dictators

I had no idea about this religious group called “The Family.” Oh, and why are there several congressmen living in this dorm? I really don’t understand this. This is very weird.

I must congratulate Rachel Maddow for digging into this very disturbing story.

Check this out:
Sanford was referring to the address of the Washington headquarters for The Family — perhaps the most politically powerful religious group in Washington. Sponsor of the annual National Prayer Breakfast that draws leading U.S. politicians, the secretive Christian organization also known as The Fellowship was founded in Seattle in 1935 by Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant and itinerant preacher who worked with the city’s poor and feared the pull of socialism. He claimed that God appeared to him to warn that Christianity’s preoccupation with the poor and weak was misguided, so Vereide began to minister to the powerful. He organized prayer breakfasts for political and business leaders to promote anti-Communism and anti-unionism, and the group later went on to work with dictators in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The family is headed by a man named Douglas Coe, who has controversially encouraged the men under his tutelage to follow Jesus with the same sort of blind devotion shown by Hitler’s followers. The members also refer to themselves as the “new chosen people,” believing that the Jews broke their covenant with God.

Incorporated today as a tax-free 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation, the Family maintains a three-story, $1.1 million brick townhouse at 133 C St. in Washington — a former convent that’s now home to members of Congress while being treated like a church under tax law. Among the lawmakers who have rented rooms there are Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Other lawmakers linked to the group include Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who also recently admitted to an extramarital affair.

In a meeting with his cabinet after his public confession, the New York Times reported, Gov. Sanford apologized for letting people down but said he has no plans to resign. He referred to the biblical story of King David: “the way in which he fell mightily … but then picked up the pieces and built from there.” (more…)