C Street and the Fellowship Foundation - Face of the Christian Mafia

Many liberal and progressive news sources and blogs have gone after the sex scandal plagued C Street fellowship house owned by the secretive, Fellowship Foundation. Now, the Christian magazine World Magazine is on the attack as well, citing huge sums of money, luxury and questionable theology. Admittedly, nothing is more fun than to watch a Christianist cat fight - especially when sex, large quantities of shadowy money, the peddling of undue influence and corruption all are part of the story line. Personally, it is worrisome when alleged "church" organizations are giving out discount lodging, lunches and dinners, and other perks to elected officials since only a fool would believe that no quid pro quo isn't expected in return. Stated differently, it looks a lot like bribery and unethical influence peddling to me. Here are some highlights from World Magazine (make sure to read the whole article or at least scroll down and check out the high end properties the organization owns):

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—The national press for the past two months has roasted "hypocritical" Christians who live in or meet in a ministry-owned house on C Street two blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, both talked about this spring as potential GOP presidential candidates in 2012, have acknowledged adulterous relationships. Last month a lawsuit in Jackson, Miss., served notice that former Rep. Chip Pickering, also a Republican, may have carried on in the C Street house an illicit affair with a former college love interest. . .

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Sustained media attention has focused on whether the C Street house conclaves had contributed to or condoned the breaking of marital vows: Just what was in the water at C Street to prompt the three—all GOP political and social conservatives who a decade ago called for former President Bill Clinton's resignation—to fall into similar scandals of their own?

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[A] larger story emerged of the group behind the C Street row house: a 60-year-old, globally reaching organization that has muddy theology and a disdain for the established church. The C Street house is one of many properties in the greater Washington area owned by the Fellowship Foundation, which sponsors the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Bible studies, social gatherings, and private retreats, and funds international development.

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"Associates" (employees) of the Fellowship say its mission is to show the love of Jesus to the world's leaders. But it has no website to publicize that work, and those affiliated are extremely reluctant—if not prohibited, say some—to talk about it.

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House members Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and Heath Shuler, D-N.C., are reportedly current C Street residents. Senators Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; and John Ensign, R-Nev. reportedly also live there. All have been repeatedly contacted by WORLD in the wake of the scandals and have declined personally or through spokespersons to be interviewed on the record about the group. Others who regularly attend C Street house gatherings or other Fellowship studies reportedly include Reps. Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; and Joe Pitts, R-Pa.; along with Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; and Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

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In fact, said Halverson, "they used to call themselves the Christian mafia—and they would laugh. Meaning one family is in strong power and then other families around that family have some power. . . . I would have been considered one of the families that have power."

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Silver tea sets, pink Italian marble, and overstuffed divans set the scene for elite gatherings. A banquet table serves weekly ambassadorial lunches, and another smaller sitting room allows for private, intimate meetings. Outside are tennis courts under tall oaks and a swimming pool that blends smoothly into the landscape.

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I think readers will get the drift. If this out fit is purportedly a "church" or some other tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, it should not be giving out favors to elected legislators. The whole arrangement fails to pass the smell test at the very least.

The Secret GOP Sex Diary

I realize that I write about the hypocrisy of the GOP often - some might say too often, but sometimes the stuff that comes out of the misadventures of the "family values" crowd is just too outrageous to pass up. A case in point is the diary that former Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi (pictured at left) kept as he allegedly carried on an extramarital affair with Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd. As The Daily Beast is reporting, Pickering recorded details of his exploits in a secret diary, including the dates and locations of his adulterous encounters. To make the matter even more fun, Pickering's diary is getting sucked into what will likely be a wildly vicious divorce case. Not only is Pickering - a former resident of the C Street house I referenced yesterday - a major league hypocrite but also amazingly stupid to keep such a diary. That Pickering once was President of the Mississippi Baptist Convention just makes his hypocrisy all the more over the top. P.S. Local Congressman J. Randy Forbes belongs to the C Street "ministry." Here are some highlights from The Daily Beast:

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Pickering, a Republican, described several assignations he had with Creekmore Byrd inside the C Street House, a Capitol Hill townhouse inhabited by an all-male group of right-wing Republican congressmen belonging to The Fellowship, an evangelical group, according to a person familiar with the diary's contents.

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And according to a divorce filing by Pickering’s estranged wife, Leisha, the former congressman’s diary reveals the identities of several men who enabled his adulterous trysts and helped him cover his tracks.

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Thanks to heavily politicized local courts and an aggressive damage-control campaign waged by Pickering and his powerful Republican allies, the diary, which is said to contain the answers to these questions, is locked away in a courtroom in Mississippi. And if Pickering has his way, it will stay there indefinitely.

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Pickering was once considered one of the GOP’s brightest stars. An ardent social conservative and defender of “traditional marriage,” he was seen as a shoo-in for former Majority Leader Trent Lott’s Senate seat when Lott retired in 2007. Indeed, according to Leisha Pickering’s divorce filing, Mississippi Governor and former Washington super-lobbyist and Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour personally offered Pickering the seat. But according to the divorce filing, Creekmore Byrd “insisted that if Pickering accepted the position in the Senate that their relationship would not be able to continue.” In the end, Pickering chose his mistress over his congressional career and his wife.

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Chip Pickering is the scion of one of the most influential Republican families in Mississippi, son of retired federal appeals court Judge Charles Pickering, one of the founders of Mississippi’s post-civil rights GOP and past president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.

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Though Pickering is now out of Congress, the suppression of the diary is a high priority for Republican Party leaders from Washington to Mississippi. The GOP is reeling from sex scandals involving two men associated with the C Street House, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Senator John Ensign of Nevada. The revelation of private emails between Sanford and his Argentine mistress and the exposure of payments from Ensign’s casino-mogul parents to his mistress prolonged the back-to-back public-relations disasters for weeks beyond the first reports of the affairs.

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The release of Pickering’s diary would likely have an electrifying effect, reigniting media interest in his dalliance and drawing renewed attention to the C Street evangelical men’s group to which he and other Republican lawmakers have belonged.

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A source close the case told me the judge presiding over the lawsuit could rule to make the Pickering diary public, thereby voiding Brewer’s decision in the divorce court. So long as the judge’s decision is pending, the diary represents a ticking time bomb—with the potential to rock corridors of conservative power from Jackson, Mississippi, to C Street in Washington.

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Personally, I hope that time bomb explodes and exposes just what hypocrites so many of today's GOP "family values" politicians are in fact.

Republican Sex Scandals and the C Street "Ministries"

At first blush one of the strangest stories to come from the recent wave of Republican sex scandals is that all of the adulterers are allegedly "family values" conservatives and many lived at a $1.8 million townhouse in Washington, D.C., owned by purported Christian non-profit entities. On a closer look, none of this should be surprising: (1) it's the sexually repressed Christian Right ass kissing politicians who most want illicit sex - the forbidden fruit if you will and (2) many of the Christianist non-profits organizations give all kinds of in kind gifts to their GOP water carriers in ways that ought to cause them to lose their non-profit status. Hypocrites and liars flocking together so to speak. As for The Fellowship" that owns the C Street townhouse, it represents, in my view, just a small part of the Christian Right political mafia that afflicts politics in this country. Politico has a story that ought to be read by those who have not seen up front how the Christianists funnel money and gifts to GOP elected officials and thereby buy influence. Here are some highlights:

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Lawmakers flock to 133 C St. SE for cheap rent, weekly dinners, Bible studies and spirituality sessions that serve as a sort of group therapy for some of the country’s most powerful men. But now the stately brick house is becoming known for something else: It’s ground zero for Republican sex scandals. In February, Nevada Sen. John Ensign — who lives at the house — was confronted at C Street by colleagues who wanted him to end his affair with a staffer.

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Earlier this month, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford — who lived at C Street when he served in the House — said C Street was where he’d been asked the “hard questions” that were “very, very important” in his decision to admit an affair with an Argentine woman. And last week, the estranged wife of former Rep. Chip Pickering said he carried on a long-term extramarital affair while living at the “well-known C Street Complex.” The trifecta of trysts has made C Street an easy target for charges of “family values” hypocrisy . . . .

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Although titles may not be important, there are plenty of them at C Street. In addition to DeMint and Ensign, C Street residents include Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) lived in the house before moving to his own condo, and he still attends events there. Former Reps. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have also studied at C Street.

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The large townhouse, valued at more than $1.8 million, is run by Christian network of nonprofits and ministries known as “The Fellowship.” Headquartered in Arlington, Va., . . . By ministering to the most powerful, The Fellowship believes, it can bring Christian beliefs to the larger culture. Jeff Sharlet, who wrote a book about his time in The Fellowship's Virginia headquarters, said the group believes that lawmakers have been "chosen" to lead by Jesus Christ.

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“When you operate in secret in Washington you raise an immediate red flag and then it gets redder when it gets mixed with any ideological agenda,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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Because of the secrecy, it’s hard to know exactly how frank the various prayer sessions are — although it’s clear that Ensign’s affair was a topic of conversation at C Street. Coburn and others confronted Ensign about the affair there last year, and Wamp said that Ensign recently apologized to fellow C Streeters for his indiscretion.

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I'm sorry, but I have a problem with elected officials receiving living accommodations and meals subsidized by far right Christian organizations. To expect there not to be a "pay back" somewhere in return for what amounts to non-monetary gifts is naive. Not to mention the hypocrisy of the adulterer set enjoying the subsidized fruits offered by The Fellowship. Last weekend Maureen Dowd had a great column in the New York Times that looked at the C Street hypocrisy. Here are a few highlights:

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Like cats that have lost their whiskers, the Republicans seem off balance now that they have lost their talent for hypocrisy. . . . Who can forget the glory years, when the Gipper invoked God but never went to church? When Arlen Specter accused Anita Hill of perjury to distract from Clarence Thomas’s false witness? When Newt Gingrich and other conservatives indulged in affairs with young Washington peaches as they pushed to impeach Bill Clinton?

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The religious boardinghouse in Washington where Sanford sought succor from fellow conservatives, where he agonized to pals about his tango with the enticing María, is also back in the news. Affiliated with a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship — which also sponsored Bible study and prayer circles attended by Hillary Clinton when she was a senator — the pious dwelling is becoming a tourist attraction, a monument to Republican hypocrisy.

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The C Street house, as the flag-flying brick rowhouse near the Capitol is known, serves as a residence and Bible study retreat for many Christian conservative lawmakers. But it looks as if what these guys were praying for was a chance to get lucky. John Ensign, the Promise Keeper who broke all his promises, resides there.

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Why anyone who is mentally stable and has more than a minimal education believes a word that "family values" Republicans have to say is baffling to me. How do you know when these GOP fat cats are lying? When their lips move.