The Fellowship (Christian organization)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Unbalanced scales.svg
 The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2009)
This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (September 2009)
The Fellowship
Formation 1935
Headquarters The Cedars, a mansion in Arlington, Virginia[1]
Led by: Douglas Coe
Affiliations Christians in Parliament

The Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and non-U.S. leaders and ambassadors. It has been described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most politically well-connected fundamentalist organization in the US.[1][2][3][4][5]

Other names by which the Fellowship has been known include:

  • The Family[1][6]
  • International Foundation[6]
  • Fellowship Foundation[6]
  • National Leadership Council[6]
  • International Christian Leadership[6]
  • National Committee for Christian Leadership[6]
  • C Street House[6]
  • Fellowship House
  • Washington Fellowship
  • Fellowship Ministry[citation needed]

Incorporated in Illinois in December 1942 as the National Committee for Christian Leadership (NCCL), the organization changed its name to International Christian Leadership, Inc. (ICL) in 1943, and in 1972, to Fellowship Foundation, Inc.[7][8] It also has conducted activities as the National Fellowship Council[citation needed] and National Leadership Council.[citation needed]

The core purpose of this group as stated by its leader Douglas Coe is to provide a private forum for public officials to hold Bible Studies, prayer meetings, worship services, or to share their troubles.[9][10] In Newsweek, Lisa Miller writes that the common love for the teachings of Jesus binds this group together and all approaches are acceptable; Jesus the historical figure, the rabbi, the prophet, the shining example, the Son of God.[11]

The group is most widely known for organizing prayer groups throughout the United States and around the world, including the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, later renamed the National Prayer Breakfast. Every sitting United States president since 1953 has attended the event.[8][12][13][14]

The Fellowship generally practices strict secrecy about its members or activities and as such, eschews publicity and asks its members not to speak about the group; some members have denied that the Fellowship exists.[15]

In 2008, Jeff Sharlet released The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power published by HarperCollins.

Contents

[edit] Extent of influence

Prominent evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, and the Family themselves, have described it as one of the most, or the most, politically well-connected fundamentalist organization in the US.

D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who studies the evangelical movement, says “there is no other organization like the Fellowship, especially among religious groups, in terms of its access or clout among the country’s leadership.”[2] He also reports that lawmakers mentioned the Fellowship more than any other organization when asked to name a ministry with the most influence on their faith.[1]

In 1977, Fellowship member and Watergate conspirator Charles Colson described the Family as a “veritable underground of Christ’s men all through [the US] government.”[3]

The Reverend Robert Schenck, founder of the Washington, D.C. ministry Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, describes the Family's influence as "off the charts" in comparison with other fundamentalist groups, specifically compared to Focus on the Family, Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, Traditional Values Coalition, and Prison Fellowship.[5] (These last two are associated with the Family: Traditional Values Coalition uses their C Street House[5] and Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles Colson.) Schenck also says that "the mystique of the Fellowship" has helped it "gain entree into almost impossible places in the capital."[15]

A series of taped seminars from 1970 for young male members of the Fellowship describes their access to power: “If you want doors opened... there are men in government, there are senators who literally find it their pleasure to give any kind of advice, assistance, or counsel.” [16]

Lindsay also interviewed 360 evangelical elites, among whom “One in three mentioned [Doug] Coe or the Fellowship as an important influence."[2]

The Family also has relationships with numerous non-US government leaders. Lindsay reports that the Family "has relationships with pretty much every world leader— good and bad— and there are not many organizations in the world that can claim that."[1]

“The Fellowship’s reach into governments around the world is almost impossible to overstate or even grasp,” says David Kuo, a member of the Family and former special assistant in George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.[4]

[edit] History

Question book-new.svg
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009)

The Family traces its roots in the United States to Abraham Vereide, a Methodist conference evangelist, and a month of evangelistic meetings he convened in 1934 in San Francisco.[8] Vereide was a Norwegian immigrant and traveling preacher who, in 1923, founded the Goodwill Industries branch in Seattle to assist the city's poor and homeless, whom he referred to as the "down 'n outers."[17]

In April 1935, Vereide, and J.F. Douglas enlisted nineteen business and civic leaders for daily breakfast prayer meetings.[17] By 1937, 209 prayer breakfast groups had been organized throughout Seattle.[8] In 1940, 300 men from all over the state of Washington attended a prayer breakfast for the new governor, Arthur Langlie.[8] Vereide traveled through the Pacific Northwest, and later around the country, to develop similar groups.[8] The nondenominational groups were meant to bring together civic and business leaders informally to share a meal, study the Bible, and develop relationships of trust and support.[8]

By 1942, there were 60 breakfast groups in major cities around the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington and Vancouver. That same year, Vereide began to hold small prayer breakfasts for members of the U.S. House of Representatives, with an emphasis on low-key, informal fellowship and encouragement, with little publicity. The following year, members of the Senate began holding prayer breakfast meetings. Vereide began publishing a monthly newsletter called The Breakfast Luncheon Fireside and Campus Groups that contained a Bible study to be used by the groups, as well as information about activities of different groups and national meetings. The organization published a newsletter (sometimes more than one) through the years under various names, including The Breakfast Groups" Informer (ca. 1945-1946), The Breakfast Groups (ca. 1944-1953), International Christian Leadership Bulletin (ca. 1953-1954), Bulletin of International Christian Leadership (ca. 1954-1956), Christian Leadership (ca. 1957-1961), ICLeadership Letter (1961-1966), International Leadership Letter (ca. 1967), Leadership Letter (ca. 1963-1970).

In 1944, the movement was formally incorporated as the National Committee for Christian Leadership (NCCL) and its offices moved from Seattle to Chicago. The following year, Vereide changed the organization's name to International Christian Leadership (ICL) and moved it to Washington, D.C. In 1945 Vereide held his first joint Senate-House prayer breakfast meeting. He held another breakfast on June 16, 1946, attended by Senators H. Alexander Smith and Lister Hill, and World Report publisher David Lawrence.

In January 1947, a conference in Washington led to the formation of the International Council for Christian Leadership (ICCL), an umbrella group for the national fellowship groups in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Hungary, Egypt, and China. ICCL was formally incorporated as a separate organization in 1953. ICL and ICCL were governed by different boards of directors, joined by a coordinating committee four members of ICCL's board and four from the ICL's executive committee. Eventually the Fellowship Foundation was created by the two organizations to maintain the Fellowship House in Washington as a spiritual service center.

By 1953 Vereide made his first entrée into the White House when President Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed to attend the first Presidential Prayer Breakfast. By that time, Vereide’s congressional core members included Senators Frank Carlson, and Karl Mundt.

By 1957, ICL had established 125 groups in 100 cities, with 16 groups in Washington, D.C.. Around the world, it had set up another 125 groups in Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Ethiopia, India, South Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Guatemala, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Bermuda. During this time, future Fellowship Leader, Douglas Coe joined Vereide as assistant executive director of ICL in Washington, D.C.

After over thirty years of leading the Fellowship, Vereide resigned as executive director of ICL and was succeeded by Richard Halverson as acting director in 1963. Vereide continued to represent ICL at numerous speaking engagements and as director of Fellowship House and as founder-executive director emeritus. Doug Coe was appointed senior associate executive director.

[edit] Beliefs and theology

The Fellowship's 501(c)(3) mission statement is:

To develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as "ambassadors of reconciliation," modeling the principles of Jesus, based on loving God and loving others. To work with the leaders of other nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. It is said that youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved.

As Newsweek reports, the Fellowship has often been criticized by conservative and fundamentalist Christian groups for being too inclusive and not putting enough emphasis on doctrine or church attendance.[11]

David Kuo, a member of the Fellowship and staffer in President George W. Bush's Office of Faith Based Initiatives, said of the Fellowship:

For all the hysteria about Christian organizations, the irony that the Fellowship is being targeted as a bad egg is jaw-dropping. This is so not Focus on the Family, this is so not the Christian Coalition. There are other Christian groups that are truly insane. Who purport to follow Jesus Christ and who I would submit do not. The Fellowship is a loosely banded group of people who have an affinity for Jesus.[11]

Current Fellowship member and former US Representative Tony P. Hall (D-OH) said, "If people in this country knew how many Democrats and Republicans pray together and actually like each other behind closed doors, they would be amazed." The Fellowship is simply, "men and women who are trying to get right with God. Trying to follow God, learn how to love him, and learn how to love each other." When he lost his teenage son to leukemia, Hall says, "This family helped me. This family was there for me. That's what they do."[11]

Hillary Clinton described meeting the leader of the Fellowship in 1993: “Doug Coe, the longtime National Prayer Breakfast organizer, 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 to God.”[18]

Author Jeff Sharlet did intensive research in the Family's archives, before the Family archives were closed to the public. He also spent a month in 2003 living at a Fellowship house near Washington, and wrote a magazine article describing his experiences. In his 2008 book about the Family, he criticizes their theology as elitist, an "elite fundamentalism" that fetishizes political power and wealth, consistently opposes labor movements in the US and abroad, and teaches that laissez-faire economic policy is "God's will." He criticizes their theology of instant forgiveness for powerful men as providing a convenient excuse so that elites who commit misdeeds or crimes can avoid accepting responsibility or accountability for their actions.[19] Lisa Miller called his book "alarmist" and says it paints a "creepy, even cultish picture" of the young, lower-ranking members of the Fellowship.[11]

[edit] Controversial leadership model

Fellowship leader Doug Coe is described as preaching a leadership model, and a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, comparable to the blind devotion that Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Chairman Mao, and Pol Pot demanded from their followers.[20] In one videotaped 1989 lecture series, Coe said, "Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had...But they bound themselves together in an agreement...Two years before they moved into Poland, these three men had...systematically a plan drawn out...to annihilate the entire Polish population and destroy by numbers every single house...every single building in Warsaw and then to start on the rest of Poland." Coe adds that it worked; they killed six and a half million "Polish people." Though he calls Nazis "these enemies of ours," he compares their commitment to Jesus' demands: "Jesus said, ‘You have to put me before other people. And you have to put me before yourself.' Hitler, that was the demand to be in the Nazi party. You have to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of your own life and ahead of other people."[20][21]

Coe also compares Jesus' teachings with the Red Guard during the Chinese Cultural Revolution:

I’ve seen pictures of young men in the Red Guard of China...they would bring in this young man’s mother and father, lay her on the table with a basket on the end, he would take an axe and cut her head off....They have to put the purposes of the Red Guard ahead of the mother-father-brother-sister -- their own life! That was a covenant. A pledge. That was what Jesus said.[20][22]

David Kuo states that comparisons such as these aren't representative of the picture Douglas Coe was trying to paint:

Kuo says Doug Coe wasn’t lauding Hitler's actions. “What Doug is saying, it’s a metaphor. He is using Hitler as a metaphor. Jesus used that,” Kuo said. A metaphor for what? “Commitment,” Kuo answered. ... [A] close friend told NBC News that Doug Coe invokes Hitler only to show the power of small groups -- for good and bad. And, the friend said, Coe spends “99 percent” of his time during the sermons talking about the leadership model set by Jesus Christ.[20]

[edit] Secrecy called essential to mission

The Family has long been a secretive organization.[23][24] It maintains no public website and conducts no public fundraising activities.

Prominent political figures have insisted that secrecy and/or privacy are essential to the Family's operation. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan said about the Family, "I wish I could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is private."[25]

At the 1990 National Prayer Breakfast, President George H.W. Bush praised Doug Coe for what he described as “quiet diplomacy, I wouldn’t say secret diplomacy.”[4]

In 2009, Chris Halverson, son of Fellowship co-founder Richard C. Halverson, said that a culture of secrecy is essential to their mission: "If you talked about it, you would destroy that fellowship."[1]

From the 1930s to the 1960s it was organized as a more traditional religious association. In 1966, Fellowship founder Abraham Vereide became concerned about his organization's growing publicity and declared in a letter that it was time to “submerge the institutional image of [the Family].”[26] Author Jeff Sharlet describes this shift in operation:

Thereafter, the Fellowship would avoid at all costs any appearance of an organization... Business would be conducted on the letterhead of public men, who would testify that Fellowship initiatives were their own. Finances would be more ‘man-to-man,’ which is to say, off the books.[27]

In 1975, a member of the Family's inner circle wrote to the group's chief South African member, that their political initiatives

...have always been misunderstood by 'outsiders.' As a result of very bitter experiences, therefore, we have learned never to commit to paper any discussions or negotiations that are taking place. There is no such thing as a 'confidential' memorandum, and leakage always seems to occur. Thus, I would urge you not to put on paper anything relating to any of the work that you are doing...[unless] you know the recipient well enough to put at the top of the page 'PLEASE DESTROY AFTER READING.'

The recipient made copies of this memo for other Family members in Africa, one of which survives.[28][29]

In 1974, after several Watergate conspirators had joined the Family, an LA Times columnist discouraged further inquiries into Washington's "underground prayer movement", i.e. the Fellowship: “They genuinely avoid publicity...they shun it.”[30]

In 2002, Doug Coe denied that the Fellowship sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast, and a Fellowship employeed said, "there is no such thing as the Fellowship."[15]

Former Republican Senator William Armstrong said the group has “made a fetish of being invisible.”[31]

In the 1960s, when the organization first went "underground," the Fellowship began distributing, to involved members of Congress, confidential memos which stressed that “the group, as such, never takes any formal action, but individuals who participate in the group through their initiative have made possible the activities mentioned.”[32]

Family Member and Senator Sam Brownback describes Family members' method of operation: “Typically, one person grows desirous of pursuing an action”—-a piece of legislation, a diplomatic strategy—-“and the others pull in behind.” [33] Indeed, Brownback has often joined with fellow Family members in pursuing legislation. For example, in 1999 he joined together with fellow Family members, Senators Strom Thurmond and Don Nickles to demand a criminal investigation of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and in 2005 Brownback joined with Family member Sen. Tom Coburn to promote the Houses of Worship Act.[34]

[edit] Finances and funding

The Fellowship Foundation, which conducts no public fundraising activities, relies principally on private donations. In 2007, the group received nearly 16.8 million dollars.[35]

Among the Family's key supporters are billionaire Paul N. Temple, a former executive of Esso (Exxon) and the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the Three Swallows Foundation. Between 1998 and 2007, Three Swallows made grants totaling $1,777,650 to the International Foundation, including $148,000 in 2003, $171,500 in 2004, $203,500 in 2006, and $145,000 in 2007.[citation needed].

Another supporter, Jerome (Jerry) A. Lewis, established Denver-based Downing Street Foundation to provide support to three organizations: the Family (Fellowship Foundation), Denver Leadership Foundation, and Young Life. Between 1999 and 2007, Downing Street donated at least $756,000 to the Family,[36] in addition to allowing the Family to use its "retreat center."

Madelynn Winstead, a Downing Street director, was paid $21,500 by the Fellowship Foundation as managing director of the retreat center.[37] Winstead also sits on the board of directors of ENDOW, a Catholic educational program that brings women together to discover their God-given dignity and to understand their role in humanizing and transforming society.[38]

The Kingdom Fund (Kingdom Oil Christian Foundation t/a Twin Cities Christian Foundation) also provides support to the Family and World Vision.[39]

The Family earns more than $1,000,000 annually through its sponsorship of the National Prayer Breakfast.

[edit] Activities

[edit] National Prayer Breakfast

The Fellowship is best known for organizing the National Prayer Breakfast, held each year on the first Thursday of February in Washington, D.C.[19][40] First held in 1953, the event is now attended by over 3,400 guests including dignitaries from many nations. The President of the United States typically makes an address at the breakfast. The event is officially hosted by members of Congress. Leading Democrats and Republicans serve on the organizing committee, and leadership alternates each year between the House and the Senate.

At the NPB, the President usually arrives an hour early and meets with foreign leaders, usually of small nations, and perhaps a dozen other guests chosen by the Fellowship.[41]

G. Philip Hughes, the executive secretary for the National Security Council in the George H.W. Bush administration, said, "Doug Coe or someone who worked with him would call and say, 'So and so would like to have a word with the president. Do you think you could arrange something?'"[15]

However, Doug Coe has said that the Fellowship does not help foreign dignitaries gain access to U.S. officials. "We never make any commitment, ever, to arrange special meetings with the president, vice president or secretary of State," Coe said. "We would never do it."[15]

At the 2001 Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings for State Department officials, Fellowship member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) complained that the State Department had blocked then-President Bush from meeting with four foreign heads of state (Rwanda, Macedonia, Congo and Slovakia) at the NPB that year.[15]

Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) said of Nelson's complaint: "I'm not sure a head of state ought to be able to wander over here for the prayer breakfast and, in effect, compel the president of the United States to meet with him as a consequence... Getting these meetings with the president is a process that's usually very carefully vetted and worked up. Now sort of this back door has sort of evolved."[15]

“It [the NPB] totally circumvents the State Department and the usual vetting within the administration that such a meeting would require,” an anonymous government informant told sociologist D. Michael Lindsay. “If Doug Coe can get you some face time with the President of the United States, then you will take his call and seek his friendship. That’s power.”[41]

Year Keynote Speaker Chairpersons
2006 King Abdullah II of Jordan and humanitarian/musician Paul Hewson (Bono)[42] Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Mark Pryor (D-AR)
2007 Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Human Genome Project Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO) and Jo Ann Davis (R-VA)
2008 Edward Brehm, Chairman of the United States African Development Foundation[43] Senators Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Mike Enzi (R-WY)
2009 Former Prime Minister Tony Blair[44] Reps. Heath Shuler (D-NC) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)

[edit] Prayer Breakfast movement

A primary activity of the Fellowship is to develop small support groups for politicians, including Senators and Members of Congress, Executive Branch officials, military officers, foreign leaders and dignitaries, businesspersons, and other influential individuals. Prayer groups have met in the White House, the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense.[45] By the early 1970s, prayer groups, breakfasts, and luncheons, including those sponsored by ICL, had become commonplace in the Pentagon.[46]

J. Edwin Orr, an advisor to Billy Graham and friend of Abraham Vereide, helped shape the prayer breakfast movement that grew out of ICL.[47]

[edit] Role in international conflicts

The Fellowship was a behind-the-scenes player at the Camp David Middle East accords in 1978, working with President Jimmy Carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.[15]

President Carter hosted former Senator Harold E. Hughes, the President of the Fellowship Foundation, and Doug Coe, for a luncheon at the White House on September 26, 1978.[48] Six weeks later, President Carter and the First Lady traveled by Marine helicopter to Cedar Point Farm, Hughes' home on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where he placed a telephone call to Menachim Begin.[49]

The author Jeff Sharlet has criticized the Fellowship's influence on US foreign policy. He argues that Doug Coe and the Family's "networking" (or formation of prayer cells) between foreign dictators and US politicians, defense contractors, and industry leaders has facilitated military aid for repressive foreign regimes. Sharlet did intensive research in the Family's archives, kept at the Billy Graham Center, before the Family archives were closed to the public. Sharlet published a book about the history of the Family and its influence on US domestic and foreign policy from the 1920s to the present[19]. Sharlet in particular details the relationship of the Family with General Suharto of Indonesia in the 1970s, and with Siad Barre of Somalia in the 1980s. Also, in the Family's archives, there are at least two nearly full boxes of documents describing the Family's relationship with Brazil's long dictatorship of the Generals.[50]

Regarding his relationships with foreign dictators, Coe said in 2007, “I never invite them. They come to me. And I do what Jesus did: I don’t turn my back to any one. You know, the Bible is full of mass murderers.”[51]

[edit] Private diplomacy

The Fellowship helps sponsor travel for congressional delegations to various hot spots throughout the globe such as Rep. Robert Aderholt to Darfur[52], Sen. Tom Coburn to Lebanon[53], The Balkans[54][55] Reps John Carter and Joseph Pitts to Belarus[56][57] and many more.

In January 1991, Fellowship associate and financial supporter Michael Timmis met with President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi on behalf of the Fellowship, before flying to Kenya with Arthur (Gene) Dewey, the former second-in-command at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Sam Owen, then living in Nairobi.[58] Timmis writes that he had obtained permission to fly over Tanzanian air space, even though the U.S. Department of State had ordered American citizens to stay clear of Tanzania.

The Fellowship has been active in reconciliation efforts between the warring leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and many other similar conflicts around the world. In 2001, the Fellowship helped arrange a secret meeting at The Cedars between Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame -- one of the first of a series of discreet meetings between the two African leaders that eventually led to the signing of a peace accord in July 2002.[15]

[edit] Publicized extra-marital affairs of Fellowship members

In 2009, the Family received a spate of media attention when three prominent Republicans associated with the Fellowship were reported to have engaged in extra-marital affairs. Two of them, Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, were considering running for President in 2012 and their affairs were known to the Family several months before becoming public. The affairs of Ensign and then-Congressman Chip Pickering, R-Miss., took place while they were living at the C Street Center. All three voted to impeach Bill Clinton; Ensign and Sanford had called for Clinton to resign over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.[59][60]

[edit] Senator John Ensign

Senator John Ensign, a Fellowship member and longtime resident of the C Street Center, admitted in July 2009 that he had had an extra-marital affair with a staffer. The announcement by Ensign brought additional public scrutiny of the Fellowship and the C Street Center, where Ensign lived with Senator Tom Coburn and other senior politicians.[61] Coburn, with Timothy and David Coe, attempted to intervene to end Ensign's affair in February 2008, before the affair became public; they met with the husband of Ensign's lover and encouraged Ensign to write a letter to her, breaking off the affair.[62][63][64] Ensign, who was driven to Federal Express from C Street Center to post the letter, shortly thereafter called his lover to tell her to ignore it.[62][63][64]

One of Doug Coe's grandchildren, Belen R Coe, was a paid intern in Senator Ensign's office in 2004.[65]

[edit] South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford

In June 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, a Fellowship member and Congressman from 1995 to 2001, admitted to having an extramarital affair and said that months prior he had sought counseling at the C Street Center.[66] While attempting to decline federal stimulus funds for South Carolina, Sanford was using state money to fly first class to visit his lover in Argentina.[67] During his last secret trip to visit his lover in Argentina in June 2009, during which he told his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian trail, Sanford disappeared for four days and did not answer 15 calls from his chief of staff, Scott English, or let his family know where he was on Father's Day.[68]

Sanford "was a frequent visitor to the home for prayer meetings and meals during his time in Congress".[69] Sanford turned down his Congressional living allowance while serving in Washington, choosing instead to sleep in his office.[70] Recently, however, Sanford was found to have potentially violated state law by abusive use of state planes, including to fly to get a haircut.[71]

[edit] Congressman Chip Pickering

In 2009, Pickering's wife filed a lawsuit against the alleged mistress of her husband, a former six-term Republican Congressman from Mississippi.[69][72] The lawsuit alleges that Pickering restarted a relationship with Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, his college sweetheart, while he was "a United States congressman prior to and while living in the well-known C Street Complex in Washington, D.C."[69][72]

[edit] International roots

Sir Vivian Gabriel, a British Air Commission attaché in Washington during World War II, established a branch of the Family (International Christian Leadership Association) in the United Kingdom.[73] Ernest Williams, a member of the directing staff of the British Admiralty and a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Evangelism, served as its president in the 1960’s.[73] Williams worked closely with Harald Bredesen, a British intelligence operative who went on to personally mentor Rev. Pat Robertson in the United States.[73]

[edit] Affiliated organizations

The Family has a number of affiliated organizations.

[edit] List of prominent Family members

This is a partial member list focusing on well-known and influential members of the Family.

[edit] Members currently in the US Congress

Name Position Notoriety
Sam Brownback[1][81] Sen. (R-KS) Chair of Senate Values Action Team
James Inhofe[1][81] Sen. (R-OK)
Jim DeMint[1][81] Sen. (R-SC) Chairman of Steering Committee
Chuck Grassley[81] Sen. (R-IA) Former Chairman of Finance Committee
Richard Lugar[4] Sen. (R-IN) Former Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee
John Ensign[1][81][6] Sen. (R-NV) Involved in sex scandal
Tom Coburn[1][81] Sen. (R-OK) Acted as a go-between for Sen. Ensign and his mistress's family.
Mark Pryor[1][81] Sen. (D-AR)
Bill Nelson[1][81] Sen. (D-FL)
John Thune[81] Sen. (R-SD)
Mike Enzi[81] Sen. (R-WY)
Joe Pitts[1][81][6] Rep. (R-PA) Chair of House Values Action Team; Member Committees on Energy & Commerce, Sec. & Coop in Europe
Todd Tiahrt[82] Rep. (R-KS)
Frank Wolf[25] Rep. (R-VA) Member of House Appropriations Panel[1]
Zach Wamp[1][25] Rep. (R-TN)
Mike McIntyre[25] Rep.(D-NC)
Bart Stupak[1][6] Rep. (D-MI) Author of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment for the Affordable Health Care for America Act that would ban federal funding for abortions.[83]
Michael F. Doyle[1] Rep. (D-PA)
Heath Shuler[1] Rep.(D-NC)
Jerry Moran[1] Rep. (R-KS)

[edit] Members currently serving as state governors

Name Position Notoriety
Mark Sanford[69] Gov. (R-SC) Involved in sex scandal

[edit] Current Family members formerly serving in the executive branch

Name Position Notoriety
John Ashcroft[84] Attorney General AG under G.W. Bush; Also Sen. (R-MO), Member CNP
Dan Quayle[85] Vice President Also former Sen. (R-IN)
James Baker[4] Secretary of State Served under G.H.W. Bush
Robert "Bud" McFarlane[86] National Security Adviser Iran-Contra conspirator; served under Reagan
Ed Meese[87] Attorney General Served under Reagan; also Member CNP
Charles Colson[88] Special Counsel Watergate conspirator; served under Nixon; joined the Fellowship after leaving executive branch; served time in prison
Melvin Laird[25] Secretary of Defense Persuaded Ford to pardon Nixon[25]

[edit] Current Family members formerly in the US Congress

Name Position Notoriety
Don Nickles[34] Sen. (R-OK) Also Member Council for National Policy
Mark Hatfield[4] Sen. (R-OR) Chairman of Appropriations Committee
Pete Domenici[81] Sen. (R-NM)
Dan Coats[84] Sen. (R-IN) Promoted Faith-Based Initiatives
Chip Pickering[69] Rep. (R-MS) Involved in sex scandal
Tony P. Hall[89] Rep. (D-OH) Also UN ambassador for hunger issues under G.W. Bush

[edit] Current Family members formerly in the US military

Name Rank Notoriety
John W. Vessey[4] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
David C. Jones[90] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Also member Council on Foreign Relations

[edit] Historical members

The following Family members are all deceased.

Name Position Notoriety
Richard C. Halverson[1] US Senate chaplain "[O]ne of the first to join the Fellowship under found Abraham Vereide in the 1950s."[1]
Richard Nixon[86] US President Joined Family after presidency[86]
Gerald R. Ford[91] US President Pardoned Richard Nixon; also Member CFR
Strom Thurmond[25] Sen. (R-SC) opponent of civil rights
Herman Talmadge[25] Sen. (D-GA) opponent of civil rights
John C. Stennis[4] Sen. (D-MS) opponent of civil rights
Absalom Willis Robertson[25] Sen. (D-VA) Father of Pat Robertson
Arthur F. Burns[91] Chief of Federal Reserve Served under Nixon
Frank Carlson[92] Sen. (R-KS) Kingmaker for Eisenhower
Harold K. Johnson[93] Gen., Chief of Staff of the Army

[edit] Property holdings

The Family owns many properties.

[edit] Fellowship House

(133 C Street SE, Washington, DC. Three-story brick 7,914-square-foot (735.2 m2) rowhouse.)

Known as the "C Street Center" or "Fellowship House," this 1890 townhouse, located behind the Madison Annex of the Library of Congress and near the United States Capitol, has 12 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, five living rooms, four dining rooms, three offices, a kitchen, and a small "chapel".[15]

Rooms are rented to United States Senators and members of Congress who stay there as resident members of the Fellowship, reportedly paying $600 a month in room and board.[15][62]

The house is also the locale for:

  • The Family's Wednesday prayer breakfasts for United States Senators, which has been attended by Senators Sam Brownback, Tom Coburn, James Inhofe, John Ensign and Susan Collins
  • A Tuesday night dinner for members of Congress and other Fellowship associates.
  • An annual Ambassador Luncheon.[94] The 2006 event was attended by ambassadors from Turkey, Macedonia, Pakistan, Jordan, Algeria, Armenia, Egypt, Belarus, Mongolia, Latvia, and Moldova.

The property is exempt from real property taxes because it is classified as a "special purpose" use. District of Columbia law exempts from taxation "buildings belonging to religious corporations or societies primarily and regularly used for religious worship, study, training, and missionary activities" and "buildings belonging to organizations which are charged with the administration, coordination, or unification of activities, locally or otherwise, of institutions or organizations entitled to exemption."

Formerly used as a convent for nearby St. Peter's Catholic Church, 133 C Street was the headquarters of Ralph Nader's Congress Watch in the 1970s.[95] In 1980, the building was purchased by Youth with a Mission, Washington, D.C., Inc. (also known as Youth with a Mission National Christian Center, Inc.) YWAM took a note from Alexandro Palau in the principal amount of $448,873.33 to purchase the property. A 1981 modification of the note was signed by Fellowship member Ron Boehme in his capacity as President of YWAM, Washington, D.C. and witnessed by Michael Davidson as its secretary.

Asked about YWAM in 2009, Richard Carver, a retired Air Force general and the President of the Fellowship Foundation, told the Washington Post that his Fellowship group is affiliated with the house, but that he has never heard of Youth With a Mission of Washington, DC, and that he did not have a phone number for it. Carver later said that he had spoken with someone who "at one time was involved with the house" and had "heard secondhand" that the organization that runs the house is "subscribing to the no-comment."[62]

[edit] The Woodmont enclave

The Fellowship owns a number of properties, including the estate known as the Cedars (Doubleday Mansion) located at 2301 North Uhle Street (2145 24th Street North) in the Woodmont neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia. This property, which was purchased by the Fellowship in 1978, includes two additional residences known as the "well house" and "carriage house," the latter of which is used by Doug Coe. The Cedars was determined to be a "place of worship" by the Zoning Administrator in 1976.[96]

Coe has described Cedars as a place "committed to the care of the underprivileged, even though it looks very wealthy." He noted that people might say, "Why don't you sell a chandelier and help poor people?" Answering his own question, Coe said, "The people who come here have tremendous influence over kids." Private Fellowship documents indicate that Cedars was purchased so that "people throughout the world who carry heavy responsibilities could meet in Washington to think together, plan together and pray together about personal and public problems and opportunities."[15] The Cedars hosts a prayer breakfast for foreign ambassadors on Tuesday morning.

In March 1990, YWAM (which also owns the C Street Center) purchased a nearby property located at 2200 24th Street North for $580,000.[97] The property, now known as Potomac Point, is used as a women's dormitory. Ownership of Potomac Point was transferred to the C Street Center on May 6, 1992, and again to the Fellowship Foundation on October 25, 2002. Potomac Point had been owned by Doug Coe's son, Timothy, who sold the property to his parents on November 30, 1989, for $580,000.

A second property, known as Ivanwald, located at 2224 24th Street North and assessed at $916,000, is used as a men's dormitory by the Fellowship. This property was purchased by Jerome A. Lewis and Co. in 1986, and sold to the Wilberforce Foundation in 1987. In 2007, the Wilberforce Foundation transferred Ivanwald to the Fellowship Foundation for $1 million. Jerome A. Lewis is a trustee emeritus of the Trinity Forum and the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Petro-Lewis Corporation.[98]

At one time, Doug Coe and his wife, Janice, owned nearby 2560 North 23rd Road, which they sold to Congressman Tony P. Hall (D-OH) and his wife on September 22, 1987, for $100,000.[99] Hall donated $20,000 to the Fellowship Foundation on September 4, 2002,[100], $1,500 to the Wilberforce Foundation,[101] and $1,000 to the Jonathan Coe Memorial of Annapolis, Maryland during the 2001 campaign cycle.[102]

The residence located at 2244 24th Street North, and assessed at $1,458,800, is owned by Merle Morgan, whose wife, Edita, is a director of the Fellowship.[103] It also is identified as the offices of the Fellowship Foundation and Morgan Bros. Corp. (d/b/a Capitol Publishing). Fellow Fellowship director and member Fred Heyn and his wife own 2206 24th Street North.

LeRoy Rooker, the one-time treasurer of the Fellowship and former Director of the Family Policy Compliance Office at the U.S. Department of Education, and his wife own 2222 24th Street North.[104]

Arthur Lindsley, a Senior Fellow at the C.S. Lewis Institute owns 2226 24th Street North.[105]

[edit] Cedar Point Farm

According to White House records dating from 1978, President Jimmy Carter traveled to Cedar Point Farm by Marine helicopter on November 12, 1978, to attend a Fellowship prayer and discussion group.[49] President Carter placed a call to Menachim Begin while at Cedar Point Farm.[49] The White House records reflect that Cedar Point Farm was owned by Harold Hughes, a former Senator from Iowa and the President of the Fellowship Foundation.[49] Cedar Point Farm was later used by the Wilberforce Foundation.

[edit] Other Family properties

  • "Southeast White House", located at 2909 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, which is used by various community-based organizations.[106] This property is assessed at $736,310 for 2009 tax year.[107]
  • "19th Street House," a two-story, brick apartment building located at 859 19th Street NE,[1] in the Trinidad neighborhood of northeast Washington, D.C., which is assessed at $358,250 for the 2009 tax year.[108] The 19th Street Center is used for afterschool activities.
  • Mount Oak Estates, Annapolis, Maryland. One residential property, formerly owned by Timothy Coe, was sold to Wilberforce Foundation, Inc. for $1.1 million. A second residence is owned by David and Alden Coe and a third is owned by Fellowship associate Marty Sherman. Another nearby property, 1701 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard, is owned by the Fellowship Foundation.
  • Until 1994, the Fellowship operated from the "Fellowship House", a large estate located at 2817 Woodland Drive in Washington, D.C., which was sold to the Ourisman family for more than $2.5 million.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Belz, Emily; Pitts, Edward Lee (August 29, 2009). "All in the Family". World Magazine. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15778. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  2. ^ a b c D. Michael Lindsay, Faith in the Halls of Power, p.35. Quoted in The Family by Jeff Sharlet, p.25.
  3. ^ a b Charles Colson, Born Again, Spire, 1977.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.25
  5. ^ a b c d Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.259
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Gross, Terry (August 29, 2009). "The Secret Political Reach Of 'The Family'". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516. Retrieved November 24, 2009. 
  7. ^ http://www.ilsos.gov/corporatellc/CorporateLlcController
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Records of the Fellowship Foundation - Collection 459". Billy Graham Center - Archives. Wheaton College. November 7, 2007. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/459.htm. Retrieved August 11, 2009. 
  9. ^ Republican Senate Sex Scandals Point Back to Secretive Conservative Christian "Family"
  10. ^ The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name, Washington Post pub 26 June 2009. Accessed 19 September, 2009
  11. ^ a b c d e House of Worship. Newsweek Pub. 8 September 2009. Accessed 19 September 2009
  12. ^ "The Archives Bulletin Board: Presidential Prayer Breakfasts". Billy Graham Center - Archives. Wheaton College. January 6, 1999. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bulletin/bu9901.htm. Retrieved September 1, 2009. 
  13. ^ Eisenhower, Dwight D. (February 5, 1953). "Remarks at the Dedicatory Prayer Breakfast of the International Christian Leadership". The American Presidency Project. UCSB. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9851&st=international+christian&st1=. Retrieved September 1, 2009. 
  14. ^ Obama, Barack (February 5, 2009). "This is my hope. This is my prayer". White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/this_is_my_prayer/. Retrieved June 20, 2009. 
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Getter, Lisa (September 27, 2002). "Showing Faith in Discretion". Los Angeles Times. http://www.toobeautiful.org/lat_020927.html. Retrieved July 24, 2009. 
  16. ^ “Young Men’s Seminar,” dated February 5, 1970, tape 107, "Record of the Fellowship Foundation-Collection 459", Billy Graham Center Archives. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/459.htm#602. Cited in Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.228.
  17. ^ a b "Washington's Prayer Breakfast History". Leadership Development. 2009. http://www.waleadership.com/GenericPage/DisplayPage.aspx?guid=956FE760-7036-46F2-869B-2723033C6131. Retrieved August 29, 2009. 
  18. ^ Hillary Clinton, Living History, Simon & Schuster, 2003.
  19. ^ a b c Sharlet, Jeff (2008). The Family: Power, Politics and Fundamentalism's Shadow Elite. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702236942. http://books.google.com/books?id=NVmcx-8zdGEC&dq. 
  20. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Andrea; Popkin, Jim (April 3, 2008). "NBC News Exclusive: Political ties to a secretive religious group". NBC News. http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/03/857959.aspx. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
  21. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.254-5.
  22. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.255.
  23. ^ Grossman, Cathy Lynn (July 16, 2009). "Does 'C Street' give 'accountability groups' bad name?". USA Today. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2009/07/68494598/1. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
  24. ^ Bailey, Holly (July 17, 2009). "Another 'C Street' Pol Accused of Cheating". Newsweek. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/07/17/another-c-street-pol-accused-of-cheating.aspx. Retrieved July 19, 2009. 
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.19
  26. ^ Sharlet, Jeff (March 2003). "Jesus plus nothing: Undercover among America's secret theocrats". Harper's Magazine. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
  27. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.223
  28. ^ James F. Bell to Ross Main, May 19, 1975. Folder 25, Box 254, "Record of the Fellowship Foundation-Collection 459", Billy Graham Center Archives. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/459.htm#702. Main to Doug Coe, June 19, 1975, Ibid.
  29. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.21.
  30. ^ Thimmesch, “Politicians and the Underground Prayer Movement,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 13, 1974.
  31. ^ "HRC Says Wright Would Not Be Her Pastor; So Who Would Be?." Mother Jones (March 26, 2008). Retrieved on August 4, 2009.
  32. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.198.
  33. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.264-5.
  34. ^ a b Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.265.
  35. ^ Carver, Richard; The Fellowship Foundation (November 11, 2008). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 2007" (PDF). IRS Form 990. GuideStar. http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/530/204/2007-530204604-0495bcf0-9.pdf. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  36. ^ Lewis, Jerome A.; Downing Street Foundation (October 18, 2000). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 1999" (PDF). IRS Form 990. ERI. http://207.153.189.83/EINS/742446158/742446158_1999_00029222.pdf. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  37. ^ Lewis, Jerome A.; Downing Street Foundation (September 6, 2006). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 2005" (PDF). IRS Form 990. ERI. http://207.153.189.83/EINS/742446158/742446158_2005_028D79D6.PDF. Retrieved August 22, 2009. 
  38. ^ "ENDOW Board of Directors". ENDOW Online. 2007. http://www.endowonline.com/resources/front-page/endow-board. Retrieved September 5, 2009. 
  39. ^ "International: Portfolio Ministries". Kingdom Oil. http://www.unitytools.com/clients/kingdomfund/international/intoverview.htm. Retrieved September 5, 2009. 
  40. ^ "'Family': Fundamentalism, Friends In High Places". National Public Radio. July 1, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106115324. Retrieved 2009-07-02. "Founded in 1935 in opposition to FDR's New Deal, the evangelical group's views on religion and politics are so singular that some other Christian-right organizations consider them heretical ..." 
  41. ^ a b D. Michael Lindsay, “Is the National Prayer Breakfast surrounded by a ‘Christian Mafia’?”
  42. ^ "Transcript: Bono remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast". USA Today. 2006-02-02. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-02-bono-transcript_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 
  43. ^ Frommer, Frederic (2008-02-06). "Minnesotan to deliver keynote speech at National Prayer Breakfast". Star-Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/local/15374266.html. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 
  44. ^ "Barack Obama makes Tony Blair his unofficial 'first friend'". The Guardian. 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/feb/05/blair-obama-first-friend. Retrieved 2009-07-02. "At the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama lavished praise on Blair, who was the principal speaker." 
  45. ^ Anthony Lappé, "Meet 'The Family'", Guerrilla News Network, June 13, 2003
  46. ^ Millonig, Lt. Col. William (March 15, 2006). "THE IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL AFFILIATION ON STRATEGIC MILITARY DECISIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS". Yahoo! Search. U.S. Army War College. Archived from the original on September 5, 2009. http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=%22international+christian+leadership%22&y=Search&fr=yfp-t-501&u=handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA449308&w=%22international+christian+leadership%22&d=Pr0cnBlMS5BJ&icp=1&.intl=us. Retrieved September 5, 2009. 
  47. ^ "Papers of James Edwin Orr - Collection 355". Billy Graham Center - Archives. Wheaton College. May 25, 2000. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/355.htm#3. Retrieved September 5, 2009. 
  48. ^ Carter, Jimmy (September 26, 1978). "The Daily Diary of President Jimmy Carter" (PDF). Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. http://jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/diary/1978/d092678t.pdf. Retrieved July 25, 2009. 
  49. ^ a b c d Carter, Jimmy (November 12, 1978). "The Daily Diary of President Jimmy Carter" (PDF). Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. http://jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/diary/1978/d111278t.pdf. Retrieved July 25, 2009. 
  50. ^ Boxes 184-185, "Record of the Fellowship Foundation-Collection 459", Billy Graham Center Archives. http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/459.htm#702. Cited in Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.420 note.
  51. ^ Interview with Doug Coe by Tore Gjerstad, October 29, 2007. Cited in Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.222.
  52. ^ "Rep. Robert Aderholt trip to Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 10, 2006". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/25941.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  53. ^ "Sen. Tom Coburn trip to Beirut, Lebanon on Jun. 2, 2005". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/16816.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  54. ^ "Rep. Robert Aderholt trip to Sofia, Bulgaria on May 25, 2007". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/27687.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  55. ^ "Rep. Frank Wolf trip to Albania on Mar. 18, 2005". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/21849.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  56. ^ "Rep. John Carter trip to Minsk, Belarus on May 20, 2004". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/20246.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  57. ^ "Rep. Joseph Pitts trip to Belarus on May 20, 2004". LegiStorm. http://www.legistorm.com/trip/17583.html. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  58. ^ http://womenathome.typepad.com/savvymom/2008/03/between-two-wor.html
  59. ^ "Sanford and Ensign called on Clinton to resign after his affair". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on July 25, 2009.
  60. ^ "Remembering the Repubs Who Voted to Impeach Clinton for Lying." Democratic Underground. Retrieved on July 25, 2009.
  61. ^ Hennessey, Kathleen (July 9, 2009)."Husband of Ensign's ex-mistress says Nevada senator paid more than $96,000 severance." Star Tribune and AP. Retrieved on July 12, 2009.
  62. ^ a b c d Roig-Franzia, Manuel (2009-06-25). "The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name: The Sanford and Ensign Scandals Open a Door On Previously Secretive 'C Street' Spiritual Haven". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062504480.html. Retrieved 2009-07-18. 
  63. ^ a b Thrush, Glenn (July 8, 2009). "Ensign "letter" to mistress: I used you for "pleasure"". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0709/LV_Sun_publishes_Ensign_letter_to_mistress.html. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
  64. ^ a b Maddow, Rachel (July 10, 2009). on the Family. Rachel Maddow Show. Retrieved on July 12, 2009.
  65. ^ "Belen R Coe, Congressional Staffer - Salary Data". LegiStorm. 2004. http://www.legistorm.com/person/Belen_R_Coe/38447.html. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  66. ^ Collins, Michael (2009-07-10). "Wamp, housemates hurt by links to scandals". Knoxville News Sentinel. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jul/10/c-street-group-hurt-by-links-to-scandals/. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
  67. ^ Richardson, Valerie (June 26, 2009)."Sanford used public funds to visit mistress." AP. Retrieved on July 25, 2009.
  68. ^ Smith, Gina & O'Connor, John (July 14, 2009)."Sanford’s office couldn't locate missing governor." The State. Retrieved on July 26, 2009.
  69. ^ a b c d e Mooney, Alexander (July 17, 2009). "A third 'C Street' Republican embroiled in sex scandal". CNN. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/17/a-third-c-street-republican-embroiled-in-sex-scandal/. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
  70. ^ Sauer, Bobbie Kyle (May 22, 2008). "10 Things You Didn't Know About Mark Sanford". U.S. News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/05/22/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-mark-sanford.html. Retrieved August 7, 2009. 
  71. ^ "AP: Sanford Took Personal Trips on Plane." AP (August 9, 2009). Retrieved on August 9, 2009.
  72. ^ a b Bresnahan, John (July 17, 2009). "Chip Pickering's wife sues alleged mistress". The Politico. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25067.html. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
  73. ^ a b c Thomson, Rev. C.D. (February 28, 2004). "LORD HUTTON'S FAMOUS CHURCH". Illuminati News. http://www.illuminati-news.com/lord-hutton%27s-famous-church.htm. Retrieved August 29, 2009. 
  74. ^ Coe, David; Wilberforce Foundation (October 30, 2008). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 2007" (PDF). IRS Form 990. GuideStar. http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/720/973/2007-720973244-047164d4-9.pdf. Retrieved July 24, 2009. 
  75. ^ Sheldon, Louis P. (December 13, 2005). "The War on Christianity". Traditional Values Coalition. http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2533. Retrieved November 18, 2009. 
  76. ^ Johnston, Doug (December 22, 2004). "December 2004 Update: SIRC Workshop on Darfur, Iran Delegation". International Center for Religion & Diplomacy. http://www.icrd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=251&Itemid=147. Retrieved November 18, 2009. 
  77. ^ Selous, Andrew. "christians in parliament: about us". Bible Society. http://www.christiansinparliament.org.uk/aboutus/tabid/172/Default.aspx. Retrieved November 18, 2009. 
  78. ^ Corder, Lee (October 2009). "2009 Rockbridge Men's Retreat" (PDF). Young Life. http://sites.younglife.org/sites/internationalnorth/Shared%20Documents/09%20Men%27s%20Retreat.pdf. Retrieved November 18, 2009. 
  79. ^ a b c d e f g Nakamura, John T.; The Fellowship Foundation (September 12, 2000). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 1999" (PDF). IRS Form 990. ERI. http://207.153.189.83/EINS/530204604/530204604_1999_00029406.pdf. Retrieved July 29, 2009. 
  80. ^ Carver, Richard E.; The Fellowship Foundation (November 6, 2002). "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: 2001" (PDF). IRS Form 990. ERI. http://207.153.189.83/EINS/530204604/530204604_2001_005ee932.pdf. Retrieved July 29, 2009. 
  81. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.18
  82. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.29-30
  83. ^ Lochhead, Carolyn (2009-11-10), "Health care bill reignites abortion debate", San Fancisco Chrononicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/10/MNQ81AHHRA.DTL 
  84. ^ a b Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.381
  85. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.58
  86. ^ a b c Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.400 note
  87. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.27-29
  88. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.231
  89. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.276
  90. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.281
  91. ^ a b Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.230
  92. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.186
  93. ^ Jeff Sharlet, The Family (Harper, 2008), p.219
  94. ^ Vogel, Kristen (June 28, 2006). "The District". Xanga. http://sarakristen.xanga.com/?nextdate=7%2F6%2F2006+12%3A7%3A10.170&direction=n. Retrieved August 7, 2009. 
  95. ^ Bollier, David (January 6, 2004). "Chapter 3: The Office of Citizen". Citizen Action and Other Big Ideas. Ralph Nader. http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/15-CHAPTER-3-The-Office-of-Citizen.html#extended. Retrieved July 23, 2009. 
  96. ^ "County Board Agenda Item" (PDF). Arlington County, VA. 2004-10-16. http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CountyBoard/meetings/2004/nov/1116/34.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-18. 
  97. ^ "2200 24th ST N". Dept. of Real Estate Assessments. Arlington, Virginia. June 30, 2009. http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/realestate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?action=view&lrsn=7673. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
  98. ^ "Jerome A. Lewis". Trinity Forum. 2009. http://www.ttf.org/index/about/lewis/. Retrieved August 11, 2009. 
  99. ^ "2560 23rd RD N". Dept. of Real Estate Assessments. Arlington, Virginia. June 30, 2009. http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/realestate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?action=view&lrsn=7676. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
  100. ^ "Expenditure Detail - 2002". Fellowship Foundation. Center for Responsive Politics. July 9, 2003. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expendetail.php?cid=N00003716&cycle=2002&name=Fellowship%20Foundation%20t/a%20International%20Foundation. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
  101. ^ "Expenditure Detail - 2002". Wilberforce Foundation. Center for Responsive Politics. July 9, 2003. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expendetail.php?cid=N00003716&cycle=2002&name=Wilberforce%20Foundation. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
  102. ^ "Expenditures". Congressman Tony P. Hall 2001 - 2002. Center for Responsive Politics. July 9, 2003. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expend.php?CID=N00003716&cycle=2002. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
  103. ^ "2244 24th ST N". Dept. of Real Estate Assessments. Arlington, Virginia. June 27, 2009. http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/RealEstate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?Action=View&lrsn=7679. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  104. ^ "2222 24th ST N". Dept. of Real Estate Assessments. Arlington, Virginia. June 27, 2009. http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/realestate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?Action=View&lrsn=7674. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  105. ^ "2226 24th ST N". Dept. of Real Estate Assessments. Arlington, Virginia. June 27, 2009. http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/realestate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?Action=View&lrsn=7675. Retrieved August 14, 2009. 
  106. ^ http://www.capitalcommunitynews.com/publications/eotr/2008_May/47_EOR_0508.pdf
  107. ^ https://www.taxpayerservicecenter.com/RP_Detail.jsp?ssl=5583%20%20%20%200809
  108. ^ https://www.taxpayerservicecenter.com/RP_Detail.jsp?ssl=4495%20%20%20%200080

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_(Christian_organization)"