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The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power |  | Author: Jeff Sharlet
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy New: $8.89
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  158 reviews
Sales Rank: 1434
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060560053
Dewey Decimal Number: 277.3083
EAN: 9780060560058
ASIN: 0060560053
Publication Date: June 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780060560058 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers. Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is "Jesus plus nothing." Their method is backroom diplomacy. The Family is the startling story of how their faith—part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition—has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 158
 Not what was expected March 12, 2010
JOHN A. BROUSSARD (Kamuela, HI USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The demise of the Soviet Union, while not a deathblow to American conservativism, did deal it a serious wound. Where to look for new enemies? Atheistic communism was such a handy specter to hold over our heads but now the new enemy is--if anything--god-intoxicated. The remnants of communism are now either our favored trading partners or a starving Communist nation with an atom bomb considered far less of a threat than an oil-rich Islamic one without.
As Sharlett points out, new slogans have to be coined. "Islamo-fascism" helps. "The Marxist/Leftist Homosexual/Islamic Coalition," is a bit cumbersome. Equating terrorists with environmentalists is too convoluted even for the elitist fundamentalists of The Family. But, no matter, this esoteric group of believers have been able to recruit the powerful to their cause--conservatives and liberals alike. And since the new enemy claims God as their leader, The Family--as embodied in the person of Doug Coe--rally around Jesus as the true godhead.
Sharlett has drawn a frightening portrait of this semi-secret society thriving in the very heart of the nation's capitol. It's a group which doesn't hold to the view that the end justifies the means, but rather that the means justify themselves. Lenin, Hitler--even Pol Pot--are their shining examples of the importance of power which The Family will be happy to use as warriors of Christ, as steps to financial success and the wielding of yet more power. "Jesus has a special message for the powerful," is one of Coe's slogans.
The book does deliver much of what it promises, though two thirds of it is wasted on drawing a tenuous connection with Jonathan Edwards buried in America's distant past and Ted Haggard in the much nearer past. Far, far more should have been done describing what happens in the sacred precincts of The Family and in revealing who among Washington's power wielders are directly or indirectly involved with the group.
 Truly unsettling March 7, 2010
John Baesler (Bloomington, IN)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like many people, I first heard about Jeff Sharlet's work on "the Family" and its role in the recent affair of Senator John Enzine through Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC. Then I remembered his article in Harper's Magazine about Hillary Clinton's involvement in a Washington prayer cell, which I had read and which had given me one more reason not to support her in the Democratic 2008 primary. But now I finally picked up the book while killing time at an airport, and boy was it worth it!
This is a longish book, with many winding narrative roads and more names I will be able to remember. But that's what it takes to dig up the deep roots of elite fundamentalism in American politics, beginning definitely in 1935 with Abram Vereide's biblical union-busting efforts in Seattle and ending in today's Washington, D.C., the capital of America's global military, economic, and religious empire. Judging from some of the reviews, a lot of readers found this story hard to swallow, maybe offensive, but don't kill the messenger here. Sharlet makes an honest attempt to understand the Family's bizarre "Jesus plus nothing" philosophy and their fascination with power. He writes with aplomb and insight, providing exhaustive documentation and analysis. I sometimes felt that this absurd cult of personality and power does not deserve such even-handed treatment.
Having finished the book, I feel a veil has been lifted from my eyes. I knew about the rise of fundamentalist religion in the U.S. during the Cold War, and I was well aware of U.S. foreign policy sins of the time, but only Sharlet's book gave me a true insight in how to connect the two. Contemplating the long roster of Family associates, I feel like I have been handed the master key to understanding why we keep going to war, keep protecting the elites even in a time of financial collapse, and keep postponing any reform that will truly heal the social rifts in this country and around the world.
To be sure, the Family is not to blame for all of our problems. Rather, in its ability to find centers of power, it illustrates the larger forces that drove America's elites toward global power and the ways such exercise of power could be justified by seemingly Christian morals. But make no mistake, the Family is about power and nothing else. Somebody had to write this story. Now more people need to read it and spread the message.
Fascinating March 7, 2010
Ryan M. Mccluskey
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A great explanation of the past century political-religious movement that helps make sense of today's political landscape. And... well written.
 Jeff believes if you don't agree in aborting infants you are an idiot March 5, 2010
Kenneth Carlson
3 out of 22 found this review helpful
Jeff believes that if you don't agree with him in that we have the right to abort infants you are an idiot.
Why didn't Jeff agree with abortion when he was in his mother's womb? Just a question?
ken Carlson
Necessary Scary Information March 4, 2010
David Jackson
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a well researched book that provides some pretty scary information. Several pertinent insights for me. When the Cold War was over and the right wing religious people didn't have Communism to be their enemy, they took on sex and sexuality. The influence of the Family on the Prayer Breakfast in Washington, and the uses that event lets happen, are terrible. The connection between the Family and Uganda is a disgrace. Thank heavens that Rachel Madow has brought this dangerous phenomenon to a wider public. Several Key figures in promoting again the "divine destiny" of the U.S. are made public. Whether this book will have sufficient influence to put a stop to some of these abuses isn't clear to me. I hope that more people read this book. I have encouraged a number of people to do so.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 158
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