Hillary’s Nasty Pastorate

There’s a reason why 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,” aka 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.

Sean Hannity has called Obama’s church a “cult,” but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton’s “Family,” which is organized into “cells” – their term – and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia.  In 2002, writer Jeff Sharlet joined the Family’s home for young men, foreswearing sex, drugs, and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn’t undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn’t completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners – alone.

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 rightwing 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, Adolph 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.

At the heart of the Family’s American branch is a collection of powerful rightwing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe, and Rick Santorum. They get to use the Family’s spacious estate on the Potomac, the Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by the Family’s young women’s group. And, at the Family’s frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already-powerful.

Clinton fell in with the Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family’s “most elite cell,” the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia’s notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, the Family’s publicity-averse leader, that he is “a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."

Furthermore, the Family takes credit for some of Clinton’s rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing “religious freedom” in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.

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.

Sharlet generously attributes Clinton’s involvement to the underappreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define the Family’s theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worship Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the “meek.” They believe that, in mass societies, it’s only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God’s “dominion” on earth. Insofar as the Family has a consistent philosophy, it’s all about power – cultivating it, building it, and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or “cells.” “We work with power where we can,” Doug Coe has said, and “build new power where we can't.”

Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity Unity Church of Christ. Now it’s up to Clinton to explain – or, better yet, renounce – her longstanding connection with the fascist-leaning Family.

Comments

[Chickensh*tEagle]

Okay, I'll bite. Who is this supposed to get us to vote for?

[chris]

News is now circulating that Hillary is withdrawing from the race, handing the nomination to Obama.

[Brian]

I think most people wouldn't want to be blanketed by police 24 7 as the president is except out of absolute necessity. Also if you have a liberal or left wing mindset you might be made uncomfortable by the mindset of the secret service which like most police is probably conservative, republican, and somewhat paranoid and certainly judgemental. I hope they can match open minded yet well skilled secret service agents with a liberal president as they will be more comfortable with each other. Its unlikely your agents are going to be like in the movies Clint Eastwood and pretty model types who are cool with easy going views. I think the Clintons would react viscerally to a police mentality invading their every moment and private household. You can't curse or walk around in boxers and have to watch who you have over if some of your friends are less than right wing neocons ex g.i.s who are into football etc etc. The Clintons probably were sarcastic about many things as well as the secret service at times, and somewhat naive or superior in their manner about it. They did make that sarcastic right wing conspiracy tape in which they clearly thought they were superior. Big surprise. Anyways, would you want federal law enforcement agents, who are a type of officer of the court, sitting 24 7 in your kitchen and living room? I think the Clinton reaction is just a difference of personalities, and in America we should still tolerate that.

[jj]

lots of innuendo, few facts.

Yawn.

[Greg Jones]

Blacks4Barack presents:
Hillary's Religion (cult ?) 'THE FAMILY'
Very Scary !
Prays To Jesus For The Elite To Rule The World

The media has repeatedly aired the short clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's rhetoric in attempt to discredit and smear Barack Obama. But what's even more interesting is the fact that the media never discusses Hillary Clinton's religion, which is extremely telling and even frightening. A closer look into her 'religion' gives one a clearer picture of why she is the way she is.In a recent article by Steven Brandt many truths about Hillary's religion, called ' The Family' will make you shutter. The question is....where's the media on this one ?

Brandt writes, "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." said Hillary Clinton, to reporters and editors of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Tuesday the 25th. This is an interesting choice of words, since -- while we mostly hear about her Methodist upbringing -- Hillary Clinton has chosen to associate herself with The Family (also known as the Fellowship), a very conservative, fundamentalist organization started by Abraham Vereide...
"...an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the Far Right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host prayer breakfasts; in private they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, Doug Coe, the Family's current leader, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."
This quote is taken from the book on The Family by the same name which will be published in May... a book which claims to
"...dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"
A long article was written about Hillary Clinton's participation in this organization last September in Mother Jones, and The Family, itself, was the subject of an extensive article in Harper's in March of 2003. And on March 21st, The Nation published an article on Hillary and The Family by Barbara Ehrenreich that was published on The Huffington Post and CBS News' web site.
The Family avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as The Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power - cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells."
...wrote Ms.Ehrenreich.
Is it possible that Hillary's participation in this fundamentalist group -- which apparently preaches the "gospel of military might" -- would help explain her vote in favor of authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq? Is it possible her pro-NAFTA stance during her husband's administration comes from its embrace of "the no-holds-barred economics of globalization"? Is it possible that the sense some get that Hillary feels entitled to be president comes in part from this group's belief that "it's only the elites who matter"?
I encourage any reporter covering Hillary's campaign to ask her about all this.

At a time when so many people are wondering what sort of effect the Rev. Wright's sermons may have had on Barack Obama, I think it's only fair to ask what sort of effect The Family's fundamentalist mission has had - and continues to have - on Hillary Clinton. We know that George Bush engages in truly fundamentalist thinking. There is no person or new information capable of challenging his belief that what he already knows is right. Is Hillary Clinton like this in some way? I am not sure.

But the opinion I have formed from this is that - while Hillary Clinton may be considered a Liberal by many - on the inside she is a deeply Conservative person... possibly as close to being a Republican today as she was when she was a young woman supporting Senator Goldwater. This helps explain, to me, why she and John McCain are such good friends. They are both drawn to the use of military power and free market capitalism... and to taking money from lobbyists. The other opinion I have formed is that those who say there are no policy differences between Hillary and Barack haven't taken into account how their religious differences might impact the policies they would actually seek to implement as president.
(end of article)

So now a few things make more sense about Hillary. In review, she's in a kinda power-hungry cult which is actually run by her fellow Republicans which she is secretly one of ! It also makes sense why she could care less about detroying the Democratic Party. Also, beware of her claim to work toward ending the Iraq war. That is another great lie that she is telling. If you listen to her claims she commonly repeats ' I will start getting troops out within my first 60 days '.....How many ? 3....1000...10,000 ? Don't be fooled. Hillary has no desire to end the war. She'll bring 5 troops home then say that she kept her word.

The media should be called out for not exposing this cult. Problem is, they would also be revealing the truths about their fellow Republican's plan and prayers to 'rule the world' by any means. So it's up to us, regular Americans like you and I, to help spread the truth in spite of the media.....For The Re-Birth of America !

Greg Jones
Visit: www.Blacks4Barack.org (A Multi-Racial Organization)

[chris]

Greg Joes, you wrote:

"This quote is taken from the book on The Family... which claims to:
"...dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization."

Fist, with the advantage of hindsight, it is easy to spot the big problems of the New Deal. The worst being the mass unemployment caused by government action in the 1930s. Second, waging the Cold War was a good thing. Third, Globalization is not a scheme cooked up by conniving money-grubbers. It is merely a new name for what humans have done since the dawn of trade.

The fastest way to eliminate inequities in trade would follow from the removal of most trade barriers.

Why should American consumers pay high prices for corn products when the main reason corn is at $6 a bushel is its role in ethanol?

We give ethanol producers huge tax advantages and we levy a huge tariff on imported ethanol. Result? High domestic corn prices, which increase the cost of all corn-related products.

Solution: import ethanol from Brazil, where the ethanol industry is large enough to supply Brazil and export enough to take the pressure off US corn producers. Everybody wins, except the middle east oil kingdoms, which see a decrease in US demand for oil.

That aside, if Hillary is nominated her religious ties will receive the attention they deserve. Her connection to The Family is unclear, unlike Obama's connection to Reverend Wright and Wright's devotion to Louis Farrakhan.

On the other hand, if Obama is nominated, his ties to Wright will contribute to an obvious landslide defeat in November. He will suffer from the effects of Wright and it won't take long before his desire to raise the Capital Gains tax rate is transformed into his plan to fund reparations.

When white voters get the idea that Obama wants to tax whites -- Capital Gains are decidedly a white thing -- it won't take long before that idea is tied to reparations.

After that happens Obama will lose the election as though he were running against George Washington himself.

[Brian]

politics is an amazing beast as the Wright episode has tarnished Obama's presentation as a progressive centrist and beyond the usual race baiting of white America. Its not just Wright, but also his wife's comments along a similar vein even though she has the advantage of the most excellant education you can get and a great job at a University to follow on with. As a politician maybe Obama made the calculation he had to court the black separtist community, but I agree with the comment another made of him throwing his white grandmother under the bus and denying his equal white roots. This may now become a key election issue and its hard to say how people will react. I think the white community is tired of being painted as the "evil ones" by the black separtist movement and this will play out in Pennsylvania and later on. I wonder if the Wright sermons fall into the dirty tricks department as we were oblivious to them till very recently as if someone decided to make them a major campaign issue. I wonder about some of the attacks on Hillary also as she was pretty coherent on CNBC recently and seemed more knowledgable than average about financial minutea. The right is even going after McCain as if he is some demon being only a conservative "centrist" with some accomidating views. Whomever is "selected" will need to accomidate all of the people's wants and needs in some hodge-podge fashion as this is not an Iran to be run by religious conservative clerics. Who elected Dobson to be our boss anyways? And why does Ann coulter's inflammatory commentary even ever matter?Its not even clear who this people "supposedly" represent other than the media's need to create a steady diet of conflict and tension. But Obama faces a herculean task to get beyond the black anger issue as last time I looked all people get angry if they feel something isn't fair. None of this will help the waitresses and waiters and hotel room cleaners of America. It really will just shuffle power around at the top to the next lucky narcissists. If Kerouac were still alive to write another novel you can bet it wouldn't be about the candidates, the media, or the good reverand, but it would be about the people working the streets, their relationships, their talents and foibles. Its amazing how our nation's mindset has been hijacked and turned into a mega-platform for advertising rental space. Its also amazing how they have made any aspect of free interpersonal enterprise illegal without them having thier statutory hands into it. So in a shaving of reality, the Obama conundrum is a total exercise in fantasy in the American way. I still can't get over how a year ago they had little daily blurbs about him on the net news pages just to keep you aware of his growing presence. I knew then they were going to make him the chosen one. But who are they? And how did they so agree to do this? And how did they get in charge of our national conciousness? The Clinton's are no match for such a humongous machine and are holding on by their fingernails against this phenommena that 20 years ago couldn't have existed. I think we are at a time that the net, the media, direct marketing, galvanizing of the young in new ways will superseed the old democratic party machine and in time make it fairly irrelevant. No wonder they are exasperated. So a new style star chamber has arrived on the American scene. Its fearsomely powerful too as it can through its multi-platforms create a national conciousness and national concensus in a small group of editorial suites run by a few media companies. This has replaced the political party machine and both parties are running as fast as they can to try and keep less than a block behind it.

[Anarcissie]

Actually, I think the Wright fandango has been turned to great advantage by Obama, which shows what a master politician he is, if nothing else. Clinton and McCain have yet to meet their corresponding religious tests.

As for reparations, there is not a ghost of a chance anything serious will ever be done, especially by Obama, who doesn't need to appeal further to Black voters, and needs above all things to show no trace of ethnic favoritism.

[Brian]

actually in terms of reparations the CEO's who paid themselves 100's of millions of dollars of shareholders money and foregone employee pay raises should pay everybody back for the money they "legally" walked off with. Its truely an "outrage" and anti-"justice" that they could so wantonly pull this off. Oh, and to add to the latest wallstreet shenanigans look at Barron's article outlining whole new accounting rules that let banks and brokerage-banks write off the submerging of their debt offerings with all the other subprime/siv's/crapola paper simply because that is what it is worth now in the market. In otherwords it will boost their profit or earnings line that their debt offerings lost money. Yes, financial engineering is still alive and well. I am sure the clever gals and fellows who got that one passed into the new accounting rules are getting handsome bonuses for their handiwork too.

[Anarcissie]

A large part of the "money" of the rich is fictional. This is the reason for the present credit crisis, and it's the reason they can't pay anything back. Might as well let them pig at the trough a few months longer.

[chris]

anarcissie, the reparations issue has nothing to do with getting more votes for Obama.

If nominated, it is an idea that will surface. But it will surface as a strategy to undermine his candidacy.

As he has had to face accusations that he is a muslim, he will face accusations that he's really trying to obtain money for blacks by taxing whites.

This is purely a Republican idea to get white voters to oppose him. Obviously every black voter will vote for him. He'll get 100% of the black vote for the same reason OJ was acquitted.

Obama cannot escape his muslim heritage, his wife's carping and her lack of pride in her country, and he will next find himself smeared by claims that he is out to get reparations for blacks.

He's an easy target and will go down in a landslide.

[Chickensh*tEagle]

"He's an easy target and will go down in a landslide."

Then it'll be for the same reason the cops who beat the crap out of Rodney King got acquitted.

[Brian]

For the record Rodney King, after leading the cops on an 8 mile chase in a little honda on the streets of LA, finally came to a stop, and while his two passengers got out of the car and dove for the ground hands up, Mr. King mooned the cops by dropping his pants. Everything you have read or heard about happened after that social introduction between the two parties.

[Chickensh*tEagle]

"Everything you have read or heard about happened after that social introduction between the two parties."

In other words, you don't include the beating in what you call the "social introduction"?

[dbs52]

Oh...by the way, Barack has attended these prayer meetings also...oh well then, nevermind...

[Brian]

Chickensh, you know beating anyone, or beating anyone in custody is a worst kind of crime. I think everyone knows that, but to use that to excuse his behavior baiting the bulls is just more of this moral equivalence arguement that is used to justify bad provocative, even criminal behavior. If I mooned the LA cops I am sure they would beat me or something along those lines also. And a supervising sergenat was bankrupt and imcompetent in his duties to not reign in his officers. Surely even if they had gotten away with it the young officers involved would have ruined their moral character and been on a certain path to perdition. Nobody is justifying that. But Mr. King really went out of his way to bait the bull, and interestingly the other two who dove to the pavement, hands up were not beaten or hurt. Unfortunately there is a kind of war going on in the streets of LA where many people doing bad things feel they are entitled to do so and get away with it and there is no moral code they have to follow except fear itself. Mr. King, arrested numerous times for fairly bizarre types of behavior afterwards is unrepentent and feels we are just not getting along. You can research that for itself. He is a social problem child and why he even ran from the cops in a honda just points to his not functioning very well in society. Personally I would rather we just re-instituted the drunk tank and let people go home the next morning with a small fine and an appointment with driving school rather than ruin their lives with the draconian dui laws we have today. Plus that would help people mellow out if arrested knowing their lives were not about to be ruined for a bottle of jack. If anything this highlights how extreme everyone is getting over solving social problems that could be solved at a lower level of violence and allow all people involved some dignity and self respect.

[Chickensh*tEagle]

Brian: "I think everyone knows that, but to use that to excuse his behavior baiting the bulls is just more of this moral equivalence arguement that is used to justify bad provocative, even criminal behavior."

Funny, it doesn't seem to me I was justifying King's behavior, rather that you seemed to be citing his behavior to justify the beating.

So NOW you say the behavior didn't justify the beating. If the beating was indeed unjustified, then that is that, and it's pointless for you to reiterate King's history, which I already knew well enough.

[Brian]

well, most people don't know King's history and just assume that the police one night grabbed him from his yard and beat him like the SS. Having lived in LA all you have to do is go down to the Superior Courts building for mandatory jury duty and see the trouble we are in as a city. Personally as a hard working taxpayer I feel it is vastly unfair that King got paid millions of dollars for baiting the cops for one short night's work. So as a taxpayer I get taken advantage of two times, once by the cops and once by King. I would have refused to pay more than basic medical and a year of rehab and lost income(did he make any?), and instead gotten him a job with the city in some capacity so he could fairly participate. Call me cheap, but that is more than he deserved really as an asset to society. But in terms of fairness it seems fair. The cops are lost souls and King, who knows whats going on inside of him. But as a taxpayer I am tired of being used by others to play their lottery and keeping the peace games. Frankly the LAPD doesn't enlist my advice nor does King, so why should I have to pay either? Really. I don't get a vote. But they get our income. But then people like you come along and demonize me for bringing up some really useful information which only keeps their agenda, the ones who rip us off going. Anyways you misread my first note on this as I just go after the core raw truth of a matter without any agenda than to just see it for what it is--like a painting. I don't let others programme me to recieve. And worse, than parrot their agenda like its my own. That is fox news, and now their owner has bought the wall street journal. And you thought financial news was biased and jinxed already? They are going to Rodney King the wall street journal. First you program people with emotional buttons they think that are their own and then you push them. You just watch. You could do a nice systems flow diagram of how that works too.

[E. Nowak]

Just read this post and find the recent NY Times Op Ed from Hillary about the law that guarantees “religious freedom” to healthcare workers highly IRONIC. Has Hillary seen the "light" of liberalism? I don't think we've seen the last of old Hill.

[Rochelle Gordon]

I just finished reading Jeff Sharlet's book titled "The Family". I can only hope that the influence of the fascist inspired pseudo Christians will one day evaporate. The book confirms my belief in their insidious evil disguised as love.

I am not able to overlook Hilary Clinton's association and involvement with Doug Coe and his sociopathic organization. If I were a religious person, I would be inclined to think him the great deceiver.

For now, I will trust that President-elect Obama has a solid handle on Clinton's unfortunate commitment to her spiritually unworthy relatives.

[Rochelle Gordon]

I just finished reading Jeff Sharlet's book titled "The Family". I can only hope that the influence of the fascist inspired pseudo Christians will one day evaporate. The book confirms my belief in their insidious evil disguised as love.

I am not able to overlook Hilary Clinton's association and involvement with Doug Coe and his sociopathic organization. If I were a religious person, I would be inclined to think him the great deceiver.

For now, I will trust that President-elect Obama has a solid handle on Clinton's unfortunate commitment to her spiritually unworthy relatives.