Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?

[Jenne]

Apologies if this is cock & repost, but I just saw this guy on the week before last's Bill Maher...and zomg!  The shit he was kicking down about "C Street" and "The New Chosen"/"The Family" will make you shit brix...trip balls...I dunno.  Freaky-deaky shit.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else is following this guy's exposes on the hardcore Fundamentalist agenda behind the "Soldiers for Christ" that have tanks and go in with "Mohammad Kills Jesus" written in Arabic in Iraq, shooting people down, and religious politicians becoming a huge-ass'd cult of Fundamentalist whackos (using PolPot and Hitler as their icons)...for decades.

Jesus Fucking Christo.

[Cain]

He wrote "The Family" which a couple of us here have read, and seems to be a well established religious reporter with years of experience in the field.  Note: this may mean he is a little politically naive, though not necessarily, just due to lack of exposure of the murkier depths of the political scene.

[Iason Ouabache]

Read his article in Harper's. Heard a good interview of him with Ed Brayton. Saw the interview with Maher. Got a pdf of "The Family" but haven't started it yet. If half the stuff he says is true then I'm fucking scared.

[LMNO]

I'm about halfway through The Family.  It's kind of scary, but Cain's right about his naivete.  Also, his writing style can get... florid.

[Jenne]

Ah.  He interviews well...but then being a Harper's journalist, sometimes I wonder...

Anyway, thanks.  He's about the only one persuing this sort of thing, aside from a very very few others, with any sort of dedication.

[Captain Utopia]

I would find it more scary if the C Street Family was just one of many, rather than just appearing as an isolated phenomenon. I mean, if I were of that mindset I'd want to position cells throughout all major industries, not just focus upon Washington politics. Does he touch upon that possibility at all?

Or for that matter, how is this different from any local church group covering up local indiscretions - money/power/scale?

[LMNO]

You need to do a lot more research.

"The Family" is worldwide.  They have prayer cells on every continent (I'm putting Antarctica as a possible), in all major countries' governments (G8, G20), and in dozens of lesser countries.

Their aim is World Fascism under God.  And they're good at it.

[Captain Utopia]

You need to do a lot more research.

"The Family" is worldwide.  They have prayer cells on every continent (I'm putting Antarctica as a possible), in all major countries' governments (G8, G20), and in dozens of lesser countries.

Their aim is World Fascism under God.  And they're good at it.

Holy Shit. Well. That certainly would make things more interesting.

Has this been independently verified, or is Sharlet the primary source for now? One second.. taking that research clue on board.. holy crap!

They're even behind those fucking manipulative "sponser a child or they WILL DIE" World Vision adverts too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHC7wNem7vU

[Jenne]

I hope the pressure is brought to bear to keep exposing this kind of shit.  I dislike the underbellies being so occluded by the bullshit that is our media these days, that real stories never make it out of the fringe.

[Captain Utopia]

[Jenne]

[Captain Utopia]

In a report on famine in Ethiopia, reporter Andrew Geoghegan visited his 14 year old sponsor child. The girl has "been part of a World Vision program all her life" yet says (in translated subtitle) "Until recently, I didn't know I had a sponsor." and when asked about her knowledge of World Vision sponsorship says "Last time they gave me this jacket and a pen." Geoghegan was disconcerted to find that despite being "told by World Vision that [the girl] was learning English at school, and was improving...she speaks no English at all."

WTF

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

At first I thought you were talking about these guys: http://www.thefamily.org/en/

I'm actually relieved you weren't.

[Template]

The rest goes to administrative costs and marketing?

[Captain Utopia]

He's going to be on The Daily Show tonight..