maven&meddler

The Family, which I’m now reading, just may be one of the most frightening and enlightening books I’ve ever read. Wow, there’s a statement. But, it’s true. Free market fundamentalist religious nuttiness combined with scary imperial ambition.

I find myself shaking my head in almost disbelief as I read about the far reaching tentacles of this secretive organization. It reaches back in time - back to the Great Depression, through the Cold War until now. It reaches across party lines. It also has a global reach, from the Middle East, to Somalia, to Indonesia, to ‘C’ Street. And, most disturbingly, it’s membership reach extends to the highest positions in both the government and corporate worlds.

“This is a group that is explicitly opposed to democracy, explicitly opposed to doing things in public. They believe “the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence you can have.” That’s a direct quote from Doug Coe. They’re acting like a lobby; they’re not registering like a lobby…”Jeff Sharlet

Ultimately, I find myself thinking that this would finally explain the puzzling question of why so many Democrats seem to act like Republicans. I think the book just might explain a lot of other puzzling questions that progressive Democrats have struggled with, such as trying to get a grip on ‘who the enemy’ is these days. Is it the christian ‘right’? This group even claims that they are not Christians, but rather ‘believers’.  Is is just Republicans? What about corporations?

It’s become really hard to tell who the good guys are anymore. What I do know is that this book goes a huge step further in proving that with the right veneer of religious belief you can justify absolutely anything- from corporate greed run amok to nation building to support for dictators.

‘The Family’ takes these threads and melds them with the decline and fall of labor in America into a sprawling story of who really holds the reins of power in America and just what they plan to do with it.

“According to David Kuo, former special assistant to President George W. Bush and deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, he said, “The Fellowship’s reach into governments around the world is almost impossible to overstate or even grasp.” “

Like Barbara Ehrenrich (‘Nickle and Dimed’ and ‘Bright Sided’) says, you should read this book - just not late at night. Yup, it’s that scary.

Read more about The Family, aka The Fellowship on Wikipedia.

Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. He is a contributing editor for Harper’s and Rolling Stone and a visiting research scholar at the New York University Center for Religion and Media.

In 2002, he joined the Family’s home for young men at an estate in Virginia, becoming a member of the Family’s so-called “new chosen.” He first wrote an article about his research in Harpers magazine.