It sounds so innocuous, a National Prayer Breakfast. As all-American as apple pie and bacon. And yet if you scratch the surface of the NPB, you find “The Family”, a secretive cult built around “Dominionist” theology and lead by Douglas Coe. Jeff Sharlet wrote a book about The Family and it amazes me that this Breakfast is still happening. Politicians belonging to The Family have been in scandals and yet this travesty still happens every year. Even Obama showed up, although his speeches there included themes such as Religious Freedom and the Rightwing hypocrites melted down and attacked him for it. It’s a disgrace that this National Prayer Breakfast goes on. But fitting that Trump used it to ask for prayers be offered for Arnold’s lousy Apprentice ratings.
Sharlet has stated that the organization fetishizes power by comparing Jesus to “Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden” as examples of leaders who change the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their “brothers”.[14][15]
One year after the book's initial publication, the sex scandals of prominent members of the Family, Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, as well as accusations that the Family was illegally subsidizing the rent of members of Congress and involved in the proposed bill which would impose the death penalty for homosexuality in Uganda, thrust the notoriously secretive organisation into the national spotlight.
Quoted from Wikipedia
The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family'
You may recognize these names from recent headlines: Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Bart Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts. Stupak and Pitts have become familiar names through the media's health care overhaul coverage; their abortion funding amendment introduced an 11th-hour twist as the House of Representatives approached a vote on a landmark health care bill.
Ensign was the focus of media attention over his affair with a campaign staffer. Just last night, a Nevada man disclosed that he found out about his wife's affair with the state's junior senator — his best friend — via a text message.
The common factor among these political players is their involvement with the Family, a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet has written extensively about the influential group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
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