Thread by @Pamacious

"Internally, it is spoken of primarily as a 'recruiting device' with which to draw 'key men' into smaller prayer cells to 'meet Jesus man to man.'

Practically, the Prayer Breakfast has functioned from the very beginning as an unregistered lobbying festival."
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"The Prayer Breakfast isn't the only way the Fellowship has infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. government."
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"It’s so different than our popular impression of the Christian right, it's different than the image of the sweaty pulpit pounders... Those are mass movements, this is the opposite of that."
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"Doug Coe very intentionally took the group underground. There was a recognition that they could do their best work anonymously."
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"Those organizers ... have built a network of prayer cells that the late Christian Right leader Chuck Colson pegged at 20,000-strong, calling it, 'a veritable underground of Christ's men all through government.'"
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💡What about women?
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"Everyone has an agenda, and not everyone is welcome — only the significant."
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Secretive Christian group at heart of D.C. politics ready for its close-up in Netflix docuseries

"The Family" puts the spotlight on the enigmatic Fellowship Foundation, the Christian group behind the National Prayer Breakfast.

nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1…

Watching the The Family now on Netflix, let's see how far I get.

"The more you can make an organization invisible, the more influence it'll have."

"Frat house for Jesus"

💭These people have no honor. They are dishonorable.

A "Christian mafia."

"We need to reach the leaders; if we reach the leaders, then the whole nation'll be influenced for Christ."

"Doin' the Lord's work in the devil's playground."

"If I were a bad faith actor from another country, that is exactly the kind of meeting that I would want to exploit."

💭Trump's their man, the one they've been waiting for.

It's weaponized Christianity. A hostile domestic power that's infiltrated the GOP

"It's a 📢 breathtaking enmeshment of church and state."

💭 How many of our lives have these people destroyed over the decades?

Reagan
Bush
Bush
Dictators

"Brothers"

Arlington, Va, "the suburb of Washington where a lot of intelligence community folks live."

💭 It's more like weaponized Jesus, apparently.

💭 This blonde guy reminds me of Jim Jordan.

"No self."

No TV, newspapers. No self. Focus on gospel, prayer, assimilation. 💭 Cult.

"You can't run."

"Jesus is smart! [pause] He's gonna get you. "

Focus on Jesus, dedicated book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, & the first book of Acts.

💭 Brings Rubio to mind. I wonder if his scripture tweets are usually specific to those books.

Psalm 137.

💭 Dashing the little ones on the rocks. That's a metaphor for what's happening, isn't it.

Jerusalem.

"Psalm 137 is a hymn expressing the yearnings of the Jewish people during their Babylonian exile. In its whole form of nine verses, the psalm reflects the yearning for Jerusalem as well as hatred for the Holy City's enemies with sometimes violent imagery."

Now I'm reminded of all the recent references to the Rapture, Israel, the moving of the embassy...

The half-secret delegation of 15% of the House:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pamacious/status/1159417615074414592

The extremist fear (planted by whom?) that holding Trump accountable jeopardizes the Israeli state:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pamacious/status/1159427857950695424

💭 Rubashkin wouldn't be a bad guy to those who count innocent children among their enemies who deserve their oppression and violence.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pamacious/status/1146105470576398339

💭 This comes to mind:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pamacious/status/1154397220562755584

💭 Cult that sells these guys on having been "chosen" for Jesus' over circle of power.

The "movement" is bigger than Left, Right, Republicans, Democrats.

"'The Family ' has friends all over the world."

💭 They made a color-coded map of their neighbors based on whether or not they were aligned with them.

OMG they are like the Taliban.

💭 They offer a sense of belonging, non-judgmental acceptance according to neighbor. "Unapologetically targeting the rich and powerful." Disturbing is right, lady.

Phone calls "discouraged" for new brothers. Leader guy vilifies another member's girlfriend, whom he says doesn't know Jesus.

💭 Now they're beating up poor Jeff. If Jesus was alive today, he'd be a Navy Seal, they tell him. "Jesus is powerful" is the message used to justify violence.

Now Meadows and Jordan - Amash.. the House Freedom Caucus comes to mind.

💭 Being beaten up by the other members is "spiritual training."

I'm already trained for that, but we call it "time to get the hell out" where I come from.

"Muscular Christianity." Reeks of foreplay and guys called "Gym."

"I can't breathe! Guys, I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"

They don't stop. They're "crushing Christ into him."

💭 Activate amygdala with violence, then soothe for a feedback loop. Cult.

Table setting resembles my mom's Waterford. So many familiar bits but with a malevolent instead of the usual nostalgic vibe.

💭 Oh great, they're there to learn how to rule the world. They couldn't just be happy with an alien spaceship to take them somewhere else, I suppose.

💭 The guy in the track suit reminds me of McCarhy. How'd that little meeting go again? Gotta look that up.

💭 Thought so. "What's said in the family stays in the family" should read as "What's said in The Family stays in The Family" is what I'm thinking. McCarthy, Scalise, Ryan...

washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/na…

💭 Raping little girls is just fine with these future world leaders. That's what they're being taught. World leaders who rape children. Sounds familiar.

"If you're chosen, it doesn't matter what you do. " A future world king is coming.

💭 Yeah, this creep is a ringer for McConnell. Looks like this other guy, the "former Attorney General, is Barr.

Doug Coe likes to stay submerged in this toxic sludge. He's credited with leading this movement. Muslim hater, says there are too many Muslim babies.

Are there too many Hispanic babies, too?

💭 Yup, they emulate bin Laden, Hitler, the Mafia, but they have an extra edge: Jesus.

💭 Looks like the McConnell clone was supposed to be Doug Coe.

💭 Blood covenant.

Theres a sister house called Potomac Point. BRB.

💭 It's like a home shopping party for a political wife. "Appropriate matches." Women trained to serve men. Products.

💭 Loyalty to The Family is paramount. Leave and you're a "loser."

💭 Dude's got their files! Jeff has their confidential files! 👏

"A fundamentally undemocratic movement" that's been infiltrating world powers for 70 years.

💭 Now they're in the Executive Branch. The Presidency. Congress. Coup.

"How do you escape Pharaoh? You walk."

Bush.
Bill Clinton.

Carter thought Coe was a good Christian, too.

Republicans and Democrats. Key men. Powerful. Cedars, CIA, Pentagon...

Lankford. Wamp. Speaking glowingly about bipartisan weekly Senate prayer and "Fellowship" breakfast.

💭 I doubt Reagan knew how evil they were, but I expect Nancy had a clue.

Wolf king.

Tim and David Coe.

Phase 2: Congressional leadership. C Street townhome.

8,000 SF. Designated a church?!

This is where they hook up with the Teavangelicals & foreign leaders. The Family seeks common ground out of which action grows. An incubator.

Ensign. I
Of course. How many times have we heard, "He's a good man, he just made a mistake."

Tom Coburn.

Gotta get the wife under control and repent.

💭 Huh. Letters didn't work for them, either.

Colson from the Nixon Administration. "Changed by Jesus."

💭 How to reframe your behavior in your mind so that your conscience lets you proceed with psychotic decisions.

The poor are poor because "God," hence the refusal of federal funds.

Sanford. Oops.

"It's a 📢 breathtaking enmeshment of church and state."

C-Street "wasn't what it reported itself to be... It was a club... A shadow ministry... Someone needs to be looking at them, shedding some light."

Wilberforce Foundation. Oliver North raises funds for it.

Duck shoot. Quacks.

Violating Congressional gift rules with breaks on their costs of living using tax exemption.

I wonder if Kavanaugh was in this club.

Sanford. The Family doesn't want to sacrifice a valuable asset, so they move in and teach him about King David, i.e. a lesson in ruthlessness for the greater good. Justifying psycho decisions.

I wonder if this is the prayer group Ivanka & Kushner have been meeting with.

Emboldened by the philosophy. Doubling down. Ensign.

💭 Oh geez, Hampton decides to go public on Ensign, but he picks Fox. Hmmm... I wonder who they'll side with?

He writes to Megyn Kelly, and Fox doesn't run the story. Ensign outs himself.

"The Telltale Heart"

Tom Coburn again. How much 💰 to make Hampton shut up and go away?

💭 Wow, these creeps. Wait'll you see how it resolved. Creeps. What's your price?💰

💭 Doug's a whiner. If he hadn't been on the losing end, he'd probably still be running right along with them. Good that we have his story, but he's no good guy either.

💭 Geez, Hampton is still a cultist even after being kicked around.

Trump.

Hiding in plain sight for over 80 years.

Marina Butina, 2017 National Prayer Breakfast.

"If I were a bad faith actor from another country, that is exactly the kind of meeting that I would want to exploit."

💭 Creepy music. Ugh.

You wouldn't be offended by a little old innocent, manipulative prayer, I'm so humble, aren't I non-threatening? I asked you nicely now, little girl, so let's not be petty. Let's pray.

So the Cold War is framed as a holy war, which justifies the creeping in of religion because obviously that'll fix it.

💭 Do I sound cynical? LMK, because if I don't then I should correct that.

Key men in power to be manipulated and cultivated. Eisenhower is a target. He's against it at first because 1st Amendment, then decides it could work, which it did. Hence the first Prayer Breakfasts.

💭 But at what price?

Enter Billy Graham.

💭 My parents and grandparents LOVED him. I could never stand him, he seemed so fake and I couldn't understand why other people couldn't see that.

Part of the vast, right-wing conspiracy for sure.

Doug Coe struck Russian dude as a sort of godfather figure. He was impressed.

#TheFamily

Coe reportedly listened more than he talked. He was quiet. He wanted to be behind the scenes, unmentioned.

Puppet master.

"The more you can make an organization invisible, the more influence it'll have."

#TheFamily

💭 Media guy has reptilian eyes.

"It seems as though Congress is privileging Christianity." First Amendment concerns.

💭 PTSD at Bush 1's voice.

"It's almost impossible the overstate The Family's reach and access to governments all over the world." - @JeffSharlet

Using ties to the most powerful to evangelize to the world.

Burleigh reminds me of an old boss but smarter. Gross.

💭

https://mobile.twitter.com/Pamacious/status/1158114856932958208

They've intimated Russian parliament. Torshin attends.

"Traditional Family Values." Associate of Maria Butina, Rick Santorum's buddy.

This is what the phrase "traditional family values" looks like.

Nice watch.

2012 shift among the Christian Right from Russia as enemy to Russia as ally, then Russia as a "moral leader."

The l Prayer Breakfast - in particular - played this role of being a tool to make deals without democracy in the room."

#TheFamily

RetCon. Revisionist history. The Family glorifies its history by omission.

1934, Abraham Vereide was disturbed by the labor strike in Seattle and looking for a way to vanquish the "satanic" labor unions and protect the wealth of the industrialists.

💭 Reminds me of Atlas, Shrugged

💭 Mooch and the other bad guys, I mean.

The anti-labor industrialists decide they need to protect their wealth by using force. A "new world order."

A "new world order."
This is what the phrase "traditional family values" looks like. Children dashed against the rocks. Mission accomplished. Victory tour of Babylon.

The group grows from local to state. Absolute eradication of the left in Seattle. Leaders decide religion has been too focused on the "rabble," but needs to focus on armor for the important people.

You can't buy a ticket to the National Prayer Breakfast, "you get invited."

"It's All. About. Relationships." It's not just a breakfast, there are about 25 different sessions. It's an international convention, really. Foreign heads of state, Congresspeople, business people.

They'll broker a meeting between the U.S.President and another world leader for a mere quarter mill.

💭 Holy frak.

It's a "de facto lobbying festival."

Seems like it's set up for the influential to get close to power. Disproportionately large delegation of near to 60 Russians attended in 2018.

This Burleigh creep is activating my bad-guy-Bible-toter antennae. Brutish.

Torshin attended the 2018 National Prayer Breakfast, where he was supposed to meet with Trump.
He's tied to money laundering & organized crime.
Sanctions happened 2 months later.

Charge of conspiracy against Maria Butina follows. She actively tried to infiltrate the National Breakfast. Torshin was her mentor.

Butina's the one who organized the delegation of Russians to the National Prayer Breakfast and a "very secret meeting."

Private meeting.

"I don't think I did anything wrong!" Burleigh is repeating a script I've heard all my life from these guys. Next he'll be...

Yup, he's the victim. He's persecuted, & the rest of everybody who follows Jesus are going to go through fire, they're all in it together, right?

💭 Martyr. He's a martyr (in his mind) for just trying to bring all those Russians to the Lord*

* Individual profits may vary. Not responsible for lawyer fees. Cell accommodations based on whiteness.

Coe talking to children at play saying some countries have bad kings, but in Norway they have good kings.

Norway.

OMG hands off those kids! Watch out for that guy, kids, or you'll end up thrown against rocks.

They use Jesus as a weapon, key, and shield. It gets them instant unearned trust, whereas many of us exvangelicals have learned it's as often a warning flag as a welcome one.

Watch out for people who call you family & who fly faith flags: they generally want something unearned.

"They got tremendous access to nearly every government on earth."

Part Four: Dictators, Murderers, and Thieves.

They moved from state to national to international levels and whoa they're everywhere.

"The prayer groups take no action themselves, but out of them, action grows."

Aderholt's wife's saying Christians are persecuted. Islam's the big bad wolf, of course.

Robert Aderholt kept a low profile here but played de facto ambassador to "small places most people never think about" like Romania, Albania, etc.

Correction: places most people aren't "paying attention to." Montenegro too. 2017 Aderholt's getting an award in Romania and Nunes is there.

LGBTQ in Romania: "I can feel the hate walking down the street."

Escalation of hate and violence against LGBTQ people in Romania in correlation with visits on behalf of The Family. Past three years "worse than ever before."

💭 This is coming here.

The hate in Romania is trickling down from politicians and religious leaders who are using hateful language against LGBTQ people.

Like this, I imagine:

Far right Christian groups in Romania have been trying to change their Constitution relevant to marriage.

If the referendum passes, gay marriages will be banned in Romania.

Romanians report having seen more influences from American religious right. That $%"5!3r Kim Davis (remember the anti-LGBTQ marriage clerk? She's listed as a Council for National Policy member, too.) is among them. #*$4&!r 😡

The Americans find soft areas where they can infiltrate indigenous religious groups with their agendas and build networks.

"We're not against the people," they say, "we're against the sin." But it's the people whom they hurt. It's the people upon whose private persons they assert their dominance.

It's about hierarchy and power.

Legislative violence. Weaponized religion trying to weaponized constitutions.

Ours too.
Google Edwin Meese Heritage Constitution.
Google the Council for National Policy (or search my Twitter feed).
Google Koch + Buchanan + George Mason University.

It's the same hypocrisy they're using here. They claim that those they oppress are trying to push their lifestyles on us when they're the monsters reaching their grubby, perverted hands into men's and women's beds and bodies.

Sure, what's so scary about using Jesus as your model?

What's scary about a lamb?

What's scary about a bunch of lambs?

What's scary about new lambs?

"We try to help each other ... To protect The Family.

Uhh... In the name of ... uh ... Jesus."
...
H/t @sarahkendzior & @indivisiblestl

They couldn't win the fight against marriage here, so they took it to more receptive places. All over the world. You have to see the map around 36:40, they've infiltrated everywhere.

LGBTQ hate has turned into genocide in Uganda.

They always laugh (well not always, but it seems like it) when talking about something they've been accused of that they want you to think is SO ludicrous!

Like sponsoring "kill the gays" legislation. Ha ha ha. Us? Ha ha. Can you believe anyone would accuse US of such a thing?

Idi Amin. "Black Hitler." Uganda.

💭 Trump. Orange Hitler. U.S.A.

#TheFamily

"At the time, Museveni was a good guy."

"I was struck by how calmly they were discussing 'getting rid of' homosexuals."

💭 People who are ok with "dashing the little ones on the rocks" don't stop there.

The Fellowship are like amplifiers: they pick strategic fertile ground and send in trolls to affirm, amplify, and assimilate others in power to their agendas using Jesus, then they have deniability because all they've done is share Jesus..."and nothing."

No accountability.

Inhofe. "God, Guns, and Gays." Chosen to influence African leaders as an agent of The Family. They call it sharing Jesus. Clearly one thing they're sharing is how to rule and/or destroy what they hate.

Inhofe using the taxpayers' money and his status as Senator to spread his agenda under the guise of "just doing his Jesus thing" and build relationships with some of the "worst authoritarians in history."A

💭 These are people seeking the high of being special. Access & power.

Siljander frames his weaponized missionary work as a calling like that of Paul's carrying the Word to the leaders.

Siljander thinks his absurdity is amusing: "why wouldn't we" seek out despotic leaders like Gaddafi? He laughs. Ha ha ha.

Siljander says he and Gingrich "plotted and planned to take over the House."

Now they're divider trolls, purposely selecting "wedge issues to divide people," like abortion and gun control.

Re Paul carrying the Word a few tweets up, what Siljander is saying is that he carried Jesus' name to the kings, the leaders, which is what Siljander claims to be emulating.

Siljander claims they serve the those who are suffering under dictators abroad when it's already clear the alignment of The Family is with the dictators, the oppressors, the elite.

It's also been established that The Family supports elites and dismisses the rest, so which is the lie: do they support the struggling and oppressed or the dictators oppressing them?

Dude's teaching other leaders how to frame everything as what God 's done by prompting, "You said somethings changed when we had our meeting. Now, we're just men ... we can't change anything. What do you think happened?"

"I think it's ... it's God!"

And so the results of interference with foreign governments using one's standing as a present or former U.S. Congressperson is framed as "The power of God."

💭 No accountability.

"Forget everything that you have learned about Christianity. Jesus didn't come for the pure, he came for healing the sick."

The above quote is attributed to Coe.

💭 So Coe sought out powerful men with - my impression at this point - powerful vices. Perhaps powerful personal secrets that they felt were sick. Lindsey Graham just flashed into my brain.

And since these lawbreakers, dictators, and despots receive acceptance if not sanction from The Family, according to Lars Rise of the Norwegian parliament, perceive the relationship as "love."

💭 I can't see whatever subtle musculature that Christian fakes have that helps me recognize them when I look at Rise. I don't really see it with Bannon, either. Guys like Pence and Siljander are like neon with it.

"Nazis for Jesus."😐

I just realized that "The Family" is so well done that it hadn't occurred to me until now that any critique might be helpful, so here's my two cents:

GO WATCH IT. Now.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1157311970053369856

It's happening here. Look at Romania. Look at Uganda. #ImpeachmentHearingsNow

https://twitter.com/introvertgay/status/1160008971568209920?s=19

OMG the founder of The Family networked with Nazi war criminals, had some records washed, brought *Gerdat, who said God's word was to "hunt down the Jews."

*Gerdat became a spiritual advisor to our Congressmen.

I've seen guys like Siljander in my father's and my own time, and they all laugh at how they've bucked the system and how clever they are in the face of everyone calling them fools.

After they're caught, whether it's the embezzler, tax evader, or whatever else, they cry buckets & beg forgiveness.

Then they do it again. Just like Ensign.

If they're of The Family, they get their forgiveness.

💭 Speaking of Kavanaugh, now I wonder about his enabler Schumer's relationship with The Family.

Siljander is describing a trip to Tripoli where he claims to have skirted the law in order to be there, pisses of Gaddafi and the prime minister, then tests a manipulation tactic (he calls it humility), claiming to ask forgiveness ON BEHALF of the United States. Ha ha.

"And the money flows. And the guns flow. And the oil flows..." - @JeffSharlet

Siljander only got... That long?

💭Oops, almost did a spoiler.

Unh!

Heritage Foundation. Look at the middle of the check at 9:30.

Aderholt is an evil git. "Family values" means "destroy all families except the kind I say are exempt from destruction."

"This is non-consensual diplomacy," and it's opaque.

S1:E5 of "The Family"

"Wolf King"

💭 Oh geez, it's Trump.

At the prayer breakfast, audio only. Sounds of conversational laughter and dishes clicking. Burleigh talking over @djessemoss, saying he's not trying to "stiff-arm" him, etc.

💭 Methinks Burleigh doth protest too much.

Portland, Oregon prayer meeting. The astonishment of great men toppled by seemingly trivial (to them) things. More King David themes.

They won't agree to filming unless Jesse participates, and sure enough, the guy who seems to be an unspoken leader begins the psych manipulation & starts the offensive, then...

...dude around 37:00 demands to know from Jesse about those underrepresented in the film industry then snaps his head off because "I didn't ask about women, I asked about black people."

💭 The irony.
"Why do you discriminate?"
"No, I don't mean THEM, they don't count."

Now the leader dude is turning the screw with a theme of, "I could go a lot harder, see how flawed you are? Just like us."

💭 Quicksand psychology.

Predestination and Presbyterianism are common threads between Trump and those in The Family.

Jeff sees the 2017 Prayer Breakfast as the beginning of a merger between the spectacle of Trump and the spectacle of those behind the Breakfast. A business merger.

Trump has reptilian eyes in this image at 26:00

⬆ Infiltrated, not intimated.

Trump does resemble the Wolf King image at 20:18.

So to some on the religious right, Trump is a modern-day King Cyrus figure, while to those in The Family he's a Wolf King for them to walk alongside.

And Pence was part of their deal.

#TheFamilyNetflix

A fundamentalist thread to American democracy is a laugh to this self-described liberal at 18:20 who assumes a pugnacious phrasing variation on "I've prayed for him," an insinuation that the target's soul is flawed rather than that he is a legitimate inquirer into monsters.

"The Christian mafia." And shushing. 15:30

The poor, lonely souls of the overprivileged.

Reframing from empathy to sociopathy.

"The Christian mafia."

#TheFamilyNetflix