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Rachel Maddow has featured Jeff Sharlet the author of "The Family" and the "C Street Fellowship" many times.

Here is the July 15th, 2009, segment for you to watch.

This has been -- and should be -- a hot book for BuzzFlash readers.

From BuzzFlash.com:

On the Rachel Maddow Show, some of you may have seen the author of "The Family" discussing the chilling political implications and "Super Christian Men" theories of Republican senators and congressmen who believe they are above moral reponsibility and the law because they have been "chosen" by God to lead the "ignorant" sheeple.

Senator Ensign is an active member of the "C Street" Family; Governor Sanford received "solace" from them. They specialize in pious allegorical excuses for sins of lust and greed. They are like the elitists who ruled in South America, killing and torturing in the name of God, granting themselves special graces because they could sin and be redeemed by Christ without end, because they are chosen by God.

And one of the two lame-brain senators from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, is in hotwater as a "C Street Family Member" for allegedly trying to assist Ensign to, in essence, pay off his mistress.

Oh, and a lot of these Skull and Bones for Jesus types actually live together in the "Family" home during session.

In some ways, they are a non-Catholic version of the mysterious Opus Dei, which Antonin Scalia and other members of the Catholic hard right belong to.

"The Family" definitely believes in a sort of Straussian Christianity, in which the religiously enlightened guide the masses to higher ground.

In a recent interview, Jeff Sharlet, offered some insight into this ministry to the powerful and privileged:

Lindsay Beyerstein What is the Family?

Jeff Sharlet: It's an international network of evangelical activists in government, military and business. The Family is dedicated to this idea that Christianity has gotten it all wrong for two thousand years by focusing on the poor, the suffering and the weak.

The Family says that instead, what Christians should do is minister to the up-and-out -- as opposed to the down-and-out -- to those that are already powerful. Because if they can win those people for Christ, they win the whole deal. That's what this network is dedicated to. It includes nonprofit organizations, it includes think tanks, it includes various ministries.

Lindsay Beyerstein: Where did they get the idea that they should be ministering to the up-and-out? There doesn't seem to be a lot basis in Christianity for that view.

Jeff Sharlet: Two places. The founder of the Family, Abraham Vereide, would describe it as his "new revelation" that came to him in the middle of the night, very literally: in a vision from God in 1935 in response to the Great Depression and, more particularly, to a series of very successful labor strikes that he saw as challenging God's sovereignty.

Early on, Vereide and the Family weren't actually talking about scripture, but as time went on they began invoking more and more a particular verse of Paul's Letter to the Romans, which is popular among fundamentalists, Romans:13: "The Powers that Be are Ordained of God." And it goes on to say that if you resist those powers, you're in a lot of trouble. Interpreted literally, this is the key text in authoritarian Christianity. So, that's where they're getting it.

Lindsay Beyerstein: In "The Family," a lot of subjects explicitly state their admiration for Hitler and other authoritarian political figures. How much of that is admiring their style, and how much is admiring their substance?

BuzzFlash: Uh, read the book to find out the answer to the last question.

"The Family" is a hot book right now and deservedly so. It's a religious cult that preaches the antithesis to democracy. And it may explain why some politicians -- no names please -- believe that only they, as individuals, can save America.

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