Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

Principessa

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Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

Barbara Ehrenreich

There's a reason why Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" -- their term -- and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, writer Jeff Sharlet joined the Family's home for young men, foreswearing sex, drugs, and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners -- alone.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes -- knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:

During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.
At the heart of the Family's American branch is a collection of powerful rightwing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe, and Rick Santorum. They get to use the Family's spacious estate on the Potomac, the Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by the Family's young women's group. And, at the Family's frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already-powerful.

Clinton fell in with the Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, the Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."

Furthermore, the Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.

What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including new age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal Rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.

Sharlet generously attributes Clinton's involvement to the underappreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define the Family's theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worship Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as the Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power -- cultivating it, building it, and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe has said, and "build new power where we can't."


Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity Unity Church of Christ. Now it's up to Clinton to explain -- or, better yet, renounce -- her longstanding connection with the fascist-leaning Family.

Interesting article not sure how much is truth though. I find this interesting because during her husbands presidencys and when First Lady of Arkansas she was a member of theUnited Methodist Church. I'm mystified at her being a part of such a conservative group; but maybe she joined in the midst of that whole Monica Mess. You know how some people turn to the curch in times of strife and desperation.

Then again, there is no law saying she has to remain the same faith for all eternity...
 

TheRob

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Interesting article not sure how much is truth though. I find this interesting because during her husbands presidencys and when First Lady of Arkansas she was a member of theUnited Methodist Church. I'm mystified at her being a part of such a conservative group; but maybe she joined in the midst of that whole Monica Mess. You know how some people turn to the curch in times of strife and desperation.

Then again, there is no law saying she has to remain the same faith for all eternity...


I have a lot of difficulty believing anyone who's overall point is that Hillary is a Right Wing Conservative....
 

TurkeyWithaSunburn

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What kind of fucked up lame ass can't check facts reporter WROTE this garbage?!?! there are TWO seperate organizations

just wiki the family

Children of God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Family International - An International Christian Fellowship - The Family International's Homepage is a WELLKNOWN CULT it has had such exposure as a cult on the Geraldo Rivera show in the 80's all the way thru Dateline NBC shows as recently as a year ago. Started in late 60's and fled several countries because of a nasty little problem with pedophilia.

from wiki under Raised in COG as children: ""Actors River Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Rain Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix as well as sister Liberty Phoenix were members of the cult from 1972-1978. River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose in 1993, told Details magazine in November 1991 that he lost his virginity at the age of four whilst in the group.[32] He said of the group, "they're ruining people's lives". ""




The Family (Christian political organization) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia started in the 1930's anti commie pro christian type organization


You would think that the cult would feature the national prayer breakfast on their webpage to attract more members. They don't... Same name different organizations sad someone could not spend 2 seconds doing background checking, fact verifying, or whatever you want to call it.
 

Trinity

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:rolleyes: Turn about is fair play. People have been kvetching about Barak Obama and his minister for what seems like weeks.


This would be funny if it wasn't just sad. A sad attempt to show something that isn't there because Obama chose Wright as his Mentor and Moral Compass and remained in the church where Wright ranted his inflammatory beliefs in the pulpit.

Grasping at anything is just sad.
 

playainda336

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This would be funny if it wasn't just sad. A sad attempt to show something that isn't there because Obama chose Wright as his Mentor and Moral Compass and remained in the church where Wright ranted his inflammatory beliefs in the pulpit.

Grasping at anything is just sad.
Hey, did you happen to catch John McCain's pastor's take on it? Or are you still enjoying your vacation in the Twilight Zone?
 

Trinity

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Hey, did you happen to catch John McCain's pastor's take on it? Or are you still enjoying your vacation in the Twilight Zone?


Of course I caught McCain's Pastor's comments on Obama and Wright. What he said has no bearing on the points made regarding the questions raised on judgment and character of Obama choosing Wright as a Mentor and Obama remaining a member of the church for 20 years unless McCain's Pastor both agrees with Rev.Wright's beliefs and ideologies and has spoken the same things in the pulpit. If that happened...let us know.
 

playainda336

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He said that John McCain would say exactly what Obama said if you asked him if he agreed with everything that he (his minister) said.

Basically, a preacher's words have no bearing on a political campaign and how it is run.
 

hotbtminla

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Why do I keep reading the title of this thread as "Hillary's Nasty Prostate"?!? :eek: :rolleyes:

VeeP - too fucking funny. I looked at this thread title several times and thought it said "Hillary's Nasty Pastorale" And I saw that NJ posted it, so I assumed it wasn't a wind-up thread, or at least knew it wasn't a troll thread, and yet I sat here confused as all hell wondering when Hillary started composing music.

Reminds me of the "Guiche Piercing" thread that looked like "Quiche Piercing." :biggrin1: