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The Fellowship

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The Fellowship, headquartered in Washington D.C., is a humanitarian religious-right Christian organization about which very little is known. Their signature event is the annual National Prayer Breakfast but that is only a small part of their activities. They are heavily involved in the political culture of Washington, counting at least a dozen Senators and Congressman as known members. The group has also gone by the names Family, Foundation, C Street Center, and International Christian Leadership. An article published in the March 2003 issue of Harper's entitled "Jesus Plus Nothing" by Jeffrey Sharlet provides an excellent exposition; however, Sharlet infiltrated only at the lowest level and so his article is woefully short of details concerning the organization, its mission, or who runs it.

In a June 12, 2003, followup interview by Anthony Lappé for Guerrilla News Network, Jeffrey Sharlet declares that the group's goal and aspiration are "an 'invisible' world organization led by Christ"; and that in his view, their "core issue is capitalism and power."

In 1972, The Fellowship was reorganized to be even more clandestine, shedding the overhead of a typical high-profile nonprofit so that it was essentially little more than a holding company disbursing cash to dozens of ministries beneath it. By 1985, The Fellowship had 150 individual ministries beneath it. This model continues to this day with countless ministries coming into and going out of existence depending upon the current needs of the organization and the initiatives it wishes to fund. As Sharlet writes in his Harper's piece, The Foundation believes that its mobile "cell" structure, which it likens to those organized by Lenin, Bin Laden, and Hitler, makes it far more efficient than a hierarchical organization. And just like Enron's many shell corporations, their cell structure has the additional advantage of being able to move money around very quickly and in a way that makes it difficult to track or audit.

In an AP wire story published on April 20, 2003, journalist Lara Jakes Jordan analyzed tax records and discovered that six Congressional representatives lived in Fellowship housing on C Street, paying highly-subsidized rent. [1]

On 9/27/2002, the Los Angeles Times ran a story entitled "Showing Faith in Discretion" that traces the organization back to a Seattle-based Methodist evangelist in the mid-1930s.

Those in the Fellowship who are asked about their role either deny its existence or politely refuse to answer questions about it. All have taken a vow of silence not to speak about The Fellowship. Wheaton Seminary does maintain an archive of the Fellowship's early historical incarnations, the description of which is online at http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/459.htm#1. In 1995, Fellowship House in Washington, D.C. was sold and the organization relocated to Arlington, Virgina, where it continues to thrive and involve itself in public policy.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is reportedly a member of The Fellowship.[2]

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