In a new piece for Salon.com, Jeff Sharlet has more on the domestic side of the militarist-fundamentalist drive to devour the state, which we wrote about here yesterday. Sharlet writes of "The Family" -- the self-described "Christian Mafia" centered on the "C Street House" in Washington -- which for decades has spread its invisible, insidious influence throughout the U.S. government, while supporting mass-murdering dictators, rapacious crony capitalism -- and providing convenient cover and absolution for the high crimes and sexual misdemeanors of its members.

Sharlet has written of The Family for years, in articles for Harper's and in his book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. He has described in great detail -- and from the inside -- a disturbing, decades-old network of big-time power players guided by cranks who push Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden, and Stalin as worthy role models in the pursuit of the Family's ultimate goal: a militarized, unfettered "totalitarianism of God." You would think that Sharlet's earlier revelations would have brought intensive, horrified scrutiny to bear on this nest of democracy-hating accomplices of atrocity and corruption -- but the stories never gained much traction in the corporate media. Who cares about all that boring stuff?

But now that several of The Family's members and associates have found themselves caught in good old juicy sex scandals, suddenly the media has "re-discovered" the C Street House, and shined at least a little more light on that dark corner. Because as we all know, the only offense that an American politician must ever pay for is a sexual indiscretion. When it comes to murder, torture, oppression, war crimes, military aggression, tyranny, etc -- well, it's always best to "move on" from such unseemly doings, and stay "focused on the future, not the past."

Although truth to tell, even sexual indiscretions are increasingly unpaid for by our coddled, unaccountable elites. Look at Bill Clinton, swanning around the world like a rock star, swimming in his millions. And of course, all rightwing pols caught with their pants down can always play the "fallen sinner redeemed by God" card, and start all over again. Clinton also played this card for all it was worth, of course; recall his hilarious "counseling sessions" with various high-profile religious leaders, who, we are to believe, sat down with the President of the United States and gave him earnest, prayerful counsel on how to keep his pecker in his pants.

Even so, messing around in the sexual cellarage still causes a politician more of a spot of bother than, say, authorizing a drone strike (i.e., "targeted assassination," i.e., "extrajudicial assassination," i.e., "act of mass murder") that kills dozens of innocent people. The irony, of course, as Magnificent Valor points out, is that these sexual indiscretions are often the only interesting and vaguely human thing these time-serving, box-ticking, elitist automatons have ever done.

In any case, the wanton willy-waggling of Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Chip Pickering and other "Family" stalwarts has provided us with yet another glimpse at the truly strange and deranged power structure that governs our lives. You should read Sharlet's piece in full, but here are a few choice bits:

The Family likes to call itself a "Christian Mafia," but it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. The Family's goal was the "consecration" of America to God, first through the repeal of New Deal reforms, then through the aggressive expansion of American power during the Cold War...

Historically, the Family has been strongly Republican [Sharlet includes a copious list of current power-players in the Family ranks], but it includes Democrats, too. There's Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, for instance, a vocal defender of putting the Ten Commandments in public places, and Sen. Mark Pryor, the pro-war Arkansas Democrat responsible for scuttling Obama's labor agenda. Sen. Pryor explained to me the meaning of bipartisanship he'd learned through the Family: "Jesus didn't come to take sides. He came to take over." And by Jesus, the Family means the Family.

Family leaders consider their political network to be Christ's avant garde, an elite that transcends not just conventional morality but also earthly laws regulating lobbying. ... Founder Abraham Vereide decided that the group could be more effective by working personally with politicians. "The more invisible you can make your organization," Vereide's successor, current leader Doug Coe preaches, "the more influence you can have."

...I met [David Coe, Doug Coe's son and heir apparent], when I lived for several weeks as a member of the Family... Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was -- or Mark Sanford, according to his own estimate -- he asked a young man who'd put himself, body and soul, under the Family's authority, "Let's say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?" The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. "No," answered Coe, "I wouldn't." Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he's among what Family leaders refer to as the "new chosen." If you're chosen, the normal rules don't apply.

If that doesn't tell you all you need to know about our nation's rulers, then I don't know what will. And of course, this "three rapes--so what?" philosophy of unaccountability is not confined to members of "The Family": it permeates the entire power structure.

And as we noted yesterday, this drive toward "Christian totalitarianism" seeks to use the military as one of its primary vehicles of subversion:

Christian right leader -- and Watergate felon -- Chuck Colson, converted through the efforts of the Family, has boasted of it as a "veritable underground of Christ's men all through government." What do they do? Rep. Zach Wamp, one of Ensign's fellow C Streeters who's been in the news for defending the Family's secrecy, has teamed up with Family-linked Reps. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., and John R. Carter, R-Texas, on an obscure appropriations committee to help greenlight tens of millions in federal funds for new megachurch-style chapels on military bases around the country.

But of course, one of the main thrusts of The Family's business has been succoring murderous dictators around the world:

One needn't be a Marxist to find fault with the Family's mash-up of New Testament and unfettered capitalism -- Adam Smith himself would have recognized that theology as a disingenuous form of self-interest by proxy. Such interests have led the Family into some strange alliances over the years. Seduced by the Indonesian dictator Suharto's militant anti-communism, they described the murder of hundreds of thousands that brought him to power as a "spiritual revolution," and sent delegations of congressmen and oil executives to pray to Jesus with the Muslim leader. In Africa, they anointed the Somali killer Siad Barre as God's man and sent Sen. Grassley and a defense contractor as emissaries. Barre described himself as a "Koranic Marxist," but he agreed to pray to Grassley's American Christ in return for American military aid, which he then used to wreak a biblical terror on his nation. It has not yet recovered.

Needless to say, while this group of gilded sectarians leave mounds of corpses in their political gaming around the world, their main business is -- what else? -- business:

[In their Family-paid junkets, members are] representing "Jesus plus nothing," as Doug Coe puts it, the "totalitarianism of God," in the words of an early Family leader, a vision that encompasses not just social issues but also the kind of free-market fundamentalism that is the real object of devotion for Ensign, Coburn, Pickering, Wamp and Sanford, along with Family insiders such as Sens. DeMint, Sam Brownback and Chuck Grassley. At the heart of the Family's spiritual advice for its proxies in Congress is the conviction that the market's invisible hand represents the guidance of God, and that God wants his "new chosen" to look out for one another.

As we all know, one of the most dangerous creatures on earth is the bullshitter who believes his own bullshit. There is absolutely no doubt that Adolf Hitler went to his death thinking he was a swell guy, a worthy, righteous man more sinned against than sinning. The self-absolution -- and self-hypnosis -- of fanatical certitude is a deadly toxin; not just for the individual, but for the world. We see the fruits of Family-style fundamentalism all around us today, in the blood-soaked ruin of the Terror Wars, in the collapse of communities, families, individuals -- and the world economy -- from the rapine of "godly" market extremism, even down to the rise in teen pregnancies and sexual disease, which are, of course, most prevalent and growing in the very areas dominated by the Dominationists' wilfully ignorant, sexually obsessed sectarianism, as the Guardian reports. These are real lives, of real people, blighted -- or blotted out -- by the divinely-robed barbarism of their leaders.

What the elites reserve for themselves -- security, assistance, wealth, power, personal license -- they deny to others. Indeed, this denial is essential to their identity as the "chosen;" if others have what they have, how can they be exalted, set apart, special? Thus they must be implacable enemies of the very idea of the common good -- at home, abroad, at every level of life. It is, at its heart, a sinister vision of life -- yet it has become the unspoken, unquestioned ruling assumption underlying our society today.

Comments (21)

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Jimmy Montague said:

I have long known I have long known there were some deep cracks in the mental landscape of Iowa's Sen. Charles Grassley. "Uncle Chuck," as his admirers call him, has always been betrayed by some sinister flaws in his personal presence. I trust him alone in a room with my wife or my child (if I had a wife and child) or with a $5 bill. At odd moments he gets a crazed look in his eye. Sometimes his voice changes in an ugly way. His smile sometimes isn't really a smile at all. These things happen in a flash. There's nothing you can really put your finger on long enough to show anyone else, but they are there all the same if you watch him closely. He's been in the Senate for MUCH too long in any case, but try telling that to his supporters. He has a great reputation among Iowa's elderly, whom he has screwed often and at great length while they're focused on the flash of his smile. But that's typical of all politicians, isn't it?

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July 21, 2009 | url
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Marsha said:

	Add The Family on C Street.... Add The Family on C Street to The Family members in the Pentagon, the Air Force Academy and every other military installation we have and you end up with one huge Adams Family - but they won't be providing any laughs. This scares the daylights out of me. I'm sure that My God would never approve. ("I will treat other people the same way I want to be treated.")
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July 21, 2009
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Jimmy Montague said:

	Correction -- I WOULDN'T trust him alone in a room with my wife or my child. . . .
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July 21, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

Grassley = Lizard Man Jimmy, about 25 years ago I spent 2 summers covering tax legislation wrangling on Capitol Hill. Back then Grassley was trying to make his name and merely by watching his demeanor on C-SPAN I was convinced he's a lying scumbag. Of course this is not a hard conclusion to reach, since he had landed in the US Congress and of the 535 members in that esteemed and august body of noble supra-citizens there are few (if any) who are anything but scum. But his mannerisms made me dub him "lizard man," as he reminded me of the Sleestak creatures from my childhood TV show, Land of the Lost. .................. In due fairness to Jesus of Nazareth one should note that The Family may call themselves "Christian" but nothing they do resembles the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, nothing they do resembles what the New Testament suggests as a moral outline for life. I think we could put The Family on trial for distortion of Jesus's message, and the jurors should be these Christians: CS Lewis GK Chesterton Wendell Berry Peter Kreeft Phillip Berrigan Frieda Berrigan Joseph Berrigan I believe we would see The Family condemned to an eternal Hellfire damnation.

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July 21, 2009
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Gonzolegend said:

... "The Family" are just one corrupting self serving force in a massive rotten system. Look at Grover Norquist and his powerful lobby Americans for Tax Reform. That lobby was caught up in the Abramoff scandel for funnelling money to Jack Abramoff and Norquist has compared the estate tax to the holocaust. Then there is the free marketers crowd, which seems hell bent on creating a third world corporate state in America. All that's not to forget the massive Washington foreign policy establishment which seems just as determined as ever to continue wars of aggression under false pretences. It's hard to find any powerful American groups in Economics or Military policy that haven't been fully corrupted at this stage of the Empire. Even look at Obama on a lot of social issues like healthcare, environmental policy, science he seems to be okay (especially when compared to Bush). But on the issues that are important to the elite (War, Economy) he has fully kept the same groups in power. Peace Gonzo

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July 21, 2009
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Sean O'Neil said:

... Even look at Obama on a lot of social issues like healthcare, environmental policy, science he seems to be okay (especially when compared to Bush). Sorry, but you're mistaken. Obama is just like Bush on every issue. You haven't anything to show how he's different, you're just going on a gut feel or you're just suffering under a bit of "liberal white guilt" that prevents you from criticizing a "black" man. There isn't a single issue on which Obama is "better than" Bush. I'll defy you to offer proof that such an issue exists. And proof would be more than your lame opinion. Obamabot fantasies are pathetic.

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July 21, 2009
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Jimmy Montague said:

	Not to change the subject, Sean -- Has anybody here seen " TARGET=_blank>this piece? It's in four parts. Be sure to read it all.
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July 21, 2009 | url
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Jimmy Montague said:

	Not to change the subject, folks Has anybody here seen this piece? http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/evaluating-the-message/ It's in four parts. Be sure to read them all. Part IV is most fascinating.
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July 21, 2009 | url
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Jimmy Montague said:

the health-care thing The health-care issue is shaping into a horrid snafu. Everything I read about it describes a wonderful example of our 'leaders' total inability to think outside the box. We could start with one fact, viz.: any public health program that relies on insurance companies for any thing, in any way whatever, will grow ever more expensive year-on-year until finally we can no longer afford it. Accept that fact, the way forward leads to one sweeping change after another and our 'leaders' quake in terror at the thought. But what these scumbags (our 'leaders') cannot see is that the changes are coming at us willynilly, hurtling down upon us, impelled by the energy crunch and the climate crunch and the finance crunch, and what have you. Short-term, we can do what they plan for us: We can keep on feeding the same cats that are already far too fat to sustain themselves sans life-support from the U.S. Treasury. Long term, the path through corporate corpulence will end for us when we find ourselves standing with empty pockets, bereft of hope, the rest of the world waving bye-bye at us as they move forward into a brighter future.

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July 21, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

... Jimmy, thanks for that link. Interesting piece, I've just read Part I and the only comment that makes sense after Part I is Michael Hureaux, who also contributes to Black Agenda Report. Michael is a throw-out-the-bullshit-and-get-to-basics sort of analyst and I nearly always agree with his take on things. I'm off to read parts II, III and IV. I will say Ron Paul has many legitimate criticisms of present American federal government, but I agree with Hureaux -- libertarianism is not the prescription to repair the problems, because all that laissez-faire system does is take government function and privatize that function, yielding profit for those who are in tight with the libertarian leadership. This means Ron Paul is a stalking horse for the various monetary interests who seek profits via privatization. Given that one of the hallmarks of the post-Vietnam era is profit via privatization, I can't see where Ron Paul's theoretical leadership ultimately is superior to that of Bush/Cheney or Obama/Biden. I do see Paul levelling some good, honest criticisms though.

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July 21, 2009
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yankee 30 said:

... There's some amusing brou-ha-ha here in Italy over the apparent sexual improprieties of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. It's probably engineered and fueled by Rupert Murdoch and it's certainly being amplified and sustained by the local left, but Silvio seems to be suffering little pain(or loss of popularity). The irony that Magnificent Valor points out would largely be lost on most Italians. At 72 years of age it seems that Mr. Berlusconi, as present legend has it, is no limp dick and that he can keep that 'train a rollin' all night long'. This probably makes him the envy of most Italian men, but, more to the point, is that nobody really gives a shit one way or the other. For a religious culture in which absolution frees a man from sin, the idea of a politician biting the dust because of a sex scandal would be ludicrous. His white, anglo-saxon, protestant counterparts, however, will burn with eternal hellfire and damnation. Ha!

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July 21, 2009
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Barrabas said:

	AIPAC mafia next Lets see Salon- or ANYONE do a similar hit piece the jewish mafia- AIPAC. THAT would truly be unique and ground breaking.
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July 21, 2009
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Jimmy Montague said:

	Better read Part IV If you haven't read Part IV, you have no idea why I recommended that piece.
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July 22, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

... Jimmy -- I did finish reading all 4 parts yesterday. I went back just now to read Part IV again and DV's database is down... no connection. I think the author makes an excellent point, one that I've been making for about 10 years now... the idea that there is massive dissatisfaction with the Donkeys and Elephants, and that's why Ron Paul sort of "exploded" in popularity. The author's assessment of how Donkeys and Elephants both lost people to Paul is a pretty solid analysis, I think. To close the circle on the Ron Paul Phenomenon, one must be willing to criticize Paul's views when they are distasteful or bigoted -- and he's got a lot of bigoted views. What this says to me is the extent of disgust people have for the Donkeys and Elephants -- that they're willing to ignore Paul's hatred of nonwhites, his militaristic view toward immigrants (I'm sure Paul is not a native american!), his childish view of socio-economics (laissez-faire libertarianism) because of his valid criticisms of current Fed Govt activity. The time is right for reformation of America's political system, but the problem is, most people are too cowardly -- they want a change, but they fear what they will have to do to get it. And so we will see the ugly inevitables occurring.

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July 22, 2009
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Jimmy Montague said:

	Think tanks I was most impressed by the writer's account of the proliferation of think tanks. What's behind them, where they come from, their purpose in being, etc.
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July 23, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

I agree, Jimmy. I was lucky enough to have a prof in law school for environmental law who raised the question of what think tanks do, why they exist, who funds them, and how they shape fed govt policy. Even though I grew up in DC I didn't really question think tanks up until that point. My law school prof mentioned the idea that think tanks are named with a title that is opposite their true agenda. That was the first time I encountered the nonsense of posturing at the Fed level, and it helped me understand why, for example, Dubya Bush would call an education weakening act "No Child Left Behind."

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July 23, 2009
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Jimmy Montague said:

Right v. Left / Good v. Evil. To me, the situation created and manipulated by the poisonous think tanks really points to the inevitability of the progression that was set in motion when the Twin Towers came down. The whole Right v. Left thing fits so readily onto the biblical couch of Good v. Evil. Each side sees the other as Evil. Both see themselves as Good. It's a situation that cannot be resolved short of violence and Christ only knows (no pun intended) who or what will win. Obama is a miracle of sorts: even if he deliberately set out to destroy his credibility with the American people, that he was able to do it so thoroughly and so quickly seems almost like an act of God. It took Dubya six years to make a laughing stock of himself. Starting with his choice of Joe Biden as vice and ending with the health-care quagmire, Obama needed less than one year to accomplish the same feat. All of that, of course, lays at the door of one or another of the so-called "think tanks." Does Obama know he's working as a stooge? Was he in on the scam from the beginning? Was he EVER dumb enough to believe the people he fronts for? Did he actually believe the bogus news? The cooked numbers? The lies of his advisors? Did he think all that was real? Did he credit Money with good intentions and did he think he could sleep peacefully in that cozy, green nest? Did it never occur to him that he was being groomed for a jockey-on-the-lawn's job? And if he didn't know, what will he do when it all lands on him (as such revelations often manifest themselves) with a thud? He has a little while yet before it all lights on him and sticks. What he will do at that moment is the only thing in American politics that I'm still curious about.

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July 23, 2009 | url
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Mike Licht said:

	Summer at C Street The Congressional Recess is coming. Don't forget to sign up for the Fellowship's Vacation Bible School. See: http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/c-street-vacation-bible-school/
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July 23, 2009 | url
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Sean O'Neil said:

here's what I think, Jimmy. I think Obama is just behaving as any eager, upwardly-mobile-looking lawyer from a "top" law school would behave. I saw this sort of behavior when I finished my judicial clerkship and went into practice. Young lawyers I'd been in school with, who questioned justice and corporate finnageling during class, were now eager to make 6-figure incomes and the easiest way to do that is to work for a big firm that provides intellectual talent at a high dollar fee. Such a young lawyer quickly realizes that the way to advance in the big-firm corporate-servant setting is to never question what the client wants or what the client does, and simply to create rational-sounding excuses for the client's most nefarious, selfish, greedy, oppressive tactics and behavior. I know this because I did some of it myself. Some of it, I did for big corporate businesses we all recognize, some of it I did for big national and international insurance companies -- most of whom we'd recognize by name as well. There's a certain seduction involved, where a young adult gets to affiliate him/herself with a commercial powerhouse of the American or International business world. It's not unlike how people become slavering fans of a "pro" sports team -- the idea of greatness-by-affiliation. This, incidentally, is why so many politicians have backgrounds as lawyers with big firms. They are used to offering their brains in service of powerful businesses and individuals, and they are used to doing what essentially is LYING to help those businesses and individuals. I do not for a minute think Obama is noble or pure-hearted or innocent. I feel confident he knows precisely what he is doing. Like many who are eager to get ahead financially and power-wise, he has essentially made a deal with the devil -- he is ignoring his conscience in favor of his wallet and ego. It's an old story. We shouldn't be reluctant to believe it on the simple ground that he has a nice smooth articulate Black man manner about himself.

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July 23, 2009
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mjose said:

WAHEVALA Second try - I hit some key, and off went my carefully written, poetic blast of anti-religious invective. The comments section, usually such a thrill, took off on a weird safari on this topic. The Family is a real, powerful, and lunatic organization, yet its expose by Jeff Sharlet will not shake the supernaturalism adhered to by the majority of US citizens, including the "radicals" who keep insisting that Jesus is just alright, oh yeah. The Senate, and the House, is infested with religious cultism, from Hillary Clinton to Obama to the bizarre Republicans, and I thought that this post from Mr. Floyd was a severe indictment of that overarching "conspiracy," but evidently others read it as a piece about some corporate-hugging Texas gun doctor.

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July 25, 2009
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Sean O'Neil said:

to MJOSE The problem with your complaint here, MJOSE, is that you want me and Jimmy to discuss "The Family" when neither Jimmy nor I have any reason to disagree with the ugliness of such an entity's tactics. Where I would disagree with you is the notion where you suggest that everyone in power is a true religious nut. I'd suggest in contrast that these politicians you're talking about, they're only pretending to be down with Jesus because that's the tenor of America right now -- frightened American know-nothings are reaching to Gawd and the Baby Hey Zeus for comfort and security. It's a cynical ploy by people involved in such entities as The Family. I would wager any sum of money within my command that a good 85-90% of those involved in The Family are fake-Christians who are just going through the motions to get the support of Joe & Ethyl Sixpack... just like Dubya Bush pretended at Christianity, just like John Ashcroft pretends at Christianity. It's basically a cute little club where the feigning of Born-Again status is the secret handshake that gets you in the door. I would imagine you know this already, too.

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August 01, 2009
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