Monday, March 24, 2008
Crude smear of Hillary's religiosity
Tom Smith
Is this some sort of secret plot to make us more sympathetic to Hillary? Or are The Nation and CBS just carrying water for Obama?
I would have thought I had a fair tolerance for ugliness in politics, but truth be told, I guess I don't really. One reason of many that I left DC is that I found the whole snake pit atmosphere got old fast, and this from a guy who has long collected and admired reptiles. (I hope eventually to post some extremely cute pictures of our 4 year old playing with our corn snake, and I will get some of him and the rosy boa, if it ever shows up again.)
Even if we take it for granted that the sinisterly named group The Family, which sponsors The National Prayer Breakfast, which even I have heard of, does have some fishy associations, I think it is really grossly unfair to tar Hillary with the bad acts of every person who has ever sought spiritual support from that group. So there's a Bible study group she belonged to in the White House and another in the Senate, which is sponsored by The Family. So what. A Bible study group, as probably no one at the Nation knows, it not like a secret society. You sit around and discuss the Bible and pray some. No animals are sacrificed or blood oaths taken. No coded messages exchanged. Perhaps we can put this in terms the Nation might understand. Imagine there is a reading group that gets together to read Gramsci's Prison Notebooks and debate whether it is heretical or not. The shabby bookstore they meet in, several members of the group, and who knows what else, is probably one degree of separation or two from the Red Army Faction and the FARC. It's a small world. This doesn't mean everybody in the reading group is a Red, though granted, it's reason to pause for thought.
Similarly, reading the Bible with a group that has some tie with somebody who is a nutter, or closely tied to a nutter, means next to nothing. I'm somewhat relieved Hillary has some religious impulses. OTOH low church sorts can be very dangerous -- just ask all those Catholics racked by Cromwell's goons.
There are plenty of good reasons not to vote for Hillary other than her Bible Study group. But it is interesting to see that the Left views it as deeply suspicious, doubtless much more so than anything Rev. Wright said.
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2008/03/crude-smear-of.html
Comments
Did you forget to mention that this is an exclusive, elite Bible Study Group?
And if we're all busy looking at Obama's pastor, why aren't we doing the same thing about Hillary?
Oh wait, she DOESN'T have a pastor.....
Posted by: Stushie | Mar 27, 2008 6:20:17 AM
Fie, thou filthy Roundhead spreading your vulgate Bible and your hatred of plays and music! Ye shall take Shakspere from my cold dead hand when thou hast bested me in combat, and ne'er a moment sooner!
Yr hmbl & obdt svt,
A Cavalier
Posted by: Mgmax, le Corbeau | Mar 27, 2008 7:37:37 AM
Here's an idea. I think the people at The Nation should infiltrate these secret meetings. It'd be trivially easy to get in, just say you're wondered if godless communism (or fabian socialism, whatever) really is ultimate, and you're seeking more transcendent answers to life's questions.
Not only will you get an invite, you'll probably get a Gideon's Bible, various tracts, and the full attention of some very earnest people intent upon telling you EVERYTHING about the group and its central figure, starting at Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Posted by: steve poling | Mar 27, 2008 9:15:10 AM
Clear your long curly locks from your eyes, Cavalier!
It was a filthy Roundhead, Milton, who wrote the epitaph for Shakespeare in the critical second Folio. Roundheads cared not for the Vulgate, but a Bible in the language of the people.
As to combat, I will see ye at Marston Moor.
Cheers,
OC
Posted by: Roundhead | Mar 27, 2008 9:51:35 AM
I don't know why people are trying to smear Hillary over this, maybe it's because she has based most of her bid for president on negative campaigning. Check out her response to the revenered Wright comment's, ridiculous.
http://campaigncircus.com/video_player.php?v=8836
Posted by: berly22 | Mar 27, 2008 12:21:33 PM
No, this is just an extension of the left's continuing despicable efforts to whip up fears of a Christian theocracy. Of course, their officially anointed candidate, Obamessiah, is an exception. Well, not really, because it seems to me Wright is only nominally a Christian and is more like the Nation of Islam. And Farrakhan did get an award from Wright.
Posted by: Jim C. | Mar 27, 2008 4:40:49 PM
While Tom Smith is charitable towards Hillary and her relationship to the Bible studies in DC, he still got hooked by The Family reference. But the innuendo of the piece by Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation, and CBS really shows they *need to do their homework!* What is it with these people? Have they NO real curiosity about the people and things they write and pontificate about??
The sitting president has addressed the National Prayer Breakfast since 1953.
"The Family" as in the cult "The Family" does NOT sponsor the National Prayer Breakfast. "The Family" (previously known as "Children of God") is a cult founded by David Berg which used sex as a lure (hence references to 'flirty fishing'.) David Berg is dead, the group has changed names, and there are thought to be maybe 10,000 members world wide today.
Someone need to teach folks at The Nation to GOOGLE.
"The Family" (google it, wiki it) as in the National Prayer Breakfast (google it, wiki it) version is actually "The Family (also known as The Fellowship, The Fellowship Foundation, and The International Foundation)...." "The Fellowship is incorporated in the United States as a tax-free 501(c)(3) organization operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation."
My husband attended one of the breakfasts in the early 1960s and met the founder Doug Coe. Coe does not look like, talk like or walk like David Berg of The Children of God / The Family
The only secretive thing about this stuff that I can figure is that some people don't advertise their beliefs or their searchings. And political people have private spiritual lives -- (you know -- like public people like their sexual lives) which they might not think is everybody's business.
But here's a hint -- there is a HUGE amount of ignorance about the secretive (that's sarcasm) evangelicals out there. (Disclosure: I think I am one.)And it can lead people to write stupid things. But then 'fake but accurate,' or feelings and fears work as facts seem to drive the "news" these days.
Posted by: Mountain Gal | Mar 27, 2008 7:58:27 PM
Blacks4Barack presents:
Hillary's Religion (cult ?) 'THE FAMILY'
Very Scary !
Prays To Jesus For The Elite To Rule The World
The media has repeatedly aired the short clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's rhetoric in attempt to discredit and smear Barack Obama. But what's even more interesting is the fact that the media never discusses Hillary Clinton's religion, which is extremely telling and even frightening. A closer look into her 'religion' gives one a clearer picture of why she is the way she is.In a recent article by Steven Brandt many truths about Hillary's religion, called ' The Family' will make you shutter. The question is....where's the media on this one ?
Brandt writes, "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." said Hillary Clinton, to reporters and editors of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Tuesday the 25th. This is an interesting choice of words, since -- while we mostly hear about her Methodist upbringing -- Hillary Clinton has chosen to associate herself with The Family (also known as the Fellowship), a very conservative, fundamentalist organization started by Abraham Vereide...
"...an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the Far Right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host prayer breakfasts; in private they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, Doug Coe, the Family's current leader, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."
This quote is taken from the book on The Family by the same name which will be published in May... a book which claims to
"...dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"
A long article was written about Hillary Clinton's participation in this organization last September in Mother Jones, and The Family, itself, was the subject of an extensive article in Harper's in March of 2003. And on March 21st, The Nation published an article on Hillary and The Family by Barbara Ehrenreich that was published on The Huffington Post and CBS News' web site.
The Family avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as The Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power - cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells."
...wrote Ms.Ehrenreich.
Is it possible that Hillary's participation in this fundamentalist group -- which apparently preaches the "gospel of military might" -- would help explain her vote in favor of authorizing President Bush to attack Iraq? Is it possible her pro-NAFTA stance during her husband's administration comes from its embrace of "the no-holds-barred economics of globalization"? Is it possible that the sense some get that Hillary feels entitled to be president comes in part from this group's belief that "it's only the elites who matter"?
I encourage any reporter covering Hillary's campaign to ask her about all this.
At a time when so many people are wondering what sort of effect the Rev. Wright's sermons may have had on Barack Obama, I think it's only fair to ask what sort of effect The Family's fundamentalist mission has had - and continues to have - on Hillary Clinton. We know that George Bush engages in truly fundamentalist thinking. There is no person or new information capable of challenging his belief that what he already knows is right. Is Hillary Clinton like this in some way? I am not sure.
But the opinion I have formed from this is that - while Hillary Clinton may be considered a Liberal by many - on the inside she is a deeply Conservative person... possibly as close to being a Republican today as she was when she was a young woman supporting Senator Goldwater. This helps explain, to me, why she and John McCain are such good friends. They are both drawn to the use of military power and free market capitalism... and to taking money from lobbyists. The other opinion I have formed is that those who say there are no policy differences between Hillary and Barack haven't taken into account how their religious differences might impact the policies they would actually seek to implement as president.
(end of article)
So now a few things make more sense about Hillary. In review, she's in a kinda power-hungry cult which is actually run by her fellow Republicans which she is secretly one of ! It also makes sense why she could care less about detroying the Democratic Party. Also, beware of her claim to work toward ending the Iraq war. That is another great lie that she is telling. If you listen to her claims she commonly repeats ' I will start getting troops out within my first 60 days '.....How many ? 3....1000...10,000 ? Don't be fooled. Hillary has no desire to end the war. She'll bring 5 troops home then say that she kept her word.
The media should be called out for not exposing this cult. Problem is, they would also be revealing the truths about their fellow Republican's plan and prayers to 'rule the world' by any means. So it's up to us, regular Americans like you and I, to help spread the truth in spite of the media.....For The Re-Birth of America !
Greg Jones
Visit: www.Blacks4Barack.org (A Multi-Racial Organization)
Posted by: Greg Jones | Apr 3, 2008 3:09:38 PM
Were the High Churchmen, Anglican or Roman, models of nonviolence or tolerance? Consider your Judge Jeffries laughing and swearing over the Christan men and women that he ordered martyred. Ask the Jews whether they preferred the Catholic Stuarts or the Commonwealth. I believe that Catholics to this day still offer petitions to More, who ordered men burned alive for disagreeing with his "holy faith", who had fetters installed in his own home so that he might more easily superintend the torture of those he examined. To make an idol of such a man is goonish.
Posted by: Roundhead | Mar 27, 2008 5:07:09 AM