Book Review: The Family by Jeff Sharlet « Amicus Dei

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It reads in part like a Cold War spy novel, but unfortunately The Family by Jeff Sharlet is not fiction. Rather, The Family, subtitled The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, tells the story of how one quasi-evangelical organization clandestinely infiltrated the halls of power in Washington, D.C. and beyond. It is the story of raw politics wrapped in a blanket of evangelical piety that is at times both fascinating and disturbing.

The author, Jeff Sharlet, knows the Family better than most outside the elite Washington set — Sharlet spent a month in 2002 living in one of the Family’s many residences, Ivanwald. While there, Sharlet was privy to confidential Family documents and met with the head of the Family, Doug Coe. In 2005, Coe was named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals by Time magazine, joining the ranks of more widely-recognized figures like Chuck Colson (a Family member and product); James Dobson; and others.

Founded in the 1930s by Abraham Vereide and a group of Seattle businessmen, the first meeting of the group which would later become the Family was for prayer, and to break a dockworker labor strike. Vereide, or Abram as he was called, saw the American way of life and the Christian message as virtually interchangeable. Recounting a revelation, Abram would tell how God spoke to him with “The Idea” of working with men of power — business leaders, politicians, and powerbrokers in society. Abram believed, based on Romans 13:1, that God established men of authority. In other words, if a man was in a position of authority, God had put him there, and Abram was to work with him regardless of his character, morals, or actions. If he befriended these powerful men, the benefit would be a trickle-down of blessings on the common people. After all, working with poor people hadn’t really changed the world much. The rich and powerful were the place to start, according to Vereide.

Under Coe’s leadership, the Family submerges, goes underground, to increase its influence and avoid scrutiny as it curries favor with politicians both American and international. That some of those politicians were ruthless dictators like Indonesia’s Suharto, or Somalia’s Siad Barre, or Nicaragua’s Somosa seemed to be of little concern to the Family or to Coe. Coe once said, when explaining why the Family did not object to the inhumanity of some of its friends, “I don’t want to embarass anyone.” Presumably, Coe didn’t want to use his influence to save the hundreds of thousands slaughtered by Suharto, or Barre, or Somosa either.

Sharlet writes with a captivating clarity, weaving the story of the organization from the Family’s own records housed at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Once accessible to anyone, more recent documents are now off-limits to researchers because of Sharlet’s articles and the inquiries of several international reporters, according to Sharlet. Secrecy creates the impression the Family has something to hide, which Sharlet’s critics say they don’t.

If there is any comfort to be taken from the saga presented in The Family, it might be that they don’t appear to be succeeding. Two of their members, Senator John Ensign of Arizona, and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina recently made the news because of their marital infidelity. Ensign’s unfaithfulness occurred with one of his staff members, the wife of his chief of staff. Senator Tom Coburn, another Family member, is said to have tried to help Ensign by suggesting that his chief of staff and his wife be “made whole” financially. Coburn has denied suggesting any such thing, but the Senate Ethics Committee may investigate the whole sorry mess.

Governor Mark Sanford, of course, kept the nation riveted with his disappearance to walk the Appalalchian Trail, which apparently extends all the way to Argentina, where he went to see his “soul mate.” On his return, and with endless discussions of his affair, Sanford likened himself to King David in the same terms that Sharlet had heard the Family use during his stay at Ivanwald. If the Family is no more successful at international intrigue than they are at raising the moral bar in Washington, we need not fear a far-right theocracy anytime soon. Of course, that’s the cynical view, and I acknowledge it as such. The Family is far from being a bunch of clowns, even if there are a few in their midst.

Jeff Sharlet has done evangelicals a favor by showing us that in the case of the Family, the emperor really is naked. The argument which forms the basis for the Family — that men of authority are there because God placed them there — is a poor exegetical attempt to justify amoral power politics. If Jesus were to have adopted the philosophy of the Family, he would have worked with Herod, and he would have taken Pontius Pilate to lunch. And, when Satan tempted Christ by offering him raw political power, Jesus would have jumped at the chance because, as Doug Coe says, “we work with power where we can [and] build new power where we can’t.”

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