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The Family: Elite Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

Wed, 08/27/2008 - 9:26pm — Bert

Ha! Now not only can I again not make comments, my comments are spontaneously disappearing. Poof! Just like that.

Anyway, I wanted to re-post this very important material. (hopefully it will reappear in the place of its original posting as well.)

I heard this awesome radio interview on KAOS today, on the program Writer's Voice, which is hosted by Francesca Rheannon. She conducted an absolutely intriguing interview with Jeff Sharlet. He recently published a book. It's entitled: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. The interview was stunning.

Please tune in! Thanks to Jeff Sharlet, Francesca Rheannon, and KAOS!!!

Here's a short description, with a link to the Writer's Voice website. Also included is a pod-cast link, so that you can listen in the comfort of good old OlyBlog.

Robert Whitlock

Francesca Rheannon talks with Jeff Sharlet

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with journalist Jeff Sharlet about his bestselling new book, THE FAMILY. It’s about the real “New World Order” of elite fundamentalism that threatens our democracy.

When Senator Sam Brownback ran for president during the recent primary season few people knew that he’s a member of an elite fundamentalist group that’s waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. It’s called The Family. It counts not just conservatives but also liberals like Hillary Clinton among its intimates and fellow travelers. When the National Prayer Breakfast is held each year–it’s organized by the Family. When we say “our nation, under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, or we read “In God we Trust” on our greenbacks–that’s because of the Family. Founded during the Great Depression in 1933, the Family preaches a gospel of “biblical capitalism,” military might, and American empire. It’s played a crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the harsh economics of globalization. That’s what journalist Jeff Sharlet says in his new book, THE FAMILY: THE ELITE FUNDAMENTALISM AT THE HEART OF AMERICAN POWER...

and now for that podcast:

  icon for podpress  Jeff Sharlet [59:01m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Comments

Thu, 08/28/2008 - 8:48am — Bert

Related Materials

There is a ton of related materials that I want to link to. Articles in Mother Jones (a book excerpt), Jeff Sharlet's own blog, an alternet interview, an old Harper's Magazine article from 2003!

Here's the blog: Jeff Sharlet

The Family [book excerpt]

Jeff Sharlet interviewed by Lindsay Beyerstein

Harper's: Jesus Plus Nothing




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Mon, 09/01/2008 - 12:34am — Bert

G-d's Chosen People

These people are really scary. First they self-profess themselves to be G-d's Chosen People. Then they lobby at the highest levels of government (national and international). They control some of the largest and most powerful businesses on the planet. They consider the fact that they have power to be proof of G-d's approval. They think that the Gospel of Jesus is a dictate to "privatize, privatize, privatize." My God! Orwell must be rolling in his grave.

The Family attests to be made up of the Chosen People of G-d.

So are they? Does G-d favor those who pursue domination? Does G-d favor those who side with power even when it destroys human rights, when it causes environmental and social degradation? Does G-d favor violence and destruction and foreign policies of militarism, corporatism and hegemony?

Those who are associated with "The Family" claim to worship Jesus of Nazareth, but do they practice the Golden Rule (the ethic of reciprocity that is to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or "treat others as you would like to be treated")?

I find this whole business about The Family to be very disturbing - because the G-d I believe in does not seek out power as an end, does not pursue empire, does not consider the ends to justify the means. The G-d I believe in stands for justice and truth and forgiveness and love.

So what gives. How did this happen that religious fundamentalists have gotten into the world's most powerful halls and chambers and into the position of some of the world's most powerful elite?

Maybe it is because the fundamentalist ethos is such that it allows for basic immorality while membership in such an organization provides a cloak, a sort of image of holiness and propriety.

Well, it's far past time to pull back the curtain on this one!




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Sat, 09/06/2008 - 6:01pm — Bert

more key-phrases from the radio interview

"biblical capitalism" "military might" "American empire"




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Mon, 11/10/2008 - 7:02pm — Bert

Broken Link has been Repaired

The mp3 link to this interview has been repaired. You can find the working link and the radio interview here: http://www.writersvoice.net/2008/08/the-secret-fundamentalism-at-the-heart-of-american-power/







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Mon, 11/10/2008 - 11:09pm — Bert

Of Local Relevance

http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6169

Every story has to start somewhere. This one really got its first steam out West, mostly in Seattle, where Norwegian immigrant founder Abraham 'Abram' Vereide decided to settle down.

The Family intertwines the Family's early history, Vereide's awakening story, with the history of the business leaders behind the brutal strike-breaking activities they undertook against organized labor in San Francisco and Seattle. Vereide had an Idea, and it was simple, that the powerful were God's servants on Earth and it was they who needed spiritual care, not the untidy and vulgar masses. He wanted to deal only with the ultimate influentials, and to tell them that Jesus loved them, because they were his instruments for bringing stability to the world.

At Ivanwald, men learn to be leaders by loving their leaders. "They're so busy loving us," a brother once explained to me, "but who's loving them?"
The Idea was enormously popular among business leaders like California's Kenneth Kingsbury, president of Standard Oil. When strikes raged through San Francisco, shut down the ports and came up to the gates of his country club ...
A sign of the apocalypse, Kingsbury instructed a federal man to write his employers in Washington, was that Kenneth Kingsbury could not leave the club to hail a cab.
In Seattle, the book chronicles the proto-Family's first political success, the election of Arthur B. Langlie as mayor of Seattle and then as governor of Washington State. Langlie's budget proposals from the city council seat he held before ascending to the mayoralty were rejected by the conservative Republican former mayor (and a leader of the 1930's strike-breaking) as, in Sharlet's words, "contemptuous of human suffering." Langlie's term as governor saw an early manifestation of what we might recognize as 'unitary executive' ideology - Langlie tried to pass a law giving him the authority to suspend virtually all laws at will.

...

This looks like a tremendously interesting book.







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Wed, 11/12/2008 - 9:55pm — Gen. H.P. Gooberman

you got it right

B-man! The Families are trying to take over America and impose their New World Order (NWO) doctrine on us.