Sen. Inhofe, C Street, and the "Jesus Thing"http://rightwingwatch.org/content/sen-inhofe-c-street-and-jesus-thingThe entire thing is fascinating and worth reading, but I was particularly interested in Sharlet's explanation of how the organization regularly funds junkets overseas for its members that are, in essence, missionary trips:
Most of the trips sponsored by the Family aren't pleasure junkets. They're missionary work. Only the Family missionaries aren't representing the United States. They're representing "Jesus plus nothing," as Doug Coe puts it ... when they arrive in other countries, on trips paid for by the Family, at the behest of the Family, they are still traveling under official government auspices, on official business, with the pomp and circumstance -- and access -- of their taxpayer-funded, elected positions.
Considering that Sen. Jim Inhofe is reportedly a member of the organization as well, this goes a long way toward explaining
this video we posted earlier this year in which he bragged to Faith and Action's Rob Schenck about this missionary trips through which he uses his standing as a US Senator to bring people to Jesus:
In fact, in this video posted today by Faith and Action’s Rob Schenck, it sounds an awful like Inhofe is using these trips for exactly that purpose, as he relates how, before his first trip to Africa, he found out that his daughter was also going to be there doing missionary work and told her that “if you go with me, it’s free.” He also explains that the trips are part of the “politics of Jesus” whereby Christians are instructed to take the name of Jesus to the kings. Being a US Senator, Inhofe says, means Africans think he is important and so he can always get in to see the kings, where he can tell them that he has come “in the spirit of Jesus.” Inhofe even holds up a copy of the Oklahoman featuring the above-mentioned article to defend himself, saying the article is an example of “persecution” and insisting that he is doing this work as a private citizen before trumpeting the fact that, through his work, he has managed to bring entire African villages to Jesus.
In December,
the Oklahoman reported that Sen. James Inhofe had regularly been making trips to Africa, using taxpayer money, in order to spread the gospel of Christ
In the past decade, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Tulsa has made at least 20 trips to Africa as part of a mission that he frequently describes in religious terms.
Inhofe’s African trips have cost taxpayers more than $187,000 since 1999, according to a review of expenses Inhofe and staff members have submitted through the Armed Services Committee.
Inhofe insists that his trips have either been paid for personally or stemmed directly from his work in Congress on humanitarian, national security and economic matters. But Inhofe’s own words make it sound as if these trips are more about using his office and standing as a US Senator in order to evangelize:
Some of the trips have been taken on military planes that cost thousands of dollars an hour to operate. The military does not disclose the cost of flying members of Congress to their destinations.
The trips — which Inhofe has referred to publicly as "a Jesus thing” — have spanned the continent, though the senator has spent most of his time in a few countries, including Uganda and Ethiopia.
In an interview with an Assemblies of God publication in 2002, Inhofe said, "I’ve adopted 12 countries all the way from Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, and Gabon in West Africa as far east as Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. I’m planning to meet with nine presidents in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. My focus will be to meet in the spirit of Jesus.”
…
Inhofe said he wasn’t trying to push a specific religious agenda in Africa and that he considered Jesus "a common denominator” in his meetings with African leaders of different faiths … I’m guilty of two things. I’m a Jesus guy, and I have a heart for Africa.”
In fact, in this video posted today by Faith and Action’s Rob Schenck, it sounds an awful like Inhofe is using these trips for exactly that purpose, as he relates how, before his first trip to Africa, he found out that his daughter was also going to be there doing missionary work and told her that “if you go with me, it’s free.” He also explains that the trips are part of the “politics of Jesus” whereby Christians are instructed to take the name of Jesus to the kings. Being a US Senator, Inhofe says, means Africans think he is important and so he can always get in to see the kings, where he can tell them that he has come “in the spirit of Jesus.” Inhofe even holds up a copy of the Oklahoman featuring the above-mentioned article to defend himself, saying the article is an example of “persecution” and insisting that he is doing this work as a private citizen before trumpeting the fact that, through his work, he has managed to bring entire African villages to Jesus:
Journeys have cost taxpayers more than $187,000 since 1999>
U.S. lawmakers use trips for religion
Alabama Republican shares Gospel in journeys to Ethiopia>
One of Sen. Jim Inhofe’s traveling companions to Africa this month was Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., who, like Inhofe, has equated his journeys to Africa with his religious faith.
Advertisement
In a video made by The Christian Embassy, a ministry located near Washington, Aderholt referred to Ethiopia as "a place to share the Gospel and talk about our faith and our capacity as members of Congress.”
snip
Who pays the bill?
Aderholt hasn’t used taxpayer money for all of his trips to Africa or other countries. According to his financial disclosuress, the International Foundation paid for his trip to Sudan in 2006 and for a trip he made to Serbia last year.
The International Foundation {{{plz Note this is another name for The Family of C Street run by Doug Coe}}}, which puts on the National Prayer Breakfast and encourages lawmakers to forge bonds with world leaders, has paid for other trips abroad by members of Congress, including Sen. Tom Coburn.
Coburn, R-Muskogee, visited Beirut in 2005 and the Virgin Islands in 2006 at the Christian foundation’s expense for activities related to the prayer breakfast.
The trip to Beirut cost about $6,500 and the Virgin Islands trip cost about $1,000, according to financial disclosure reports.
The Family: Power, Politics and Fundamentalism's Shadow Elite by Jeff Sharlet
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
