Another Liberal Conspiracy Theory
So let me tell you about a fun thing.
A few weeks ago, Garry Trudeau ran a few strips in Doonesbury sending up "The Family," of C Street fame -- a group of Washington insiders running a ministry to politicians. As a faithful Doonesbury reader unacquainted with whatever scandal he was referring to, I thought something like huh. I figured it had something to do with adulterous Republican folks like Gov. Sandford or Sen. Ensign.
Then yesterday, I received an anonymous gift at the office here -- two copies of a book called The Family. They came from a local indepdendent bookstore called Bookpeople, the subtitle of the book providing what I assume to have been the message behind the gift. That subtitle is "The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." The author is named Jeff Sharlet, a contributing editor to both Harper's and Rolling Stone, and the book is a bestseller.
Thomas Frank said, "Of all the important studies of the American right, The Family is undoubtedly the most eloquent. It is also quite possibly the most terrifying." With me so far? It appears that someone was letting me know they were onto our tricks.
The two copies of this book made me remember that I already had a copy that I had picked up somewhere, but had not read. And so I pulled it down from the shelf, resolved to give it a look. (And to the anonymous donor, I am passing the two copies you provided on to some key co-conspirators. Many thanks.)
Then, that same morning, my copy of World arrived, and the cover story was -- "The ABCs of C Street." This is starting to look suspiciously like God wants me to blog about something. So last night I sat down and read the introduction to the book. Good writing, although somewhat breathless. Then I picked up World and started to read about the same people. I started to get a funny feeling on the first page of the article. These names are kind of familiar -- Richard Halverson, Abraham Vereide, and Doug Coe. So I stopped and gave my dad a call. I grew up in Annapolis (and some photos of some lovely Annapolis houses grace the pages of World's article). I remembered Halverson as someone who had been the chaplain of the U.S. Senate, and I remembered Coe's name. I didn't remember Vereide. So, like I said, I called up my dad and put the nickel in.
Well, it turns out that the instincts of the anonymous book donor were spot on. We are part of this conspiracy. It's true. We go way back. Well, kind of.
Richard Halverson was a student of Henrietta Mears (for those who remember her), and went on to become the pastor of 4th Pres in Bethesda. Later he became the chaplain of the Senate. Abraham Vereide was the founder of the "Fellowship" and Halverson was one of the first to join. Dad had Halverson come speak in Annapolis, and in turn did some teaching once at a class at Halverson's church.
He also had Vereide come to speak at an event in Annapolis. Dad said that Vereide was a classic evangelical of the old school. When a newly-elected senator would arrive in Washington, Vereide would go see him and say, "Young man, are you here in the will of God?" And of course the senator wouldn't know what to do or where to look. And Vereide would follow up -- "You're a senator and you don't know if you are in the will of God?"
The Family is the group responsible for sponsoring the National Prayer Breakfast, and had something to do with various governors' prayer breakfasts also. Doug Coe was Vereide's successor, and he tapped my dad to help with one of the first (if not the first) governor's prayer breakfasts in Maryland. He told my dad that he would arrange for the politicians to come if my dad could get Christians to come. They would seat them politician/Christian/politician/Christian and so on, and maybe some good would rub off.
My dad thought this was a grand idea, and so he rounded up a bunch of believers -- his interests in this being entirely evangelistic. Coe did provide the politicians, and he also provided the speaker -- a Roman Catholic priest who, as my dad put it, when it came to the gospel, didn't know the difference between left field and first base.
Coe was much more relational than the doctrinal Vereide had been. Dad said he could see the thinning of the message pretty early on. Some of the things mentioned in World -- a deemphasis of church accountability, a deracinated theology, and an emphasis on personal relationship with Jesus and one another -- were all present a generation ago.
And two things struck me. Jeff Sharlet has liberals breathing into paper bags, trying to get a grip, and the specter he conjures up is that of prayer-breakfast-judeo-christians? This is supposed to be an iron-fisted fundamentalism? Thomas Franks sticks his head around the corner again, warning darkly of "Jesus Christ, fuhrer." They are all whipped up about the prayer breakfast guys? Heh.
But secondly, I thought of something that could be a consolation prize for the conspiracy minded on the Left. There is a cadre within the cadre, a family within the family. They regard the group exposed by Sharlet as being somewhat liberal and compromised. They are the real deal, going so far as to live in northern Idaho. They have quietly taken their places there, strategically situated along the nation's capillaries. We simply await the signal.
First posted in Blog and Mablog, 27th August, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment