and carrying a cross"... Sinclair Lewis.
Here is another section of the Wikipedia article on the Family/Fellowship. I very stri-ongly urge you to go to Wikipedia and consult the entire article....
Quote..........
Beliefs
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.
The Family believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who
uses them for his purposes through these information associations.
The Family represents "Jesus plus nothing," as its leader, Doug Coe,
puts it, the "totalitarianism of God," in the words of an early Family
leader, a vision that encompasses not just social issues but also the
kind of free-market fundamentalism that is the real object of devotion
for core members and insiders.[17]
At the heart of the Family's spiritual advice for its proxies in
Congress is the conviction that the market's invisible hand represents
the guidance of God, and that God wants his "new chosen" to look out
for one another.[17]
As reported by Andrea Mitchell and Jim Popkin for NBC News, Fellowship leader Doug Coe repeatedly urges a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that he compares to the blind devotion that Adolf Hitler demanded from his followers.[18]
Coe has stated "Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men. Think of
the immense power these three men had, these nobodies from nowhere,"
and later in the same sermon: "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."[18]
Doug Coe also refers to the Fellowship as the "Christian Mafia" and
is on record saying that he tries to make the group act like the Mafia because the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.[19]
In its emphasis on secrecy and its attempts to influence government
policies and extensive links to America's leading politicians, the
operation of the Family raises questions regarding the separation of
church and state. At least one influential Family member, Senator Mark Pryor,
stated that through the Family he had learned that the separation of
church and state was a sort of secular exaggeration and that “Jesus did
not come to bring peace. Jesus came to take over.”[19]
[
edit] Secrecy
Although a goal of the Family is to influence politics and a large
number of Senators and Representatives live in or are affiliated with
the institution, the Family has long been a secretive organization that
is not widely understood.[20][21]
Concerned about growing publicity, Fellowship Founder Abraham Vereide
wrote a letter in 1966 declaring it time to “submerge the institutional
image of [the Family].”[17] Former Republican Senator William Armstrong has said the group has “made a fetish of being invisible."[22]
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan stated about the Family, "I wish I
could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is
private."[13]
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."[13]
Bush was apparently ignorant of one of the nation's oldest laws, the
Logan Act, which forbids private citizens to do just that lest foreign
policy slip out of democratic control.[13]
"If I told you who has participated and who participates until this
day, you would not believe it," the Family's longtime leader, Doug Coe,
said in a rare interview in 2001. "You'd say, ‘You mean that scoundrel?
That despot?'"[13]
On July 10, 2009, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that
Representative and C Street resident Zach Wamp said in an interview
that he and his fellow residents at C Street have agreed not to
publicly discuss their living arrangements.[23] When Rachel Maddow repeated the story on her show, Wamp complained, but the Knoxville News Sentinel stated that Wamp did not call them to correct his comment.[24] Maddow responded to Wamp's complaints on air.[25]
When asked if he takes part in "fellowship" activities at the C Street Center, fellow resident Rep. Bart Stupak
(D-MI) says he just rents a room, but doesn't know what goes on there.
Stupak refuses to "discuss what goes on there, because I'm not
there.... Are there other activities going on there? Yes. But what goes
on and things like that, I don't know. I have my room there." Pressed
again about whether he's "involved" in any "activities" at the house,
Stupak responded, "I have a room there. And I participate in a Tuesday
night dinner once in a while there.... So there is no regimen. There is
no group stuff I have to do.... You guys... are grasping at straws
that's not there. I rent a room there... I do not belong to any such
group. I don't know what you are talking about.... I have no
affiliation," he said.[26]
Pete Hoekstra, another Congressman who attended the Tuesday night dinners mentioned by Stupak, described them to The Detroit News:
"We'd fellowship, we'd pray, we'd talk about Jesus, and we'd eat."
Hoekstra continued, "In the headiness of Washington, D.C., it's trying
to make sure you keep your head screwed on straight."[26]
Reverend Rob Schenck, who leads a Bible study on the Hill inspired
by C Street, wrote in 2009 that "all ministries in Washington need to
protect the confidence of those we minister to, and I'm sure that's a
primary motive for C Street's low profile." But he said, "I think the
Fellowship has been just a tad bit too clandestine."[20][27]
While it conducts no public fundraising, the Fellowship Foundation
has reported significant anonymous donations that are made each year:
- In 2001, more than $10.3 million
- In 2002, more than $10.8 million
- In 2003, more than $11.4 million
- In 2004, more than $12.1 million
- In 2005, more than $14.7 million
- In 2006, more than $13.4 million
The Fellowship also has reported plus membership fees of at least $1.1 million in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Thanks for reading. Please go look at the entire article... before it is hacked out of existence.
Shep
