Hillary's Nasty Pastorate - "The Family" er... "The Fellowship" (on edit)

[autorank]

(No, not the Manson Family, worse.)

The Nation: Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

Barbara Ehrenreich

March 19, 2008

There's a reason 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," also known as 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.


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 right-wing 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, Adolf 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.

[JVS]

1. Is that her "No wire hangers" pic?

[autorank]

2. Look it's simple, wood just won't do!

"No MORE wire hangers!" But the best Crawford moment is when she tells the Pepsi (I think) Board of Directors exactly why they can't ever fire her.

[casus belli]

4. Not too close kids, it looks hungry. n/t

[durrrty libby]

3. Nothing will ever come close to "Gaaawd Daaaayum Ameeeeerica"

That is the best and will forever be beloved by Ameeeeerica

[autorank]

5. Oh, I think that this could top it...

Involves real people... and a claimed co presidency from 1992-2000.

Look what they cooked up:


"Clinton carried on official U.S. policy by vigorously pursuing the U.N. embargo on Iraq. The
relentless bombing plus the total embargo, including medicine, cost the lives of over 1.3 million Iraqi
civilians, including several hundred thousand children."

I see over a million dead civilians form '92 - '00

The OP references the consistency from the Iraqi embargo HRC "co-presidented" and her comfort with
the family, er, "The Fellowship."

[indimuse]

10. ..

Don't sing God bless America...No.. No..you sing!!!...God DAMN America!!!

[durrrty libby]

12. "No..No..No"....Daaayum...I love it. The gift that will keep on giving

:headbang: :applause: :woohoo: :headbang:

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

16. dialect? really? you're typing FUCKING DIALECT? give me a fucking break.

You've undercut any possible point you could've had by revealing yourself for what you are.

[MadHound]

14. Considering we're talking about hobnobbing with theocrats,

People like Brownback and Sanctorum, people who make policy, yeah, I'd say that this is more serious than the Wright affair. This is Hillary who is participating, not somebody once removed from the candidate like Wright is.

[autorank]

26. You can only attack Obama by proxy... But this is voluntary association by HRC

Obama's minister, a couple of Obama aids - that's how totally pathetic the Clinton campaign is.

They go after him by proxy. Truly pathetic.

HRC voluntarily joined this right wing, neo fascist group. How about that? You must like it, right?

[NorthernSpy]

31. God can damn America any time.

Try not to deserve it.

[stellanoir]

6. creepy

Where do you dig up this stuff?

5th rec

[autorank]

19. A little known publication called "The Nation"

But lookie here, my dear...

Hillary's Choice
Atlantic Mag & MSNBC
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/green-hillary

Of the many realms of power on Capitol Hill, the least understood may be the lawmakers’ prayer group. The tradition of private worship in small, informal gatherings is one that stretches back for generations, as does a genuine tendency within them to transcend partisanship, though as with so much that is religiously oriented in Washington, the chief adherents are the more conservative Republicans.

Most of the prayer groups are informally affiliated with a secretive Christian organization called the Fellowship, established in the 1930s by a Methodist evangelist named Abraham Vereide, whose great hope was to preach the word of Jesus to political and business leaders throughout the world. Vereide believed that the best way to change the powerful was through discreet personal ministry, and over his lifetime he succeeded to a remarkable degree. The first Senate prayer group met over breakfast in 1943; a decade later one of its members, Senator Frank Carlson, persuaded Dwight Eisenhower to host a Presidential Prayer Breakfast, which has become a tradition.

[stellanoir]

30. Wise ass

But so am I. I had in truth, seen it on the Huff Post earlier so that inquiry was semi rhetorical and not quite entirely sincere. Sorry

Just pretending to strive to become fully ensconced in the illustrious ranks of your cyber groupies marveling excessively over your investigative skills is all.

I should go to the Nation more often.

I think Katrina's one of our very best progressive voices for sure.

:hi: & :loveya:

[autorank]

42. She is

Katrina.

And, in response to your slur re moi, I am;)

[stellanoir]

7. self deleted inadvertent duplicate

Ughhh

[meow mix]

8. People want to Talk about Cults? The Fellowship is one and reminds me of Scientology

creepy ass stuff. Hubbard meets the Money Gods.

[autorank]

21. Nice...

I hadn't thought about that angle. These "prayer" folks have a good spin - but prayer at breakfast.

On the whole, I'd prefer a cut of strong coffee;)

[Firespirit]

9. OK, after 2006 I never thought I'd feel sorry for Hillary

but this makes me sick at heart.

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.

How many people are drawn to authoritarian religious sects because of inner turmoil? I have watched my liberal mother become a fundamentalist when her marriage fell to pieces, and it began innocuously, with finding a "church family" that offered support that she wasn't getting elsewhere. I've heard about the ugliness that Hillary dealt with in her first year in Washington and can see from personal experience how a group like this would seem appealing. With an agenda like that, it's no surprise that it turned her into the ruthless individual she is today.

I don't approve of what she has done, but this humanizes it for me at least. God forgive her. :(

[KittyWampus]

15. that is one of the oddest reactions to Hillary's lust for power I've ever read.

[Perry Logan]

11. Now that Hillary is our only viable candidate, is it good strategy to attack her?

Good to see the Clintophobes back on their feet. That Wright thing actually shut them up for a while. Talk about silver linings!

Fellow Clinton-haters will enjoy these threads, but normal people have long ago noticed that Clintophobes have all the credibility of Flat Earthers.

Not to insult Flat Earthers.

Anyway, the current situation suggests that you put a lid on it, rather than doing the RNC's spadework for them.

They may have some job openings, if you'd like to get paid for your efforts.

[autorank]

23. Opposing free speech... a new low

First, Obama isn't Wright - he denied those words. Will Hillary deny this absurdist but dangerous cult?

I doubt it.

Second, in case you hadn't noticed, 48% of the public consistently "disapproves" of Hillary. Call that viable if you must but you're stretching beyond reason.

Third, this is a information post from a liberal magazine. If they know and find it odd, at least,
how far will HRC get before this becomes an issue.

Keep drinking that cool aid, da plane will be here any minute to carry us away to fantasy land - where
somebody 1/2 the country can't stand is viewed as VIABLE.

[oldgrowth]

13. They are some power hungry elites wackos !!

[Me.]

17. You're MIssing The Difference, Thus The Disqualifer

They're a quiet group, they will never scare us by yelling and screaming with passion. Besides, we and this country belong to them,'in Christ". They are the anointed ones and are free to take our country to lower depths, strip away our rights. They will smother us all with their values,

IT would be interesting to know how many DLCers belong to this group.

[KittyWampus]

22. most members are Republicans

[autorank]

27. She must feel at home then;) n/t

[Me.]

33. Would That Be Republican Republicans

or DLC republicans? :hi:

[autorank]

24. They are quiet but they'll float to the surface when the book hits the stands

They're slick only until there's a light on them.

It's coming.

Good points though...

Can you believe that we're actually going to nominate someone who voluntarily jointed a group like this?

[Me.]

32. Um

who said we were going to nominate that person, did you mean considering nominating? Not to split hairs here, but ok, I have. :evilgrin:

[autorank]

35. It's your nature;)

But to nurture my point - you think that this is not a rigged game?

Why wouldn't it be.

Here's proof. The voting problems and other key problems like voter caging,
registration fraud, etc. are all very easy to solve. The 110th Congress chose
not to solve them. Therefore...

[Me.]

38. I Think There Have Been Attempts

I mean how do 88 districts record NO votes for Bama? Has that been resolved yet? The complication for them is that there are too many wild cards, variables, in tis election. So many new voters have signed up for dems that if this continues, there will be no chance of a Con majority for at least the next 20 years. Plus Bama's coffers are filled t overflowing. This is where both the money and the numbers are. In addition, these people are diehard fervent. They are watching and looking. Now when you add in the 50 state strategy, it becomes even harder to control the process. It was much easier when only BIG states counted.

IMHO, the dem leadership knows all this and can see the catch-22 brewing here. If they get their nom of choice they will lose everything they've wanted to obtain for years. I believe Pelosi and others are aware of the danger of a short term strategy.

However, I will nurture your point because it's my nature

[Scurrilous]

18. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Texas Hill Country]

20. my ignore list is getting big.

[autorank]

25. I guess you'll never see this message

:hi:

[Cali_Democrat]

28. Why?

[dgibby]

29. tangled web

I believe this group is (informally ???) aligned with the Dominionists--not good! Can't figure where the Rev Moon fits into this equation, but there is, I believe, a connection to all these groups, and none of it bodes well for the rest of us. Does anyone else have the answer? By the way, I'm not suggesting that Hillary is connected to Moon personally, just the groups.

[AntiFascist]

37. I recall that people like Blackwell and other big Ohio politicos...

are also members of the Fellowship. Dominionism fits in very well with validation of the need for election fraud as well as world domination a la PNAC. I think it was Joe Scarborough who recently joked on MSNBC about the idea of people democratically choosing their leaders as being "quaint".

[NorthernSpy]

34. ROTFLMAO!!! I'm sorry, that picture...

:rofl:



(I know about the Family. You wouldn't think a power cult founded by a 1930s by a Nazi sympathizer and boasting death-squad leaders for members could hold "prayer breakfasts" at the highest levels of government without attracting more scrutiny from the press, but that's the mainscream media for you.)

[autorank]

36. It is kind of funny, if you leave out the rest of the details...

... and why not. These people need to be mocked. Your sentence summary/question
is perfect for those purposes.

:hi:

[ClayZ]

39. K and R

[smartguy1214185]

40. Hi

Hillary is the mac beth of the democratic party

[smartguy1214185]

41. Hillary is the Macbeth of the democratic party!

Hillary is the Macbeth of the democratic party

[HCE SuiGeneris]

43. More hypocrisy from the Clinton camp. What a surprise...

:sigh: