GI SPECIAL 6J6:
A Secretive Family:
Jeff Sharlet Shines A Light On “Power, Politics and Fundamentalism’s Shadow Elite”
“God And Money Are The Great Levers Of American Power”
“Deals Are Made And Alliances Forged At Prayer Sessions Around Washington”
Review: The Family: Power, Politics and Fundamentalism’s Shadow Elite, by Jeff Sharlet; HarperCollins, June 2008.
May 31, 2008 By David Costello, The Courier Mail
GOD and money are the great levers of American power. Deals are made and alliances forged at prayer sessions around Washington.
Political redemption also comes through Jesus.
The disgraced Bill Clinton prayed with Billy Graham while others go to Chuck Colson, the Watergate jailbird who became America’s most celebrated evangelist. These men are known around the world.
But author and academic Jeff Sharlet says they do not have the clout or connections of Doug Coe, the leader of a secretive fundamentalist group known simply as the Family. That is a big call given that Coe is “off the radar” and essentially invisible as a mover and shaker.
Although the organisation has been around since 1935, he is best known as the organiser of the National Prayer Breakfast, held in Washington each February.
But Sharlet’s expose, which combines investigative journalism and history, is intriguing, startling and ultimately convincing.
Coe and his followers are “avant-garde” fundamentalists who target Washington’s elites by setting up prayer cells around congressmen and generals. There are no passwords or secret handshakes but members are discreet and told not to commit deliberations or deals to paper.
The network extends to pro-American foreign leaders, some of them dictators. The late Indonesian president Suharto and Somalia’s bloodthirsty strongman Siad Barre were “brothers” of the Family.
They prayed with congressmen, oilmen and arms dealers. Later some lucrative business was done.
The scary part is that Coe admires the leadership models of Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong and even Osama bin Laden, who built disciplined organisations around a fanatical core.
There is, Sharlet writes, something disturbing about a ministry which ignores traditional Christian teaching and which celebrates power for the powerful.
Domestically, the ministry works chiefly with conservative Republicans, but senior Democrats and even Catholics are within its orbit.
Hillary Clinton is regarded as a “fellow traveler” of the organisation and attends Coe’s weekly Senate prayer breakfasts.
Al Gore also counts Coe as a friend.
George W. Bush is not a member, but he was famously “born-again” at a prayer group set up by the Family.
As an investigator, Sharlet is first-rate.
Much of the material here comes from interviews and a treasure-trove of confidential documents. He managed to infiltrate the Family on its ground floor by gaining admission to Ivanwald – a house in Arlington, Virginia, where some of the next generation of cadres is schooled. As a part-Jewish New Yorker, Sharlet was an unlikely recruit among a crew of preppy, athletic young devotees who spend their time praying and playing endless scratch games of basketball.
The author is fascinated by a 1989 Coe speech in which the minister admired the fanaticism of Maoist Red Guards who were prepared to kill their parents rather than betray the cause.
It is this that sets the Family apart from mainstream conservative groups – such as the Southern Baptist Convention – which focus on opposing abortion, gay marriage and gun control. Coe’s followers, writes Sharlet, broadly support these stances but their eyes are on the big prize, a “world government under God”.
Should anyone be worried about congressmen, judges and mayors who meet in prayer cells?
Sharlet says it does matter and points to what the organisation has achieved since it was founded by Norwegian immigrant Abraham Vereide in Seattle in 1935.
Then it was called the Fellowship and it was an alliance of conservatives opposed to communism and labour unions. By 1944 Vereide’s prayer groups involved a third of the members of Congress.
During the Eisenhower presidency, he started the National Prayer Breakfast and expanded his influence into the military and the CIA. During the 1950s, Vereide worked with the Pentagon and the CIA on a worldwide anti-communism propaganda campaign and he supported US involvement in Vietnam.
Coe took over in the late 1960s and decided to go underground, as he “crafted ever more complex hierarchies behind the scenes”.
Sharlet is not an angry liberal and the tone of the book is balanced, reasonable and often good humored.
The author likes the young men at Ivanwald even as he wonders why the handsome young heterosexuals such as “Jeff C” were so overdosed on Jesus and running they had no time for women.
In some ways Sharlet admires fundamentalism and recognizes its place in American history – from the Mayflower to the “Great Awakening” of preacher Jonathan Edwards in 1735 and on to Bill Graham and the current flock of televangelists.
And he recognizes its resilience, noting that the scandals surrounding Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart strengthen the faithful in a way that a forest fire clears the underbrush.
But his exasperation rises when he contemplates how Suharto and other dictators benefited from their Family connections. In 1970, Suharto had a meeting with a Senate prayer group attended by secretary of defence Melvin Laird. Over the next two decades, Family-linked congressmen backed arms sales to Indonesia even as its military invaded East Timor and slaughtered its civilians.
This, Sharlet writes, made them “brothers in blood”.
The author, who is editor of TheRevealer.org, first wrote about Ivanwald in 2003 for Harper’s magazine and there have been a smattering of articles about Coe and Vereide in newspapers over the years.
But it will give outsiders a better picture of US fundamentalism in its most pure and disturbing form.
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
War Hits Home
Sgt. Luke Mason
September 25, 2008 By Carolea Hassard; Azle News
Texas Army National Guard Sgt. Anthony “Luke” Mason of Springtown, 37, died along with six other soldiers when a Chinook helicopter crashed in Iraq Sept. 18.
Mason leaves behind his wife, Melanie, and four daughters who range in age from 4 to 13.
Arrangements will be made by White’s Funeral Home and the service will be at First Baptist Church in Springtown. A family friend will establish a memorial fund at First Bank both in Azle and Springtown.
Luke’s brother, Wesley, and his sister, Annette Cihak, both Azle residents, remember their brother as a “good ole’ boy” who loved nothing more than to rile folks for a laugh.
“He made a career out of making my life miserable,” Annette said. “There was a lot of fun at my expense.
“Besides him holding me down and tickling me,” Annette said, “if he could get me in the middle of a group of people and pick the most embarrassing thing (to reveal) and get me mad enough to yell at him, he’d smile.”
“Occasionally he’d snooker me into egging it on too,” Wesley confessed.
But “if he picked on you, he loved you,” Wesley added.
Wesley, 31, and Annette, 35, are both younger than Luke.
Luke was born in Panama on Oct. 19, 1970, coming to the U.S. when he was about a year old, Annette said. He did most of his growing up in the Springtown and Azle areas. When Wes was nine, all three were adopted by their grandparents, Robert and Mary Irene Boynton of Springtown.
Wesley said Luke was always interested in doing mechanical work and ended up working for his father-in-law, who had served in the Air Force.
Before signing on with the National Guard, “he thought about it here and there,” Wesley said, and decided he could serve his country by applying his mechanical knowledge to helicopters.
“He could do his part and go forward with something to look out for his wife and daughters,” Wesley added.
Luke signed on with the National Guard about 12 years ago, he said. Luke served two tours in Iraq, one in 2003 and the other this year.
Wesley said his brother was very family oriented and even had started doing research on the family tree. Just a few years ago, he found himself talking to two long-lost half-brothers, J.B. and Ray, both of Springtown.
Always mechanically-minded, Luke seemed able to make anything run. Wesley recalled that when Luke worked at a Fort Worth bowling alley, his car got stolen at least three times. Each time, he’d find it, take it back and get it running again.
“When he traded it in (the dealer said) ‘All I need is the keys,’ and my brother handed him a screwdriver,” Wesley said with a laugh.
Another car legend involved a white sedan. When Luke picked Wesley up, he didn’t explain why a piece of wood was on the passenger floorboard.
“We were almost to Lake Worth and he said, ‘Don’t put your feet on the floorboard.’
“I lifted it up and there was a big hole,” Wesley said. “You could see the road. That’s just the way he was. He’d wait and see your expression before telling you stuff,” he said.
Wesley also remembered that Luke had very strong hands.
“I learned real quick that I couldn’t beat him, so I learned to weasel (and) became slippery. I’d get out and run and hide,” he said.
“I’d jump him instead,” Annette chimed in.
“It was all out of love,” Wesley said. “He was just that way. He’d say, ‘You wanna duke?’”
Wesley said Robert Boynton “wanted to say that he is proud of Luke. You always knew where you stood with him, and he didn’t just do things for you.”
Luke “loved his country, he loved his family very much and he had a lot of family that loved him,” Wesley added.
“I would also like to remember the soldiers he worked with that are still over there,” Wesley said, “because they’re going through a tough time also.
“And the other soldiers that were with him (in the crash), and their families – my heart goes out to them,” Wesley said.
Seven men died in the crash, which occurred about 60 miles west of Basra. Reports indicate the crash might have been caused by a malfunction.
The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade from Grand Prairie. They were called to active duty on June 5.
The men included 1st Lt. Robert Vallejo, 28, from Richland Hills; Warrant Officer Corry Ardel Edwards, 38, from Kennedale; 1st Sgt. Julio Cesar Ordonez, 54, of San Antonio; and three from the Oklahoma National Guard, including Chief Warrant Officer Brady Rudolf, 37, or Oklahoma City; Sgt. Daniel Eshbaugh, 43, of Norman; and Cpl. Michael Thompson, 23, of Harrah.
Charleston Soldier Killed In Iraq
September 24, 2008 By Post and Courier’s Nadine Parks, WSCFM
A former band drum major for Fort Dorchester, Matthew Taylor went to the Army recruiter’s office the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “He felt like he needed to do his part,” his wife said. “He said that he needed to contribute in some way.”
Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Joseph Taylor came home from Iraq this summer to see his brand-new baby daughter. He spent two weeks at a rented beach house with his wife and three children, then said farewell once again and went back to the war.
Taylor’s wife, Randi Taylor, and their children have been staying in Goose Creek with her family while the sergeant was overseas. On Sunday, a chaplain and a first sergeant with the 10th Mountain Division (Light) Infantry knocked on the door.
“We knew what it meant,” said the soldier’s father-in-law, Randy Gongre.
The former Summerville resident and Fort Dorchester High School student was on patrol in Baghdad on Sunday when he was wounded by small arms fire and died, said Samantha Evans, public information officer for Fort Polk, La., where the staff sergeant was stationed. Taylor was an infantryman assigned to the division’s 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team.
His parents live in Hanahan. He was the son of Don Taylor, chief technology officer for Benefitfocus, and Kimberly Taylor, head of the English Department at Trident Technical College.
By November of that year, he was in the Army, and the following summer he married Randi, a 2002 Goose Creek High School graduate.
“He was about the best son-in-law you could ask for,” Gongre said.
The 25-year-old was deployed twice to Afghanistan and was on his first tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed. He was a squad leader.
“He was a natural leader. One thing the Army really did was it brought out all the fine points of his character. ... I watched him mature over the years,” Gongre said. “He had a lot of fine leadership qualities. He took charge of things and got things done. He was a good fit for the Army.”
“I bragged about him to all of my friends,” Gongre said.
Matthew Taylor’s awards include the Purple Heart, Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge.