker," he says. Brownback believes that every spiritual path has its own unique scent, and he wants to inhale them all. When he ran for the House he was a Methodist. By the time he ran for the Senate he was an evangelical. Now he has become a Catholic. He was baptized not in a church but in a chapel tucked between lobbyists' offices on K Street that is run by Opus Dei, the secretive lay order founded by a Catholic priest who advocated "holy coercion" and considered Spanish dictator Francisco Franco an ideal of worldly power. Brownback also studies Torah with an orthodox rabbi from Brooklyn. "Deep," says the rabbi, Nosson Scherman. Lately, Brownback has been reading the Koran, but he doesn't like what he's finding. "There's some difficult material in it with regard to the Christian and the Jew," he tells a Christian radio program, voice husky with regret."
UPDATE II: Thanks to dmhlt66 for the link to the IRS 990 form available on the comment section at WaPo via Citizen92.
"Citizen92 June 26th, 2009:
You can see The Fellowship’s IRS 990 tax returns here:
Foundation Center 990 Finder
Enter 530204604 in the EIN field. It will bring up ‘Fellowship Foundation Inc. T/A International Foundation’.
You’ll note the 133 C ("C Street Center") is listed as affiliated but exempt... Which means they are claiming that house as their "church" and, since churches are exempt from filing tax returns, well...