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Not sure I've seen a thread on The Family, or the C-street Fellowship here. Wikipedia link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_%28Christian_political_organization%29 I hadn't heard about this group until recently, but it scares the crap out of me. Most recently I heard part of a piece by an investigative journalist (Jeff Sharlet) on NPR's Fresh Air. Basically it is a multi-denominational evangelical Christian organization that is strongly political. It claims both dems and repubs as members. Their goal is to use their influence to push the world towards conservative christian values. They are a bit unusual in being fairly open in that they see these values as applying to everybody else, and that their work as christian values power brokers exempts them from these same values. At least this is the impression from the interview- admittedly one-sided. Several prominent members have recently been exposed as having extramarital affairs (Sen Ensign, Gov Sanford, etc), which is apparently ok for them but not for, say, Clinton or Spitzer. I guess it gets me in a similar way to how Al Gore seems to draw such a visceral reaction from his detractors (an "eco-evangelist" with a giant house and trying to making money from carbon offsets).
Not being an evangelical christian myself, I'm already not a big fan. People keep electing these guys though, and this is a democracy. Most of the outrageous (imo, obviously) things I hear about in congress seem to come from a member of the Family. (for example, health care amendment to prevent federal money going to any insurance company offering abortion coverage). Then I heard about their link to some of the crazy stuff going on in Uganda. The latest- the proposed law that would make homosexuality punishable by life in prison or even death. If this journalist is correct, the Family, including some of our politicians, are doing this! Is this the kind of thing they would like to do here in the US?
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120746516
[quote] GROSS: This legislation has just been proposed. It hasn't been signed into law. So it's not in effect yet and it might never be in effect. But it's on the table. It's before parliament. So is there a direct connection between The Family and this proposed anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda? Mr. SHARLET: Well, the legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family. He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda. GROSS: So you're reporting the story for the first time today, and you found this story - this direct connection between The Family and the proposed legislation by following the money? Mr. SHARLET: Yes, it's - I always say that The Family is secretive, but not secret. You can go and look at 990s, tax forms and follow the money through these organizations that The Family describe as invisible. But you go and you look. You follow that money. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It's not so invisible anymore. So that's how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family. GROSS: So how did you find out that Bahati is directly connected to The Family? You've described him as a core member of The Family. And this is the person who introduced the anti-gay legislation in Uganda that calls for the death penalty for some gay people. Mr. SHARLET: Looking at the, The Family's 990s, where they're moving their money to - into this African leadership academy called Cornerstone, which runs two programs: Youth Corps, which has described its goals in the past as an international, quote, invisible family binding together world leaders, and also an alumni organization designed to place Cornerstone grads - graduates of this sort of very elite educational program and politics and NGO's through something called the African Youth Leadership Forum, which is run by -according to Ugandan media - which is run by David Bahati, this same legislator who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Act. [/quote]
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