Hillary's Nasty Pastorate

[proud2BlibKansan]

Hillary's Nasty Pastorate by Barbara Ehrenreich

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.

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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.

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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.

more . . . http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich

[HereSince1628]

1. Echo chamber is working fine, that's the 6th time this has been

an OP, at least according to the first page of results for "Hillary's Nasty Pastorate" on google DU.

Current events will take Wright out of view. Out of sight is out of mind. Let it be so.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Good

Cause everyone needs to see who Hillary is praying with.

[uberblonde]

3. Did Clinton ever claim "The Family" as her role models and mentors?

Oh wait, that would be Rev. Ben Jones, the very liberal Methodist youth pastor who inspired her to be a social activist.

FYI: I don't care who she prays with. I don't care who Obama prays with, either. But you can't blame people for wondering if Obama is influenced by the man he claims not just as pastor, but as role model and mentor.

Or did I just commit sacrilege against the Real "True Faith," which has more to do with Obama than God?