Is Grassley a member of the Family?

[rurallib]

One Iowa which is a gay rights group here has been collecting names to send a petition to Grassley asking him to use his influence in the Family to try to get the potential Ugandan anti-gay legislation from becoming law. The logic was that Grassley had done some work in Africa on behalf of the Family in an earlier era:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/12/sharlet
JEFF SHARLET: "Indeed. And Grassley has been involved with the organization for quite some time, since the ’80s, when he traveled to Somalia to join Barre, Siad Barre, in prayer to Jesus. And he brought with him a defense contractor named Bill Brehm.
<<snip>>
"Chuck Grassley, a guy who’s been involved for such a long time. Grassley was involved with the Somalia project throughout the 1980s. They recognize that Somalia, of course, is a nation of great strategic importance, right there on the Horn of Africa. So, even as they are pursuing what they say is a religious agenda, it’s also meshing very neatly with a certain kind of agenda of American expansionist power and oil, frankly."

Then this morning in a piece in the Iowa Independent his office denies Grassley has ever been a member of the Family.
http://iowaindependent.com/23403/grassley-unfamiliar-with-plan-to-execute-gay-ugandans
"Levin said Grassley has not been in contact with “The Family” on this or any other issue and has never lived at or attended a prayer meeting at the group’s townhouse on C Street near the U.S. Capitol.

“He worships at Prairie Lakes Church in Cedar Falls, and on the rare occasion he’s in Washington on a weekend, he worships at Woodlawn Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia,” Levin said.

She said Grassley hasn’t participated in a Sunday prayer breakfast often associated with “The Family” in “probably 10 years,” and when he did it was made up of senators of all faiths and denominations, “including Protestant, Catholic, Mormon and Jewish.”

Maybe it is the wording in the denial that is key?
I know the Family is secretive. Is there any way to find out if Grassley is or has been a member?

[gateley]

1. And, I'm curious if it's really a group in which you are a 'member', or is it just

a bunch of people who hang together with the "in crowd" of the group doing their dastardly deeds?

[rurallib]

3. are you considered to be a memeber if you go to their prayer breakfasts

or live in the house or is there an actual initiation.
I have a feeling that absent any formal initiation, Grassley can deny all and technically be OK.

[gateley]

5. Yeah, that's my sense of it too. nt

[Nictuku]

2. Yes, I heard it on TRMS yesterday

TRMS= The Rachael Maddow Show

[rurallib]

4. Yes, I heard it there also and it has been generally reported.

I wonder if at any time Grassley mentioned being a member of the Family? He is a wily old coot.