Category: The Fellowship (Washington)

Jeff Sharlet’s book, C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy is now available.

The back cover explains: “Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside the C Street House, the Fellowship residence known simply by its Washington, DC address. The house has lately been the scene of notorious political scandal, but more crucially it is home to efforts to transform the very fabric of American democracy. And now, after laying bare its tenants’ past in The Family, Sharlet reports from deep within fundamentalism in today’s world, revealing that the previous efforts of religious fundamentalists in America pale in comparison with their long-term ambitions.

When Barack Obama entered the White House, headlines declared the age of culture wars over. In C Street, Sharlet shows why these conflicts endure and why they matter now – from the sensationalism of Washington sex scandals to fundamentalism’s long shadow in Africa, where Ugandan culture warriors determined to eradicate homosexuality have set genocide on simmer.

We’ve reached a point where piety and corruption are not at odds but one and the same. Reporting with exclusive sources and explosive documents from C Street, the war on gays in Uganda, and the battle for the soul of America’s armed forces – waged by a 15,000-strong movement of officers intent on “reclaiming territory for Christ in the military” – Sharlet reveals not the last gasp of old-time religion but the new front lines of fundamentalism.”

Three times now, including a complaint they plan to file today against the secretive C Street Center in Washington, D.C., the activist pastors have challenged the tax-exempt status of religious organizations they believe have improperly dabbled in partisan politics.

Their numbers fluctuate, but their mission is always the same: protect the divide between church and state.

From Barack Obama’s incendiary pastor, to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, to Mike Huckabee’s southern Baptist roots, religion is the constant in America’s choosing of a president. Racism, sexism, health policy, the economy and Iraq have had their moments, but religion renews itself with every fresh controversy.

Even John McCain, relatively secure as presumed Republican candidate, has jettisoned a preacher whose endorsement became politically untenable.

Yet the most influential and enduring religious force in the country – elitist Christian fundamentalism – is mostly unsighted and rarely remarked upon, according to writer Jeff Sharlet.

Overt fundamentalists, the Bible thumping televangelist populists, are the antithesis of the secretive network he has identified and that is known variously as The Fellowship and The Family.

Dignitaries’ Visits Prompt Complaints on Quiet Street The burglar slipped in through the unlocked French doors without a sound and made his way carefully through the Arlington home, finally discovering what he had come for — a bottle of prescription painkillers in an out-of-the-way storage cabinet. Leaving jewelry and other valuables untouched, he vanished without a trace. In fact, he was so meticulous that Paul Rusinko would not have known his home had been broken into but for a handwritten note the penitent burglar left in his mailbox a few days later: “My name is James Hammond . . .