"The Family" -- A Church That Has Breached the Wall, Invaded The State -- On Netflix

[ancianita]

[AJT]

1. I vaguely remember stories about these freaks from years ago.

Members from Congress share houses on "C" street. Members of congress that belong have infected other countries, like Ghana, to push the death penalty for being gay. If they can't get the death penalty here they will start elsewhere and push slowly here. They have succeeded in pushing against birth control here, and they will continue to move this country backwards. They are well financed and very determined, after all they believe they work for god.
They are incredibly dangerous to any liberal democracy.

[YOHABLO]

2. I looked for this on Netflix and could not find it..

[lunasun]

3. Came up as a suggested watch for me on my service

Added to my watchlist
said N series The Family

[ancianita]

5. Isn't there a Search feature you can type the name into? Maybe I'm thinking of On Demand.

[blm]

4. The REAL Deep State pulling strings with their latest partner Putin.

[ancianita]

6. Haven't seen it yet, but those were my thoughts exactly, with the USDA being the good guys.

[MuseRider]

7. On episode 3.

Not surprised but then I read Sharlets book. Still creepy as hell. Well done.

[ancianita]

8. Thanks. Some aren't, so I'm glad for a positive review.

[2naSalit]

9. Rachel Maddow had a lot to sy about them

a few years ago, I recall her going in depth about them which is where I got most of my info about them. I'm glad there is another wave of exposure, these f'ers are dangerous.

[ancianita]

10. I remember vaguely about the house in DC for men in the The Family, and their influence beyond the

prayer breakfast which is a practice that should be abolished on tax funded property, and, in my view, done away with altogether.

It's Breakfast Club Jesus cover for theocracy.

[2naSalit]

11. That's what I thought too.

Well, I guess I still think that now. They've been allowed to function and fuck up the country for a long time. Something needs to be done about that though I'm not sure what. They certainly need to be exposed and disbanded.

[ancianita]

12. Disbanded and sent back where they came from.

[2naSalit]

13. Indeed...nt

[Maggiemayhem]

14. So nobody here ever heard of Theocracy Watch at Cornell?

Mickey Weinstein?

[Pacifist Patriot]

15. I have, but I am not surprised it isn't universally known, even in progressive circles.

I've stopped being stunned that more people don't know the work Mikey's done with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Separation of church and state seems to get sporadic attention, like when a case makes it to the Supreme Court. Hobby Lobby for instance.

My personal experience in progressive circles (and I know the plural of anecdote is not data), is that there is a group of people incredibly tuned in to protecting the wall - activists, a group of people who know it's a problem but rely on the tuned in group to protect it - donors, and a vast number of people who think the first amendment is providing adequate protection and just gets challenged every once in awhile, but we'll be fine in the long run.

[ancianita]

16. It's a Big Mistake to not take their presence seriously. Those "gone" from Congress are not gone.

Info summary from NPR here is ten years old, to give us a sense of their past presence.

Much of this info is current and remains relevant, one major point being, that the national prayer breakfast is The Family's only visible presence.

There is a closely guarded database within the following variations of their organization, some active, some defunct:

National Committee for Christian Leadership,
International Christian Leadership,
National Leadership Council,
the Fellowship Foundation,
the International Foundation.

The Fellowship Foundation alone has an annual budget of nearly $14 million. It's still active.
The bulk of it, $12 million, goes to "mentoring, counseling, and partnering with friends around the world," but that represents only a fraction of the network's finances.

Are any of these leaders still around? Some are "gone," but as theocrats, they're never gone.

Some "gones" are likely to have been replaced by theocrats, not secularists. I've only looked up a few of their successors, not taking heart in voter changes, except John Ensign's seat.

Current known members are bolded.

Sen. John Ensign (gone in 2011, seat now occupied by pro-choice Jackie Rosen)
Rep. Bart Stupak (gone in 2011) seat occupied by Jack Bergman (military man from MI)
Rep. Joe Pitts, (gone in 2016) seat occupied by Lloyd Smucker (PA)
Sam Brownback (served as the United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom since February 2018 when he left Congress)
Jim DeMint (left in 2013, served at Heritage Foundation; later became a senior advisor to Citizens for Self-Governance; now the founding chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute)

Carl Curtis (dead senator friend of dead Strom Thurmond, members of the family)
Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa, still here)
James Inhofe (R., Oklahoma, still here);
Tom Coburn (left in 2014, "Dr. No" is senior advisor to Citizens for Self-Governance (w/ Jim DeMint, where he has been active in calling for a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, which is at the top of the Koch mission);
John Thune (still here, R., South Dakota, dedicated to repealing Obamacare)
Mike Enzi (R., Wyoming still here & part of the Gang of Six)
Zach Wamp (R., Tennessee),


Democrats:
Mike Doyle, (D, Pennsylvania's 18th)leading anti-abortion Democrats, are longtime residents of the Family's C Street House, a
Frank Wolf (left 2014), C St. House member succeeded by Barbara Comstock
Mike McIntyre, (D, North Carolina)


Mike McIntyre, a hard right North Carolina Democrat believes that the Ten Commandments are "the fundamental legal code for the laws of the United States" and thus ought to be on display in schools and court houses.

McIntyre was Co-Chairman of the Congressional Prayer Breakfast, which has over 100 members. The caucus meets regularly on the first night of each week that Congress is in session.

McIntyre is co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast, on the first Thursday each February, at which
3000 lay leaders,
clergy,
business leaders
various world leaders,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the Pentagon,
Senators,
Members of Congress and other persons from the three branches


Charles W. Colson — born again through the guidance of the Family and the ministry of a CEO of arms manufacturer Raytheon — estimates the Family's strength at 20,000, although the number of dedicated "associates" around the globe is much smaller (around 350 as of 2006).

But within the organization money moves in ... "man-to-man" financial support that's off the books, a constant proliferation of new nonprofits big and small that submit to the Family's spiritual authority, money flowing up and down the quiet hierarchy.

Regardless of who in Congress is currently in it, this "Family" has changed history:

"... a Family prayer group of Republican congressmen and former secretary of defense Melvin Laird helped convince President Gerald Ford that Richard Nixon deserved not just Christian forgiveness but also a legal pardon.

That same year, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist led the Family's first weekly Bible study for federal judges.

The Family operates within defense contractor industries:

Regular prayer groups, or "cells" as they're often called, have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_McIntyre#Prayer_Caucus_Leadership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_(Christian_organization)

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516