Over the past three weeks, Rachel Maddow has repeatedly had Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family as a guest on her show to discuss the unfolding revelations surrounding the secretive elite fundamentalist organization and it's Washington safe house on C Street. In doing so, Maddow has repeatedly hammered away at the point that what's involved here is far more than just standard-issue rightwing hypocrisy about sex. It's about the very essence of conservative belief in an unelected elite that is destined to rule without any accountability to those it would rule over.
This is the very antithesis of what America is supposed to be all about. And yet these people are part of a wider movement that is tirelessly trying to rewrite American history to make us believe that America was founded by people like them, to be a nation ruled by people like them, when nothing could be further from the truth. This false teaching of theirs is very much an example of mythos over logos, a system of meaning that is impervious to fact or logic.
On Thursday, July 9, Maddow and Sharlet discussed just how radically outside the mainstream The Family is-not just the mainstream of American political thought, but outside the mainstream of Christianity as well-fundamentally opposed to it, in fact:
SHARLET: What makes it a little bit different than other Christian conservative organizations-two things. You said that it's secretive. Indeed, the leader of the group describes it, he says, "The more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have."
And the other thing is the nature of the influence they want to have. I got to sit in on a spiritual counseling session between the leader of the family and Congressman Todd Tiahrt on the C Street house. I actually, met Senator Ensign there.
As the leader of the family was counseling Congressman Tiahrt, who had this very standard issue, bill of issues related to the Christian right, and he said, you've got to have a bigger vision of what we're talking about here. He described-he called it "Jesus plus nothing." And he said it's sort of a totalitarian idea of Christianity and he gave his examples of men who he believed, understood the way power should wielded. He actually gave his examples, Hitler, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden and Lenin.
Sure! What God-fearing Christian doesn't look up to Hitler, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden and Lenin?
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