Wayback Wednesday: The Family

About this episode

The episode discusses the influence of a secretive Christian group known as The Family in Washington, D.C., featuring insights from guest Jeff Sharlet.

It’s Wayback Wednesday, with another interview drawn from our archive of programs dating back to June, 2009. This week, it’s a discussion from 2009 about an ostensibly Christian group that wields an inordinate amount of power behind the scenes in Washington, D. C., The Family. Originally released September 20, 2009 A SECRETIVE religious group that wields power in Washington, D.C. and other world capitals — sounds like the basis for Dan Brown’s next novel, but it’s real. Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power , has been following this group for years, even living at The Family’s headquarters for a time. What he found is a group that justifies its pursuit of political power by claiming that it’s for the kingdom of God. Read Jeff’s original expose of The Family, “Jesus Plus Nothing,” at Harper’s Magazine online. Christians are taking heat for The Family from the likes of The Huffington Post and MSNBC. The irony is that The Family isn’t promoting a Christian agenda, but a New Age agenda. See Constance Cumbey’s five-part series The Family and its Hijacking of Evangelicalism . As Jeff Sharlet asked, where is the outrage from…

People in this episode

Hosts: Derek Gilbert, Sharon Gilbert

Guest: Jeff Sharlet

Topics covered

• Christian groups
• political power
• The Family
• religion and politics
• evangelicalism
• New Age agenda

Keywords

• The Family
• Jeff Sharlet
• political influence
• Christianity
• evangelicalism
• New Age
• Washington D.C.

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Family, Harper’s Magazine, The Huffington Post, MSNBC

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