The Fellowship

The Fellowship, also known as The Family, is a Christian, political organization based in Washington D.C. that has numerous US government and international political connections. They host the National Prayer Breakfast, have provided support to legislators through the C Street Center, received various foreign dignitaries and ambassadors, own properties around DC and the United States, and are connected to religious organizations around the world. Every sitting United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in a National Prayer Breakfast during his term.

The Fellowship's former leader, the late Douglas Coe, and others have explained the organization's desire for secrecy by citing biblical admonitions against public displays of good works, insisting they would not be able to complete diplomatically sensitive missions if they drew public attention. Coe has compared his group to Hitler's cult of personality and Mao's Red Guard in the Cultural Revolution. In one study, one in three "evangelical elites" cited the Fellowship as an important influence.

Doug Burleigh is a key figure in the organization and has taken over organizing the National Prayer Breakfast since the death of his father-in-law, Doug Coe. He previously had a leadership role in the organization and has spoken at the Russian prayer breakfast.

Many United States senators and congressmen have publicly acknowledged working with the Fellowship or are documented as having worked together to pass or influence legislation. They apparently worked behind the scenes in the negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and in peace talks between Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

According to journalist Jeff Sharlett, "The Family really begins when the founder (Abraham Vereide) has this vision, which he thinks comes from God, that Harry Bridges, this Australian labour organiser who organised really the biggest strike in American history, a very successful strike, is a Satanic and Soviet agent." The National Prayer Breakfast traces its roots back to this as well, with a meeting on 19 business executives.

Interesting Quotes:

Dr. Abraham Vereide, founder: We are commited to a fellowship of responsible men, banded together to promote a leadership led by God, Christians become leaders, and help make leaders Christian."

Hillary Clinton: "Doug Coe, the longtime National Prayer Breakfast organizer, 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 to God."

US Rep Tony Hall: "If people in this country knew how many Democrats and Republicans pray together and actually like each other behind closed doors, they would be amazed."

Doug Coe: "Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had... But they bound themselves together in an agreement... Jesus said, 'You have to put me before other people. And you have to put me before yourself.' Hitler, that was the demand to be in the Nazi party. You have to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of your own life and ahead of other people."

Doug Coe: "I've seen pictures of young men in the Red Guard of China... They would bring in this young man's mother and father, lay her on the table with a basket on the end, he would take an axe and cut her head off... They have to put the purposes of the Red Guard ahead of the mother-father-brother-sister — their own life! That was a covenant. A pledge. That was what Jesus said."

Doug Coe, on his relationships with foreign dictators: "I never invite them. They come to me. And I do what Jesus did: I don't turn my back to any one. You know, the Bible is full of mass murderers."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Fellowship\_(Christian\_organization)

The Family, Netflix Series