The Fellowship

{{christianity}}
{{confused|{{wpl|The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring|The Fellowship of the Ring}}}}
'''The Fellowship''', more commonly referred to as '''The Family''' (no, not the [[Mafia|Don Corleone]] kind—though they do refer to themselves as "The Christian Mafia"<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/msnbcs-imaddow-showi-prop_b_262011.html MSNBC's <i>Maddow Show</i> Propels Growing DC "Christian Mafia" Scandal]</ref>) is a politically connected [[Christian]] [[fundamentalist]] organization formed in 1935. Its original purpose was to oppose [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt's]] [[New Deal]] policies and spread fundy-ism. It didn't gain serious traction until the [[Cold War]] as it attracted fundies in opposition to [[communism|the Reds]]. It's also notable for being a hotbed of [[racism]], [[homophobia]], and gross [[hypocrisy]]. There is a branch of The Family in the UK called the International Christian Leadership Association, which had connections with the Archbishop of Canterbury at one point. Its members are sworn to a vow of secrecy and it attempts to keep itself out of the public eye. Its only public event is the [[National Prayer Breakfast]] it holds annually, which every sitting US president from [[Dwight Eisenhower]] to [[Donald Trump]] has attended. According to their [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] tax exemption form, their mission statement is:
{{cquote|To develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as "ambassadors of reconciliation," modeling the principles of [[Jesus]], based on loving [[God]] and loving others. To work with the leaders of many nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows, and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. Youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved.<ref>[http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/720/973/2007-720973244-047164d4-9.pdf Their IRS form]</ref>}} 
Their mission is the exact opposite of this, if you wanted to know.

==Jeff Sharlet and Doug Coe tape==
In 2008, Jeff Sharlet, a former intern for The Family, wrote an exposé of the organization and brought a taped lecture series made by current Family leader Doug Coe during the 1980s to public attention. NBC aired an excerpt of the tape in which Coe made some [[Godwin's Law|controversial statements]] about, well, just read…
{{cquote|[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], [[Joseph Goebbels|Goebbels]] and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had… But they bound themselves together in an agreement… Two years before they moved into [[Poland]], these three men had... systematically a plan drawn out… to annihilate the entire Polish population and destroy by numbers every single house… every single building in Warsaw and then to start on the rest of Poland." Coe adds that it worked; they [[Holocaust|killed]] six and a half million "Polish people." Though he calls [[Nazis]] "these enemies of ours," he compares their commitment to Jesus' demands: "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.
…
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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080408010803/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23943446#23943446 NBC Nightly News report on Coe]</ref>}}
This set off a round of internet [[crank|crankery]] in the extreme [[moonbat]] conspiracy circles that The Family was the crypto-[[fascist]] movement they knew had ruled the US all along. In fact, they're just run-of-the-mill [[theocracy|theocrats]] with a massive amount of political pull.

==International and Domestic Involvement in Major Political Affairs==
The Family has been implicated in a number of incidents involving diplomacy, Federal politics, and foreign relations:
*Being behind [[Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter's]] international call to prayer during the Camp David Accord meetings with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat.
*"Networking" with dictators such as Indonesia's General [[Suharto]], [[Somalia]]'s Siad Barre, and the generals of [[Brazil]]'s military dictatorship.
*Convincing Ford to pardon Nixon for the Watergate break-in.<ref name="sharlet">[http://www.amazon.com/Family-Jeff-Sharlet-ebook/dp/B000SFZK3Y/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389402348&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=the+family+fundamentlism Sharlet, Jeff. 2009. ''The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power'' HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY]</ref>
*Procuring the release by Allied forces and immigration to the United States of former Nazis after WWII.<ref name="sharlet" />
*Its involvement in [[Uganda]]. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania redirected millions in foreign aid for sex education into [[abstinence]]-only programs. David Bahati, who proposed the bill in Uganda that would make being [[gay]] punishable by death, is associated with The Family.

==C Street controversy==
As lobbyists have [[K Street project|K Street]], fundies have C Street. The C Street complex is supposedly a "church," but is actually a residence for Congresscritters who belong to The Family, notable fundies, and visiting foreign dignitaries. While complaints had been made about its [[tax-exempt]] status before, a number of sex scandals in 2009 put it in the public eye. Senator John Ensign and [[South Carolina]] Governer [[Mark Sanford]] both admitted to using the C Street residence as a place to boink their mistresses while hiding the affairs from their wives. Former Representative Chip Pickering has also been slapped with a lawsuit by his wife for having a C Street affair. (Those with excellent memories will recall Pickering from his cameo in Borat at a pro-[[creationism|creationist]] meeting.)

Due to continued complaints, the C Street residence had its tax exemption partially revoked in 2009. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington continues to accuse it of allowing below market rents for Congressmen. A number of mainstream Christian churches have also called it out for not being a real church as well as distancing themselves from The Family as too political or just nutty.

C Street is owned by the [[dominionist]] organization, Youth With a Mission.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/ensigns-c-street-house-ow_b_230015.html Ensign's "C Street House" Owned By Group Touting Plans For Christian World Control]</ref>

==Notable members==
{{collist|2|
*[[Sam Brownback]], former governor of Kansas
*[[Hillary Clinton]], former First Lady, D-NY, and Secretary of State, and Presidential hopeful<ref>[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-hillary-clintons-religion-and-politics Hillary’s Prayer: Hillary Clinton’s Religion and Politics]</ref>
*Tom Coburn, R-OK
*[[Chuck Colson]], deceased, former counsel to [[Richard Nixon|Tricky Dick]] and [[conservative talk radio|talk radio nut]]
*Jim DeMint, formerly R-SC
*[[Harold Hughes]], deceased, former governor and senator from Iowa.
*[[James Inhofe|Jim Inhofe]], R-OK
*Melvin Laird, deceased, R-WI and Secretary of Defense under [[Richard Nixon]]
*Don Nickles, formerly R-OK
*Bart Stupak, D-MI
*Paul N. Temple, deceased, crank billionaire, former Exxon executive, and former president of the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences]]
*John Thune, R-SD
*[[Strom Thurmond]], deceased, Racist-SC
}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090815192319/http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15778 All in the Family], World Magazine
===Videos===
*[https://www.netflix.com/watch/80149277 <i>The Family</i>]. A five-part limited series created by Netflix in 2019.

==Sources==
*''The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power'' by Jeff Sharlet. Excerpt and interview at [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516 NPR] and spin-off article at [http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525 Harper's].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fellowship, The}}
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Fundamentalist Christian organizations]]
[[Category:Homophobia]]
[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Political action groups]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]
[[Category:Theocracy]]

Categories: Crimes against humanity, Fundamentalist Christian organizations, Homophobia, Organizations, Political action groups, Purity culture, Theocracy