Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

The Nation: When It Comes To Unsavory Religious Affiliations, Clinton Is A Lot More Vulnerable Than Obama

(The Nation)  This column was written by Barbara Ehrenreich.

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There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" - their term - and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, Sharlet joined The Family's home for young men, forswearing sex, drugs and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners - alone.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes - knitting together international networks of right-wing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:

During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.

At the heart of The Family's American branch is a collection of powerful right-wing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe and Rick Santorum. They get to use The Family's spacious estate on the Potomac, The Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by The Family's young women's group. And, at The Family's frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already powerful.

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."

Furthermore, The Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.

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.

Sharlet generously attributes Clinton's involvement to the under-appreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define The Family's theological underpinnings. The Family 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. Insofar as The Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power - cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe has said, and "build new power where we can't."

Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity United Church of Christ. Now it's up to Clinton to explain - or, better yet, renounce - her long-standing connection with the fascist-leaning Family.

[irliberal]

Actually admitting that you''''re part and parcel of any religion should cast serious doubt on your qualifications for any political office. I mean, really, how good can your judgement possibly be if you believe the world was created in 6 days, or that you''''ll be rewarded with virgins when you die, or any other ridiculous nonsense with ZERO evidence? As an agnostic (atheism is a bit too far to the other side for my taste) I know that I am in the minority, and that''''s ok. Once it was a majority belief that black people should be slaves or that the world was flat.

The simple truth is that we have no evidence whatsoever of what happens after death, and to base any life-altering decisions on any religious belief should be a serious detriment to ANY political campaign. I mean really - if you can seriously buy into these things, what kind of nutso things are you going to do when you enter office? Oh wait, we have GWBush as evidence of that. 8-)

Morality, kindness, compassion and tolerance are not the products of religion. They are the products of human society, for those that choose to follow such social standards. I fully respect and endorse your right to believe and live under whatever belief structure you want. However, when you''''re asking to become my president, I need someone grounded in reality. Thank you.

[susan10001-2009]

Oh BOY! THIS is BIG!

[andor3]

Ah for the old days when religious folks were true--they were a little nutty, poor and had no possessions. And certainly no one would consider putting them in public office, nor would they want to be there.

The modern "pseudo-religious" who seek money and power are deeply flawed characters.

[blondchic]

This is such CR AP! Give it a break CBS, I''m just about done using this site as a source of valid news. The dumb woman who wrote this article better have done her homework because if this is just another attempt to get voters to support Obama, who is abviously a racist, and it isn''t true I hope she gets sued! I really hope Democrats aren''t so supid to believe that the Repukes won''t distroy Obama in an election are dead wrong!

[blondchic]

Posted by IRLiberal at 11:44 AM : Mar 21, 2008

Amen!

[oleander8]

This article REEKS of a campaign the likes of the Swift Boaters. CBS used to be a legitimate news source - but the continued re-printing of columns like this has me rethinking my loyalties.

[zendigity]

I''m much more fearful of a religious group that believes in amassing and cultivating power than a religious group that says ourageous things in an attempt to challenge the powerful that lack compassion for the poor.

Power corrupts...Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
THINK ABOUT IT....Please

Now this is what I call "vetting" a candidate...

[perception5]

ah........The Jewish Nation at it again

Pushing their pro-Obama propaganda while attacking, smearing and distorting the records of folks competing with their hero "Obama".

The Jewish Nation represents what''s wrong in America today.

Everyone of the staff is a liberal Democrat if not they simply don''t get "hired" at The Jewish Nation.

ALL Americans should shun this "extreme" far left wing hate that comes from the laptops of the folks there.

Really sad indeed.

Again, when is The Jewish Nation going to employ "moderates and conservatives" on their staff?

[gkc99]

Posted by perception5

Miss Perception, a right wing republican shill, doing everything he can to destroy whatever Democrat is prominant.

Perception''s deep, deep concern about Dem politics, mixed with his racist smear, shows him (or her) to be little more than a lying mouthpiece of the Bushits.

Accordingly, his crapola should be ignored.

[krenz4]

HAHA!!! Hillary has been sooo quiet, she has been trying to head this mess off before it became her turn to disavow, refute, repudiate, condemn her spiritual leader!!

[creeper00]

Dear Nation editors,

When my current subscription expires and I do not renew it you may look to this story for the reason why.

[paris1969]

The Nation hates Hillary sooooooooooooooooooooo much they will write anything to disparage her!

[creeper00]

"if this is just another attempt to get voters to support Obama"
Posted by blondchic at 12:29 PM : Mar 21, 2008

Surprise, surprise. Guess who The Nation has already endorsed.

[hk94]

Wait, I thought it was the Freemasons who run everything? Holding the secret meetings with world leaders and dividing up the power. What about the Skull and Bones from Yale? Aren''t they in charge too? Bush and Gore or was it Kerry were both members. I bet they are the ones with the secret power meetings. Or is it the DallasBlue Group on LinkedIn? They say they are about networking CEOs and other business execs. I bet they are just trying to control all the money!

Or maybe it''s all garbage!! This is an attack article designed to whip up the paranoid and conspiracy nuts!

Wait a minute, this article is a right wing conspiracy to attack Hillary! I bet they put a mole in the ranks of The Nation!

Nope, still garbage!! I don''t like Hillary at all but this is bogus! The only reason she has said nothing is the issue hurts the Obama campaign. Plain and simple.

[creeper00]

Amend my post at 01:48 PM...

I just sent this--

Dear Nation editors:

Please cancel my subscription immediately.

[random_radar]

It''s interesting that people decry the article but don''t address the accusations. Is the article true or false? Did they simply make up a conspiracy ex nihilo?

The end of the article asks Clinton to explain or renounce. She may choose to ignore that challenge, but I don''t understand why everyone else wants to shout down the question.

What are you afraid of?

[random_radar]

Conspiracies rule the uninitiated fools.

What are you afraid of?

Posted by random_radar
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Couldn''t agree more!! Instead of all these emotional reactions. Mebbe we best get down to whether any of this is true or not.
Just cause you don''t like the messenger, or the message - don''t mean the message ain''t true.

[beader59]

This is such garbage. Who is behind this? Obama or McCain? I want to say more, but why waste the space.

[cpaide]

how come billary can be a morman and no one cares but rommel gets beat over the head with it? does billary wear the magical underpants?

[jusstephanie]

Well Well Well--THANK YOU THE NATION for bringing this to light! This article was sent to me over 20 times in less than 2 hrs. I''m glad someone is showing Hitlerys secretive side! GOOD JOB!

OBAMA ''08!

[destardi]

Wow...true prayer, versus anti-American, "cracker" type of hate speech.

I would no more disown Hillary Clinton, as I would my typical white grandmother.

"cigar chomping cracker" as called by Jeremiah Wright.

CBS, really....

[destardi]

Obama supporters are truly showing desperation; you''re being laughed at, I hope you know.

The end of the article asks Clinton to explain or renounce. She may choose to ignore that challenge, but I don''''t understand why everyone else wants to shout down the question.

What are you afraid of?


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Posted by random_radar at 02:06 PM : Mar 21, 2008
+ report abuse


What is she supposed to do, admit she prays with republicans?

You''re a joker.

[cyberus-2009]

Amazing ... when Obama''s pastor was brought to the forfront people ran with that like his pastor is a puppetmaster pulling Obama''s strings ... now when someone points out Hillary''s pastors shortcoming its a "desperation move" and a "smear campaign"?
Come on ... if a one persons church leader is up for scrutiny then the others is fair game.
Mind you, I don''t believe that any of their church leaders are all that influential on candidates actions.

[destardi]

pastors shortcoming its a "desperation move" and a "smear campaign"?
Come on ... if a one persons church leader is up for scrutiny then the others is fair game.
Mind you, I don''''t believe that any of their church leaders are all that influential on candidates actions.


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Posted by cyberus at 05:04 PM : Mar 21, 2008
+ report abuse

What is the shortcomings of praying with republicans?

I failed to understand how that compares with calling white people "cigar chomping crackers" or saying the white government created HIV to give to blacks?

Seriously, which story do YOU think will beg questioning from the true, blue dem, and the rest of America?

Hint, it''s not the people quietly praying, in a bipartisan group.

GD AMERICA!

[kesac4650]

Talk about nonsense built on innuendo, half truths and intentional deciets. This is the most grabage item I have read in my life. A group is slandered by Harper''s years back, with no evidence, and now Hillary is tied to that, and it''s motives and alleged history greatly expanded.
I detest Hillary Clinton. I detest even more such tripe as this author has chosen to dish out for our consumption.

[b-easy63]

This is such garbage. Who is behind this? Obama or McCain? I want to say more, but why waste the space.

Posted by beader59 at 03:27 PM : Mar 21, 2008


This may be the time...for all of us to start judging our leaders by what they do and how they treat others, instead of making everyone in their lives a litmus test. Face it, if we all had to come clean about the people in our own lives, many of us would be fired from our jobs based on what friends, relatives or others we know have said or done. Time to grow up America or keep thinking we are God''s gift to the rest of the world, to remake, invade and destroy as we see the need for them to be "free".

[rickozzy-2009]

Hillaryous Definition: When someone describes a situation in a way that benefits their selfish goals, rather than it actually is in relatity (despite all of evidence to the contrary).

Hillary + hilarious = Hillaryous


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Realista

[wiglaf1]

Your kidding, right? Far more innuendo than substance. And I don''t even LIKE Hilary!

Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of this piece, is an atheist with a lifelong axe to grind against people of faith. In 1999 she won the Freethought Heroine Award, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. You can read her acceptance speech here: It''s called, "My Family Values Atheism".

http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2000/april2000/ehrenreich.html

Frankly, Hilary at ANY Bible Study is NOT going to be a plus for Barbara!

[talk2chief]

Like it or not, YOU are the company you keep. Perception is 100% reality, and in politics, your blemished past always returns to haunt your political future. Keep that in mind you aspiring girls gone wild types. Ask yourself this question, if someone does something you don''t like, do you cut the ties, or look the other way? Life is full of tough decisions, but those decisions define you as a person for the rest of your life. All of the vices we are addicted to, most of the dumb stuff we did as kids could have been avoided if we just did not succumb to the pressure of the company we keep.

[basant1-2009]

Why CBS is degrading themselves by putting this garbage?

[basant1-2009]

Finaly Racist Wright found his long lost sister Barbara. I wonder she ever preched in trinity church next to Wright.

[ramos937]

Magazines like The Nation and The National Review are nothing but right wing GOP rags. For years, they have been anti Clinton and are frustrated that their efforts have had such little effect with the electorate. No reasonable person expects them to ever write something true about the Clintons.

[scottyusa]

Just because people bring up race in this election does not make them racist. After all Obama IS the first black man to run for president and Hillary the first woman. We are supposed to ignore that? Now Obama''s pastor, Mr. wright, who is actually Mr. Wrong, is the epitamy of racism. It is what is said that counts, not the fact that something was said. In this new world of political correctness stamping out free speech is happening right before our eyes. The fact that we cannot talk about Obama being black but his pastor can publicly rant racist remarks til the cows come home is a clear example of this fact.

[hungry1968]

How much is Obama paying this media writer to try and shift the focus away from him?

What a crock of BS! Stop playing games Obama! No racists in this race!

Posted by sincityq at 12:08 AM : Mar 22, 2008





Why is Obama getting the blame for this? He doesn''t stoop to Hillary or McCain''s dirty politics - he runs on the issues.

Who created and distributed the video of Obama''s minister?

Grow up!! If she''s ashamed or embarrassed by her association to controversial people / groups, that''s her problem - not Obama''s.

[hungry1968]

Just because people bring up race in this election does not make them racist. After all Obama IS the first black man to run for president and Hillary the first woman. We are supposed to ignore that?

Posted by scottyusa at 07:39 AM : Mar 22, 2008




Are you voting for someone because of their stand on the issues? Their vision for a better America?

Or are you voting based on the color of their skin or gender?

If you''re voting based on prejudice, then do us all a favor - stay home on election day. You''re too f''ing ignorant for your vote to be counted anyway!!

[chotchkies-2009]

This is a fear-mongering piece largely based on innuendo and vague assumption, and I am having a hard time why CBS would claim such writing. I hope readers will see this for what it is.

I am in no way a Clinton supporter.

[phillysage]

Interesting, the major media''s desire to prop up this dude, Obama, knows no limits! They will even post stories on their websites from The Nation, a magazine known to print off-the-wall stories that trash with loads of inaccuracies anyone who''s not to the right of Ralph Nader.

[tazmjam]

This is pathetic. Conspiracy theories abound, top people in Washington belong to some secret organization called %u201CThe Fellowship.%u201D This %u201CFamily%u201D participate in conservative bible study and prayer circles. (gasp) They also run religious ***-segregated group homes for young people. (And this is evil why?) The tone of this article brings to mind the movie %u201CThe Firm.%u201D Lets make it more sinister by bringing up whom the %u201CFirm%u201D whoops I mean the %u201CFamily%u201D associated with 60 years ago. I don%u2019t know why I am surprised when I see this kind of trash on CBS, if anything this election season has opened my eyes to how %u201CJerry Springer%u201D like the %u201Ctypical%u201D news media has become.
In case anyone doesn%u2019t know who %u201CThe Nation%u201D is%u2026they are a FAR left news magazine which got a lot of attention a few years back when one of their columnist named Hitchens quit after the magazine published a HUGE number of letters from readers blaming the US for the 9/11 attacks.

[rayhc1]

It does not matter what HILLARY CLINTON''''S religious backgroud amounts to. What matters: Can she (HILLARY) handle what is necessary for the future of the WORLD? The answer: "YES"!

HILLARY CLINTON has the contacts and the experience to accomplish the objectives concerning IRAQ and the rest of the NEAR EAST/MIDDLE EAST situations. IRAQ needs a TROOP withdraw to a POINT. After that is done, N.A.T.O. bases are required to continue the stabilization of the region. Hopefully, HILLARY will accommodate this requirement.

Currently, the MAJORITY (SOME MASONS) want McCain as PRESIDENT to initiate further invaisions to purpetuate the THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE--currently the "EUROPEAN UNION". They want Barack Obama to win against HILLARY and LOSE against McCain.

Then they want more invaisons to acquire the SEVENTH KINGDOM OF BABYLON (NEW ROMAN EMPIRE/"EUROPEAN UNION"). For this to occur, the UNITED STATES must be annihilated by the RUSSIANS and the CHINESE, after an invaision of IRAN or another TRIGGER. Bottom line, HILLARY must be ellected PRESIDENT. Furthermore, PRESIDENT BUSH was supposed to invade IRAN, during 2006, to start the process. Therefore, a mess is going to occur!

[rayhc1]

"THE COUNSEL RESTORED" and the "BOSS" want HILLARY CLINTON for PRESIDENT, because she (HILLARY) is qualified for the position. HILLARY CLINTON has the contacts and the experience to accomplish what is necessary for the future of the WORLD!

If Barack Obama wins against HILLARY CLINTON, Barack Obama will LOSE against McCain. McCain will do further invaisions. Therefore, HILLARY CLINTON must be ellected PRESIDENT.

[dukuss]

Nice try Barbara to change the subject. Unfortunately, the Reverend White''s comments go far too deep for you to try your little stunt. Too bad to did not pick your moment a little better to publish your peice, it may not have appeared as bitter and biased as it does now.

[bec67]

If this story comes from the FAR, FAR, FAR LEFT RAG, THE NATION, YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!

[elizabeth444]

Last time I checked, it was ok in America to be a Christian, and to welcome "sinners" in, which we all are. This article about Hillary''s faith is obviously biased, yet one can easily read between the lines and see that Hillary belongs to a Christian organization that helps young people. Since no quotes are provided here to show bad messages in the pulpit, her church is apparently one that supports love.