. Sharlet, J. (2008) The family, New York: Harper Collins

In  1935, Abraham Vereide and 6 others sympathetic to European fascism, met and arranged a new organization to  create political movements  to terminate the programs of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. They also wanted to garner from Christian fundamentalism an elite in every branch of society. Using small prayer cells fashioned after both communism and fascism, their mission has been accomplished. THE FAMILY has such members  of every Republican administration since Richard Nixon. They have meta-sized throughout the federal and state governments.  Every President of the USA has attended a National Prayer Breakfast organized and supported by THE FAMILY.

Sharlet was introduced to this group by a friend of his brother. He was able to get an internship to work at the “C” street house, a three story apartment house in the DC region. In greater Washington  DC, there are  6 other  meeting houses and living quarters along with the Cedar Point farm. According to the author, all are palatial.

The author introduces us to THE FAMILY  and ends the books on its political action and infiltration of the government. In the middle is the history of American fundamentalism since the inception of the country and early European roots. There are descriptions of the hellish terror that early evangelist Jonathan Edwards could inflict on a crowd and gain membership. Without terrifying descriptions of death, fundamentalism is left without its strongest message.

Importantly, what THE FAMILY wants and desires is Biblical capitalism. Although they begin with discussion of free markets, with fascism, you don’t have that. You need a strong authoritarian government with one party or two with little differences, nearly all civil freedoms are removed. Therefore free markets mean private markets. The reason is that an Authoritarian Christian theocratic state corrects and soothes all of the problems of the human condition.

The other wings of the Right, like Libertarian capitalism are incorrect. To follow the reasoning of this ideology are hundreds of books known to circulate in Bible colleges as well as Campus Crusade organizations on major university school grounds. Many are distributed at fundamentalist churches. Some  of the biggest sellers, that means in the millions, are unknown to the New York Times best seller list.

At the root of this movement is the shadowy figure of Jesus Christ or his real name of Yasuah ben Yospeh. Jesus was probably slender, dark, black hair, and likely by European standards, short. His teachings written down decades after his death are rather egalitarian. So? The family selects the more Social Darwin statements and portrays him as a muscular general leading an ever growing number of believers.  This image making was popularized by public relations man, Bruce Barton in the 20’s in the USA.

So Jesus is really not for the weak or poor. He gives the elite of the material USA the noble blessing of leading. So that the strong shall inherit the earth. Jesus will welcome the strong with questions dealing with their triumph over others when they die. Biblical capitalism is necessary for creating and maintaining our country as an empire.

Today, fundamentalism is the largest sector of the Christian population in the United States. However, many everyday Evangelicals may scratch their head when they read about THE FAMILY.  Further, others including Christian moderates as well as the rest of the population may find themselves feeling anxious in an economy that is fragile and know that bad times breed dictators with simple answers. This is followed by war or civil unrest. This book is a necessary primer for those who would like to get a glimpse of a worst case scenario run by folks who believe in a strong military Jesus who want the fundamental elite to rule for more

than a thousand years. They want forever.

You must read this book.

Prof. Joel Snell

Kirkwood College