Comments on: God’s Senators

By: shell

shell — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:43:33 +0000

I want to know the names of ALL the public, political people on their list!

I know I remember Hillary Clinton being on the list (shortly after she was elected senator). Did they help her get elected?

I am sick of partisan BS. “GOP BAD, Dems GOOD!”

If Dems (yes, even Hillary) use this freak show, tell us.

By: Robt

Robt — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:57:39 +0000

I think you hit the mark with the GOd’s Governor.

It was his spiritual advisor/marraige councilor Cubby that told Sanford if he was to find a way to force himself to fall back in love with his wife. She would be bound to take him back and he then could stay on as Governor because it would be right with God.
Well pretty darn close to that effect….

I understand George Washington was agnostic. Might have been a good reason for it.

By: gmoke

gmoke — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:54:56 +0000

“Then Mark Sanford invoked King David as a justification for staying in power, an unorthodox reading of scripture I was familiar with from my time as a member of the Family. In short, Sanford was telling the public that he’s governor not because they elected him but because he was chosen by God. That, to me, is a lot more disturbing than the news that he has a libido.”

Bishop Bossuet would be proud.

By: Blub

Blub — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:38:23 +0000

at what point should we start worrying about the potential of a coup d’état… or that a coup has already happened? 15,000 military officers, senators, congressmen, governors… all part of this Cult of David?

By: cbl2

cbl2 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:25:04 +0000

Thank you so much for returning to the Lake today, a genuine privilege to catch your insights on this -

Congratulations on the current success and well earned spotlight - hope you are enjoying the ride

By: MidnightWalker

MidnightWalker — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:48:08 +0000

I’ve been noticing for years, the Republicans that do the podium/scandal speech, always invoke God. You nailed it! Be it gay sex scandals, mistresses, non-sex scandals…they all invoke something religious. Good one! You got it! And it IS implying, “Don’t you dare judge me, because God chose me!”

By: Jeff Sharlet

Jeff Sharlet — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:30:07 +0000

Funny you should say that — they call themselves the Christian Mafia. But that’s the extent of that connection.

I think you’re thinking of Tim LaHaye. Different power base. He’s a premillenialist — thinks Christ is coming back any day. Family is postmillenial — thinks Christ is coming back only after 1000 years of Christian rule.

LEHANE, meanwhile, is a fine novelist. Mystic River.

By: Kassandra

Kassandra — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:50:17 +0000

It sounds like the mafia to me. I always suspected that “the Family” got good government rates after the Kennedy assassination. The whole country seems to be run by organized crime now; maybe the whole world is.
You can bet that Lehane is part of this while thing too, Left Behind and all that.

By: Jeff Sharlet

Jeff Sharlet — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:46:42 +0000

Hey, thanks for your interest, folks, and apologies for my delay in responding. Got a baby in one arm, typing slowly with the other. In brief:

I came across what looked like some Mike Pence connections but didn’t follow up for the book. That’s worth investigating. Of course, the easiest way to start is to ask him — that’s how I learned of Rep. Frank Wolf’s involvement, for instance.

As for connections to youth ministries: galore. The House on C Street is actually owned by Youth With a Mission. The Family has long looked at Young Life, a mostly innocuous outfit, as something akin to a farm team. Likewise the Navigators, from whence the current leader, Doug Coe, came. Bill Bright and Campus Crusade were helped out in the early days by the Family and repaid the favor many times over during hte last couple decades.

WOmen — in general, the core leadership of the Family subscribes to the idea of “male headship.” You can guess what that amounts to. But they do work with women with power. AS doguc Coe says, “We work w/ power where we can, buld new power where we can’t.”

Rev. Ben Daniel, a former member, describes it in an article he wrote — Family women say that in their husband’s lives first comes The Family, then them. And thy think that’s fine.

Took five years of archival research and interviews and writing to put the book togehrter.

Thanks! I’ll check in later!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:46:23 +0000

I think I remember that Mark Sanford talked about being in other countries with a group of other men when he “crossed the line” with other women. Were those men from The Family? Were there others who used it as an opportunity to meet safe women in another country and be sexual, as long as it wasn’t actually intercourse, of course?