C Street

by Jeff Sharlet

  “almost an underground network”: “The God Network in Washington,” Time, August 26, 1974, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944968,00.html.

  Dan Rather challenged: Charles W. Colson, Born Again (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen, 2008), 179.

  “A veritable underground”: Ibid., 148.

  “is only one-tenth”: Nick Thimmesch, “Politicians and the Underground Prayer Movement,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1974.

  “But it’s working precisely because it’s private”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the Annual National Prayer Breakfast,” January 31, 1985, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1985/13185a.htm.

  “Bible Beltway”: Alessandra Stanley and Richard N. Ostling, “Inside the Bible Beltway,” Time, February 6, 1989.

  “vow of silence”: Getter, “Showing Faith in Discretion.”

  “a secretive religious organization”: Jordan, “Religious Group Helps Lawmakers with Rent.”

  He uses Hitler, his defenders declare: David Kuo quoted on NBC Nightly News, April 3, 2008.

  the Washington Post would have none of it: Editorial, “Unfair Tactics,” Washington Post, October 28, 2004. Michael Laris, “Wolf Deflects ‘Extremist’ Label Portrayed in Ad; Congressional Race Marked by Nasty Attacks,” Washington Post, October 28, 2004.

  “Hitler, Goebbels”: Coe, quoted an NBC Nightly News, April 3, 2008.

  “What I find interesting”: Zachary Roth, “Sanford: King David Didn’t Resign, So Why Should I?” Talking Points Memo, June 26, 2009, http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/sanford_king_david_didnt_resign_so_i_wont_either.php.

  “God appoints”: John C. Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1360.

  “substitution”: Bruce Alger, “God in Our Government,” August 30, 1962, box 373, collection 459, BGCA.

  “tan lines”: “Exclusive: Read E-mails Between Sanford, Woman,” Columbia (SC) State, June 25, 2009, http://www.thestate.com/2009/06/25/839350/exclusive-read-e-mails-between.html.

  Coe lessons seem like gentle musing: To men, that is. Some former female students of the younger Coe’s teachings recall a harsher tone. Kate Phillips, an alumna of Potomac Point—a house for young women across from the Cedars—cites an unsettling coed counseling session in which Coe warned the young men from getting involved with women who had been abused, on the premise that they would want more of the same. Author’s interview with Kate Phillips.

  Modern Viking: My account of Abram’s early work with what would become the Family is shaped by his own reminiscences in letters and notes for a biography, stored in collection 459, BGCA, and the two full-length English-language biographies (there is a third, by an evangelical admirer, in Norwegian) written about Abram: Modern Viking: The Story of Abraham Vereide, Pioneer in Christian Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1961), written by a revivalist named Norman Grubb mainly for private distribution to Abram’s followers; and Abraham, Abraham, by Abram’s son, Warren Vereide, and Claudia Minden Weisz, a privately published book with no publication date included. I received my copy from a former member of the Family, Clifford Gosney.

  New Order: Chuck Taylor, “Ralph B. Potts, Political Reformer, Attorney and Promoter of the Arts,” Seattle Times, April 19, 1991.

  “It is the age of minority control”: Finding the Better Way, periodicals, collection 459, BGCA.

  “the Better Way”: Ibid.; Warren Throckmorton, “Doug Coe’s Vision for the Fellowship,” ChristianityToday.com, May 13, 2010, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/mayweb-only/29–42.0.html.

  “Hitler’s leading banker”: “Over Twenty Years of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,” archived at http://www.kintera.org/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=242620. For more on the role of Abs and the Nazi regime (which he did not formally join), see Harold James, The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). James is ambivalent on Abs, a powerful figure in Hitler’s financial establishment whose commitment, however, seems to have been to money itself, not to the particulars of National Socialism (“Should it be the historian’s role to condemn him for this?,” 226)—an apt illustration of Doug Coe’s maxim “We work with power where we can.”

  Worldwide Spiritual Offensive: Abraham Vereide to Ed Allen, February 11, 1955. Folder 30, box 200, collection 459, BGCA.

  Haiti: Traveling on Fellowship behalf: Christian Leadership, December 1959, periodicals, collection 459, BGCA. “Capehart and Carlson Meet Duvalier; U.S. Senators Pledge Assistance to Haiti, New Pittsburgh Courier, December 5, 1959.

  “One of the worst mass murders”: R. E. Elson, Suharto: A Political Biography (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 125.

  “spiritual revolution”: Abraham Vereide to Frank McLaughlin, February 14, 1968. Folder 1, box 168, collection 459, BGCA.

  delegations of congressmen and oil executives: Sen B. Everett Jordan, “Personal and Confidential Memo” to members of Congress on Fellowship assets around the globe, April 1969, folder 2, box 363, collection 459, BGCA. Jordan to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives involved with the presidential and congressional Prayer Breakfasts, October 1970. “Mr. Howard Hardesty, Executive Vice President of Continental Oil company, recently traveled to Indonesia where he met for a day with men in the leadership groups there. He also had dinner with President Suharto and Members of the Indonesian Cabinet. The sense of spiritual relationship which was formed caused Mr. Hardesty to comment, ‘This is one of the greatest days of my life,’ ” folder 8, box 548, collection 459, BGCA.

  “cells”: National Committee for Christian Leadership Newsletter, April 1948, periodicals, collection 459, BGCA.

  “work behind the scenes”: Doug Coe to Dick Barram, July 1, 1962, folder 5, box 168, collection 459, BGCA.

  “It is important to note”: “ICL Budget, Fiscal Year 1965” notes that the group’s relatively small budget “just serves to pave the way for men to give to many efforts for Christ in reaching leaders throughout the world,” pointing to $320,000 in expenses covered by other funders as an example, folder 5, box 580, collection 459, BGCA.

  “in all cases”: Coe to Dick Barram, July 1, 1962.

  “Men who are picked by God!”: “Leadership Development Notice,” August 5, 1966, folder 6, box 204, collection 459, BGCA.

  “a great and thrilling experience”: Doug Barram to Doug Coe, June 12, 1962, folder 5, box 168, collection 459, BGCA.

  “The Fellowship… recognizes”: Abraham Vereide, 1966, folder 2, box 563, collection 459, BGCA.

  seventy nations: David Lawrence, “Prayer Breakfasts Are a Memorial,” Washington Star, May 19, 1969.

  “In this way we convert ourselves”: Quoted in Clifton J. Robinson to Elgin Groseclose, December 1, 1972, folder 6, box 383, collection 459, BGCA.

  “cannot afford”: Letter to Abraham Vereide and Marian Aymar Johnson, October 15, 1950, folder 5, box 202, collection 459, BGCA.

  “Though the background”: Notes on 1966 reorganization document, folder 2, box 563, collection 459, BGCA.

  “The purpose of the changes”: Ibid.

  “Christian Mafia”: D. Michael Lindsay, “Is the National Prayer Breakfast Surrounded by a ‘Christian Mafia’? Religious Publicity and Secrecy Within the Corridors of Power,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74, no. 2 (June 2006): 390–419.

  “religious work”: Maxine Chesire, “ ‘Tregaron’: A Spiritual Home for Sen. Hughes?” Washington Post, April 27, 1974.

  “We’ve asked the Lord”: Ibid.

  Harold McClure… donated the use of a private plane: Support for Tregaron: Harold McClure and Billy E. Loflin to Sen. Joe Tydings, November 2, 1973, no box number, collection 459, BGCA. Private plane: Sen. B. Everett Jordan memo to members of Congress involved in the Family, circa 1971, folder 2, box 362, collection 459, BGCA.

  “Tregaron, if handled properly”: “The Vision for Tregaron,” October 1, 1973, folder 2, box 362, collection 459, BGCA.

  “front
men”: Merwin Silverthorn, circa 1973, folder 2, box 362, collection 459, BGCA.

  “infection of secularism”: Rev. Richard Halverson, “Endorsement,” July 18, 1994. Halverson, a longtime Family leader, wrote: “At a time when secularism has infected not only society but the church as well, the C. S. Lewis Institute is a strategic instrument in calling America back to the faith of our fathers,” http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/about/endorsements/halverson.htm.

  Potomac Point… $580,000: See http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/realestate/reassessments/scripts/Inquiry.asp?action=view&lrsn=7673.

  Tim Coe, meanwhile, sold his house… $107,000: The 2007 990 tax return form for the Wilberforce Foundation can be accessed, with free registration, at http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/72-0973244/wilberforce-foundation.aspx#.

  Youth With a Mission: Zachary Roth, “C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt,” Talking Points Memo, November 17, 2009, http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/c_street_house_no_longer_tax_exempt.php.

  revoked 66 percent: Ibid.

  Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, “CREW Files Ethics Complaints Against C Street House Residents,” April 1, 2010, http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/44583.

  “It helps them out”: Getter, “Showing Faith in Discretion.”

  Stupak… contributed $2,500: Jonathan Allen and Jake Sherman, “Bipartisanship, C Street Style,” Politico, October 14, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28301.html.

  “The fact that everyone”: Emily Belz, “On the House.”

  “My roommate”: Alex Isenstadt, “Will C Street Ties Sway Race?” Politico, October 23, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28644_Page2.html.

  “I’m always third”: Ben Daniel, “Dysfunction in the Fellowship Family,” September 13, 2007, http://bendaniel.org/?p=110.

  “The Fellowship comes first”: Emily Belz, “Unmoved,” World, December 19, 2009, http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16190.

  “In order for God”: Doug Coe to Michael Cassidy, October 7, 1976, folder 3, box 373, collection 459, BGCA.

  CHAPTER 2: The Lovers

  shepherd who led: Lynette Clemetson, “Meese’s Influence Looms Large in Today’s Judicial Wars,” New York Times, August 17, 2005.

  a note Abram wrote: No box number, collection 459, BGCA.

  “Our prayer”: A paraphrase of Psalm 72 in a 1970s Prayer Breakfast program, folder 7, box 365, collection 459, BGCA.

  “We try to be nearly invisible”: Curt Suplee, “The Power and the Glory in the New Senate; A Growing Congregation of Born Again Believers,” Washington Post, December 20, 1981.

  “an invisible Kingdom”: Author’s notes on Bible study session with Coe, 2002.

  “I told Chip often”: Interview with researcher Kiera Feldman.

  “a good-looking boy”: Author’s interview.

  “heaped with embarrassment”: Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), 103.

  “heinous, reprehensible”: Mary Jayne McKay, “Judge Pickering Denies Racism,” 60 Minutes, March 28, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/25/60minutes/main608667.shtml.

  “drunken prank”: Resolution of the Board of Directors, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, May 1, 2004, http://www.criminaljustice.org/public.nsf/26cf10555dafce2b85256d97005c8fd0/b913a03ea518a88185256d97005c81c2?OpenDocument.

  Sentence: Neil A. Lewis. “A Judge, a Renomination, and a Cross-Burning Case That Won’t End,” New York Times, May 28, 2003.

  “Pickering has a prewar mentality”: Author’s interview with Scott Horton.

  “our Southern way of life”: Resolution of the Board of Directors, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

  “He’s a glowing example”: Interview with Feldman.

  “I don’t support Chip Pickering”: David Rogers and Bruce Ingersoll, “Two GOP Insurgents for House Seats in the South Cash In on Their Ties to Patrons in Washington,” Wall Street Journal, November 1, 1996.

  “pornographic-friendly”: Ana Radelat, “Federal Judges Rule Pickering’s Anti-Porn Law Unconstitutional,” Gannett News Service, May 31, 2002.

  The “M.O.”: D. Michael Lindsay, “Is the National Prayer Breakfast Surrounded by a ‘Christian Mafia’? Religious Publicity and Secrecy Within the Corridors of Power,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74, no. 2 (June 2006): 390–419.

  “male model”: Melinda Hennenberger, “Putting a Christian Stamp on Congress,” New York Times, November 6, 1997.

  “There are too many people”: Ibid.

  According to the lawsuit Leisha would file: Leisha Jane Pickering v. Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd and John and Jane Does 1–7, available at “Leisha Pickering’s Alienation of Affection Complaint,” TPM Document Collection, http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/07/leisha-pickerings-alienation-of-affection-complaint.php?page=1.

  According to Leisha: Ibid.

  Leisha says: Ibid.

  “I can’t think of a single instance”: Author’s interview.

  “When they say ‘Christ’”: Author’s interview.

  “I pressed my face”: Jenny Sanford, Staying True (New York: Ballantine, 2010), 20.

  “I was noticing”: Ibid., 22.

  “If I had to name the top ten sins”: Interview by Boncher.

  “I thought he was asexual”: Will Folks, interview by Boncher.

  “the pride I felt”: Jenny Sanford, Staying True, 8–9.

  “The tough decisions”: Ibid., 40–41.

  “But I never thought”: Ibid., 15.

  His Democratic opponent “implied”: Ibid., 74.

  “more libertarian than republican”: Chip Felkel, interview by Boncher.

  “Mark was an ideologue”: Jenny Sanford, 55.

  “You know what he was?”: Author’s interview.

  “He’s an old Southern blueblood”: Interview by Boncher.

  “the human needs we have for grace”: Mark Sanford, “Atlas Hugged,” Newsweek, October 22, 2009.

  “reconciliation”: The Family’s concept of reconciliation as a form of compromise on the terms of the stronger party was pervasive in the early work of Family founder Abram Vereide with labor unions and management, but as a buzzword it first became prominent in a 1960 Bible study of 2 Corinthians 5:20–21, published in the January issue of Christian Leadership, the movement’s newsletter at the time: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God,” periodicals, collection 459, BGCA.

  By the 1970s, the term “reconciliation” would come to define the movement’s mission, as stated in a January 19, 1971, letter from Sen. B. Everett Jordan to President Nixon, in which Jordan describes the “men in positions of responsibility in many nations on every continent [sic]” as receiving indoctrination in the Family’s concept of Christ and “becoming the catalyst necessary for reconciliation among men,” folder 1, box 355, collection 459, BGCA.

  A newsletter dated September 9, 1975, declares that Sen. Harold Hughes and Chuck Colson had held prayer sessions with federal prison officials and had concluded that prison must be “Christ-centered if reconciliation is to occur”—the beginning of what would become Colson’s blueprint for federal faith-based initiatives, folder 1, box 362, collection 459, BGCA.

  Notes for a report on poverty prepared for the movement’s leadership (“Justice for All,” July 28, 1982) argue that poverty is the result of disobedience and that it should be “reconciled” rather than eradicated, assimilated rather than opposed, folder 5, box 449, collection 459, BGCA. For a more contemporary discussion of reconciliation and conservative evangelicalism, see chapter 3.

  “Self-interest by proxy”: Will Wilkinson, “Jeff Sharlet on Free Will,” Will Wilkinson.net, May 19, 2008, http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/2008/05/19/jeff-sharlet-on-f
ree-will/.

  “I feel absolutely committed”: Ralph Z. Hallow, “Sanford, Invoking Palin, Vows to Fight On,” Washington Times, September 2, 2009.

  “He’d be talking to a crowd of schoolteachers”: Interview by Boncher.

  “Something he’d learned”: Jenny Sanford, 97.

  “governed like a bug lamp”: Interview by Boncher.

  “Sanford did what no one thought was possible”: Interview by Boncher.

  “The Sanfords understood”: Author’s interview.

  “our strategy… was to pay lip service”: Interview by Boncher.

  “Mark’s balance”: Jenny Sanford, 155.

  “the world Mark lived in”: Ibid., 98.

  Galatians 5:22: Ibid., 27, 137. Matthew 5:16: 27. Psalm 127: 50. Psalm 139: 211.

  “My heart has been pained”: Ibid., 211.

  “A member of the group”: Ibid., 99.

  “place outside of time”: Ibid., 12.

  “Don’t know why you think you bore me”: Maria Belen Chapur to Mark Sanford, “Exclusive: Read E-mails Between Sanford, Woman,” Columbia (SC) State, June 25, 2009, http://www.thestate.com/2009/06/25/839350/exclusive-read-e-mails-between.html.

  “Though I have started every day by 6”: Mark Sanford to Maria Belen Chapur, July 8, 2008, “Exclusive: Read E-mails Between Sanford, Woman,” Columbia (SC) State, June 25, 2009, http://www.thestate.com/2009/06/25/839350/exclusive-read-e-mails-between.html.

  “I hate to see anybody I love fall”: Allen G. Breed, “Spiritual Adviser: ‘Darkness’ Gripped Sanford,” Associated Press, June 29, 2009, on USAToday.com, July 2, 2009, http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-02-culbertson-sanford_N.htm.

  “the biggest self of self is indeed self”: CQ Transcript Wire, “South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford Holds a News Conference to Discuss Disappearance and Admits Affair,” Washington Post, June 24, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/24/AR2009062402099.html.