Friday, May 23, 2008

Hillary's Religious Elitest Cult to be Revealed

Back in March, Barbara Ehrenreich published a piece in The Nation, Hillary's Nasty Pastorate, regarding Hillary Clinton's religious cult known as The Family. A book about the group, which takes issue with Christianity's premise that the poor shall inherit the earth, and maintains instead that it's the rich and powerful (elites!).
The Fmily avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth.
Regarding how Clinton got involved with the group, best publicly known for the National Prayer Breakfast held every February in Washington.
Clinton fell in with The Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the Senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, The Family's publicity-averse leader, that he 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 with God."
Why Hillary?
What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including New Age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.
Why am I highlighting this now? Because The Family is about to be published. And Bloggingheads.tv does an interview with the author, Jeff Sharlet.

My oh my.

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