Ensign, C Street, and The Fellowship (Family)
For those of you who don’t know, I wrote about Ensign and The Fellowship way way back in 2006. At the time, I couldn’t confirm that Ensign lived in the C Street house, but it’s clear now that he has been a resident for some time now. For a quick overview of what The Fellowship of Family as some call it, Jeff Sharlet made two appearances on Rachel Maddow’s show to discuss their theological approach which Sharlet noted fetishizes strength and cruelty:
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Pick up his book “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.” And here is Sharlet’s post on his recent media popularity and what he believes my be the death knell for the careers of Ensign and Coburn.
Here’s a long excerpt from my original post: “Senator Ensign and The Bonds of Fellowship” published on TaylorMarsh.com:
“But any cursory look at Ensign’s background brings up some pretty interesting associations with groups front and center in the culture ware between those who think Christian ideology should play a central role in government—groups on the far right like the Promise Keepers, the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Fellowship. Ensign’s constituents are barely aware of how he votes on the issues—they’re either bamboozled by his game show host good looks or deceived by ring general Harry Reid’s protective order.
But you’ve never heard of the Fellowship have you? That, my friends, is completely by design. You’re probably familiar with the National Prayer breakfast they sponsor once a year and attended by the President and other influential people, but the rest of their operation is a mystery to us lay folks who don’t see a place for religion in politics. When its members are asked about the Fellowship, they either deny its existence or decline to answer questions. In 2002, The Los Angeles Times published an article called “Showing Faith in Discretion” by Lisa Getter, that gives us an inside glimpse into this secretive group:
“The Fellowship is a collection of public officials, business leaders and religious ministries that defies easy description. Sometimes known as the prayer group movement, its members espouse a common devotion to the teachings of Jesus and a belief that peace and justice can come about through quiet efforts to change individuals, particularly those in positions of power. Personal outreach is paramount. ….They also share a vow of silence about Fellowship activities.”
Based in Arlington, Virginia, the Fellowship’s official name is the Fellowship Foundation, but it does business as the nonprofit International Foundation and has an annual budget of $10 million. The Fellowship does not solicit money—a handful of individuals support the Fellowship with personal contributions. Founded by Abraham Vereide, “a Methodist evangelist who feared that Socialists were corrupting municipal government in Seattle in the mid-1930s,” Vereide wanted to effect change by organizing prayer groups with local business and government leaders. Eventually, he took his prayer group model to Washington D.C. and began expanding its mission to international diplomacy. Getter outlines some of what we know about the Fellowship’s involvement in the political arena:
“The Fellowship was a behind-the-scenes player at the Camp David Middle East accords in 1978, working with President Jimmy Carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. During the Cold War, it helped finance an anti-communism propaganda film endorsed by the CIA and used by the Pentagon overseas.Last year, the Fellowship helped arrange a secret meeting at Cedars between two warring leaders, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame–one of the first of a series of discreet meetings between the two African leaders that eventually led to the signing of a peace accord in July. Then-Sen. David Durenberger retreated to the mansion in 1986 when he began having marital problems. GOP strategist Lee Atwater came seeking spiritual guidance in 1990 when he learned he was dying. Jackson and his children stayed in October, while in town for a benefit concert for victims of last year’s terrorist attacks.”
Clearly we can forget about the separation of church and state here. Although the Fellowship maintains its rule of working in silence is purely a religious insistence on humility, its pretty clear they remain silence to prevent the public from learning about influence they have and how they use it.
I was unable to confirm whether this is still the case, but in 2002, who do you think was living in a house owned by the Fellowship on Capital Hill that just happens to be registered as a church? Why, our own Senator Ensign along with fellow soldiers of the culture war Sam Brownback and Tom Coburn (who proposed the death penalty for doctors who performed abortions, which I guess means he also believes in suicide since he has been exposed as a doctor who performed abortions). Reportedly, Tom Delay is another famous member. According to Jeff Sharlet in the January 2006 article for Rolling Stone magazine, Brownback was brought into the Fellowship fold by Frank Carlson, a former Republican senator from Kansas. Sharlet points out that at a 1955 meeting of the Fellowship, Carlson declared the group’s mission to be “’Worldwide Spiritual Offensive,’ a vision of manly Christianity dedicated to the expansion of American power as a means of spreading the gospel.”
No church and state conflict there. More on the Fellowship’s god peddling from Jeff Sharlet for Rolling Stone:
“They were striving, ultimately, for what Coe calls ‘Jesus plus nothing’ — a government led by Christ’s will alone. In the future envisioned by Coe, everything — sex and taxes, war and the price of oil — will be decided upon not according to democracy or the church or even Scripture. The Bible itself is for the masses; in the Fellowship, Christ reveals a higher set of commands to the anointed few. It’s a good old boy’s club blessed by God. Brownback even lived with other cell members in a million-dollar, red-brick former convent at 133 C Street that was subsidized and operated by the Fellowship. Monthly rent was $600 per man — enough of a deal by Hill standards that some said it bordered on an ethical violation, but no charges were ever brought.Brownback and Ensign also lived with Fellowship brother Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma doctor who has advocated the death penalty for abortion providers. The men in Brownback’s cell talk about politics, but the senator insists it’s not political. ‘It’s about faith and action,’ he says. According to ‘Thoughts on a Core Group,’ the primary purpose of the cell is to become an ‘invisible “believing” group.’ Any action the cell takes is an outgrowth of belief, a natural extension of ‘agreements reached in faith and in prayer.’ Deals emerge not from a smoke-filled room but from a prayer-filled room. ‘Typically,’ says Brownback, ‘one person grows desirous of pursuing an action’ — a piece of legislation, a diplomatic strategy — ‘and the others pull in behind.’ In 1999, Brownback worked with Rep. Joe Pitts, a Fellowship brother, to pass the Silk Road Strategy Act, designed to block the growth of Islam in Central Asian nations by bribing them with lucrative trade deals. That same year, he teamed up with two Fellowship associates — former Sen. Don Nickles and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond — to demand a criminal investigation of a liberal group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Last year, several Fellowship brothers, including Sen. John Ensign, another resident of the C Street house, supported Brownback’s broadcast decency bill. And Pitts and Coburn joined Brownback in stumping for the Houses of Worship Act to allow tax-free churches to endorse candidates.
The most bluntly theocratic effort, however, is the Constitution Restoration Act, which Brownback co-sponsored with Jim DeMint, another former C Streeter who was then a congressman from South Carolina. If passed, it will strip the Supreme Court of the ability to even hear cases in which citizens protest faith-based abuses of power. Say the mayor of your town decides to declare Jesus lord and fire anyone who refuses to do so; or the principal of your local high school decides to read a fundamentalist prayer over the PA every morning; or the president declares the United States a Christian nation. Under the Constitution Restoration Act, that’ll all be just fine.”
We can be thankful that Senator Ensign and his Fellowship brothers have been unsuccessful passing legislation like the Constitution Restoration Act–so far. However, they are not about to stop trying. They are part of the “Worldwide Spiritual Offensive” that hopes to use their patriarchal Christian faith to expand American power in order to further spread their anti-choice (government enforced pregnancy for all) and anti-science beliefs as widely as possible.
Jeff Sharlet also went undercover in the Fellowship to write “Jesus Plus Nothing” for Harper’s Magazine in March of 2003. It’s a fascinating read.”
Similar Posts:
- Senator Ensign And The Bonds of Fellowship
- Forget about Kanye, Its Senator Brownback Who’s Scary
- Call Senator Ensign and Demand Accountability on S.482!
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What a disgusting pile of humanity this group is. Pretty well disputes the idea of “intelligent design”.
Nice post, though.
When you write your stuff in M$ Word and paste it into a web page, readers get funny character combos like an a with a circumflex, then the Euro sign, then some typographers’ quotes, in place of what appears as a normal character (in this case, likely an em dash). This is the combo I am referring to here: — — although there are others. Really makes your doc a PITA to read. Just thought you might like to know.
That’s not what happened Jim. I have to import text from someone else’s blog. That’s where the funny characters come from.
I’m “sharing” this one…funny character combos or not – this piece is well-researched and the information is not making the mainstream headlines. Way too many secretive goings-on. Social Darwinism by way of Jesus? What would Jesus say? Anti- choice-anti -science-power-power-power. They (the C Streeter/Fellowhip Brothers -are there Sisters?)are propelling themselves into self-serving positions and WE are sitting here scratching our heads? What happens at C St. stays there?
There’s nothing sinister about the C Street Fellowship. The group just believes that “love thy neighbor” trumps the Ten Commandments if you’re rich, white, male and Republican.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/c-street-sex-scandal