Jeff Sharlet: Insightful Reporting or Axe Grinder?

[manualman]

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family” an investigative journalistic look into what he alleges is an enormous and secretive evangelical conspiracy to infiltrate and shape US law and policy, often in ways that bypass the constitutionally intended functioning of our government.

A family member has highly recommended this book to me. I’m curious and open to what he has to say, but I’m also guarded and concerned that this might just be another character assassination of the type often committed against Opus Dei in recent years. Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of folks out there these days who believe that any christian who doesn’t leave his convictions outside the ballot box is a dire threat.

Who’s heard of him, what’s his probable bias and have there been credible challenges to his accounts? I like to wade into these things with both eyes open.

 

[Dave_Noonan]

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family” an investigative journalistic look into what he alleges is an enormous and secretive evangelical conspiracy to infiltrate and shape US law and policy, often in ways that bypass the constitutionally intended functioning of our government.

A family member has highly recommended this book to me. I’m curious and open to what he has to say, but I’m also guarded and concerned that this might just be another character assassination of the type often committed against Opus Dei in recent years. Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of folks out there these days who believe that any christian who doesn’t leave his convictions outside the ballot box is a dire threat.

Who’s heard of him, what’s his probable bias and have there been credible challenges to his accounts? I like to wade into these things with both eyes open.

Jeff Sharlet became pretty famous awhile back for his book. You’re right, his bias is wanting to be known as uncovering a big secret conspiracy of power in Washington that’s sort of political/religious in nature. On the positive side I will say that in retrospect he helped uncover the operations at the Family’s “C Street” residence–which, at least in part, was sort of famous for being a cesspool of marital infidelity (Mark Sanford, John Ensign–with probably some involvement by Tom Coburn, another C-streeter.) On the negative side, how can one ever really prove the extent of secret conspiratorial power? I think by definition, there’s a lot of conjecture when one writes about such things.

 

[valentino]

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family” an investigative journalistic look into what he alleges is an enormous and secretive evangelical conspiracy to infiltrate and shape US law and policy, often in ways that bypass the constitutionally intended functioning of our government.

A family member has highly recommended this book to me. I’m curious and open to what he has to say, but I’m also guarded and concerned that this might just be another character assassination of the type often committed against Opus Dei in recent years. Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of folks out there these days who believe that any christian who doesn’t leave his convictions outside the ballot box is a dire threat.

Who’s heard of him, what’s his probable bias and have there been credible challenges to his accounts? I like to wade into these things with both eyes open.

He’s merely making a statement which will draw attention to his book.he wants to sell books so he picked a topic which he deemed controversial.I wouldn’t spend my money on it.We can all guess what he’s going to say.His view of the constitution is his view and in no way speaks to the majority of people.He may be a good writer(although I’ve never heard of him)so his book may have some worth but I’d never buy it because of its subject content.

 

[Contarini]

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family” an investigative journalistic look into what he alleges is an enormous and secretive evangelical conspiracy to infiltrate and shape US law and policy, often in ways that bypass the constitutionally intended functioning of our government.

A family member has highly recommended this book to me. I’m curious and open to what he has to say, but I’m also guarded and concerned that this might just be another character assassination of the type often committed against Opus Dei in recent years. Let’s face it, there are an awful lot of folks out there these days who believe that any christian who doesn’t leave his convictions outside the ballot box is a dire threat.

Who’s heard of him, what’s his probable bias and have there been credible challenges to his accounts? I like to wade into these things with both eyes open.

I spoke disparagingly of him on a friend’s Facebook page a few years ago, and he contacted me directly. (The friend is a professor at Duke Divinity School who has become increasingly convinced, for all my efforts, of Sharlet’s conspiratorial views.) At the time I’d only read article versions of his work. I think that his expose of the “Family” is worth taking seriously, but also with caution. I think he’s put his finger on a dark, amoral hunger for power in some sectors of evangelical Christianity. However, like most left-wing writers he vastly overstates the importance of groups like the “Family,” because he can’t conceive of the possibility that conservative Christians believe what they believe for reasons other than manipulation by cynical power-players. Or rather, he and other liberals can’t accept the idea that conservatives might engage in politics for reasons just the same as their own–because they care about the society in which they live and want to promote the common good. (Of course, conservatives do this too–one of the reasons I’m suspicious of his conspiratorial language is that I’ve encountered too many conservatives who thought exactly the same way about liberal politics.) Conservative evangelicals were politically powerless for a long time. I agree that entering power politics has corrupted them in many ways, and that there’s a particular kind of “Jesus plus nothing” evangelicalism that has no real moral or theological center and thus, for all its pious sound, can easily be a front for the naked desire for power. But at the same time, politicians network all the time, and it’s easy to make the networking of your enemies sound sinister while taking that of your friends for granted.

I will say that reading Chuck Colson’s Born Again after reading Sharlet was a creepy experience, because Colson speaks explicitly about Doug Coe and how there was a network of “Christ’s men” throughout government. What’s creepy is that these folks seem to have supported Colson simply because he became a born-again Christian, with no regard for their differing political positions (which Colson reasonably presents as a laudable broad-mindedness) but much more disturbingly, little regard for the justice of his cause either.

Edwin

 

[oneGODoneCHURCH]

Have not read anything by Him more than liely will not read it. However I have a question. If I hold to certain relgious view, how can I set them aside when I walk into the voteing booth? Should I not be voteing the way I beleive? And for those I belive will lead the way I think is best?

 

[Tiberius1701]

Have not read anything by Him more than liely will not read it. However I have a question. If I hold to certain relgious view, how can I set them aside when I walk into the voteing booth? Should I not be voteing the way I beleive? And for those I belive will lead the way I think is best?

I too have not read the book, but I do have somewhat of an answer to your question. As G.K. Chesterton and others point out, the human mind is impressively adept at sincerely holding two completely contradictory things to be true, at the same time, without feeling that this is wrong. Obviously, logic and the Church tell us that it is wrong, but that does not mean that it’s a simple thing to root out in ourselves. It takes time, humility, and diligence - and often one’s entire lifetime - to scour one’s personal beliefs and the actions that either reinforce or contradict them in order to re-order oneself according to the complete, non-contradictory Truth. It is regretable, but it is also, unfortunately so massively widespread throughout all cultures and all times, that it is also very understandable… if we take the time to see the flawed, lovable human - created in the Image and Likeness of God - within those who seem depraved because they do not have the exact same internal inconsistencies that we do. And, of course, having the humility to see that we, too, are flawed and in need of correction and sanctification also helps us to love, understand, and forgive them…

 

[manualman]

Thanks all. Edwin, I’m not surprised you had the most informed and helpful insights. As usual, I’m a long distance back in the dust. Thanks for leaving the breadcrumbs!

I think I’ll read it, but keep in mind his apparent biases. (Including the possibility that he’s merely one of Soros’ minions! )