A (0:00)

Home to the Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, the Briefing with Jen Psaki and more voices you know and trust. Ms. NOW is your source for news, opinion and the world. Our name is new, but you'll find the same commitment to justice, progress and the truth that you've relied on for decades. We'll continue to cover the day's news, ask the tough questions and explain how it impacts you. Ms. Now. Same mission, New name. Learn more at Ms. Now. This episode is brought to you by Greenlight. Get this Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes, us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives, but are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight, you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial at greenlight.com Spotify greenlight.com Spotify in the Shadow of the Great Depression, while millions of Americans stood in breadlines and begged for work, one man looked up not to the heavens, but to the high rises. His name was Abraham Verity, a Norwegian immigrant turned Methodist minister who decided that the way to save America wasn't by feeding the poor, but by converting the powerful. Verity believed that God's hand rested not upon the downtrodden, but upon the chosen few, the rich, the connected, the people that he called the key men. Of course, it's only men. He called them instruments of divine purpose, the God appointed rich. And in 1935, in a hotel room in Seattle, he gathered the first of these men, businessmen, politicians and civic leaders, for what he called a prayer breakfast, a small meeting that would become the seed of something vast, secretive and deeply influential the family. Over the next few decades, the family would quietly embed itself in the highest levels of American power, behind closed doors, beyond oversight, and beneath the banner of Christian fellowship. Their mission sounded harmless to bring Jesus into leadership, but the their theology was built on a chilling foundation, a belief that some are chosen to rule and others are chosen to serve, and a hatred and direct opposition to organized labor unions. More on that later. They transformed the gospel of Christ, which was to sell your possessions and give to the poor and help the needy into more money to the charitable rich and more service from the undeserving poor. How convenient. The family will use their gospel of prosper prosperity to control congressional housing on C Street that's registered as a church to avoid paying taxes and is used for secretive meetings with congressional figures. They are responsible for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Verity despised Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the social programs that lifted millions out of poverty. He saw them as a godless attack on free enterprise and a rebellion against divine order. Because it was God who had chosen the wealthy. Wealth was not a privilege. It was proof. Proof that God had already chosen his leaders. The poor in this theology don't need justice or protection. They needed obedience. Charity could flow from the top down, but never power. And so, under the guise of prayer and brotherhood, the family became a network. One that reached the halls of Congress, the Pentagon, the White House, and far beyond America's borders. It operated not like a church, but like a spiritual lobby for the elite. Prayer breakfasts replaced policy debates. Scripture was twisted into a shield for deregulation, union busting and imperial ambition. The family's quiet goal? To dissolve the wall of the separation between church and state, not by breaking it down, but by walking straight through it. If they could convince enough leaders that God has already chosen them, then democracy itself could be recast as a divine hierarchy, ruled not by the people. What did the people know? But by a pious and very wealthy few. In the decades that followed, presidents, senators and CEOs would kneel together at the altar of power, whispering prayers of dominance instead of compassion. All in the name of a God who, according to Abraham Verde, never picked sides with the poor. This is the story of the family, also known as the Fellowship, the secret fellowship that turned faith into influence, charity into control, and democracy into a divine right. Today on Flipping Tables. Welcome back to Flipping Tables. My name is Monty. I'm your resistance fairy, goth mother, exposer of Christian nationalism and hopefully fighting to make the world just a little bit better, a little bit more sane, even when things are discouraging. This is another reasonably long episode, so I'm going to jump into a few announcements and then get right to it. So for those of you that received Patreon boxes, those were sent the last week of. No, of. Excuse me. Last week of October. You should be getting those if you. You haven't already. By the time this episode comes out, they should all be delivered. You're going to get one right away again in December because we're going to try to beat the holiday rush. So you're going to get back to back boxes. Just want to let you know that those are happening. I'm very excited for these Patreon boxes. And if you're not on Patreon yet, please consider supporting my work@patreon.com Monty Mater. There's all kinds of different tiers for bonus episodes we've started. Sorry, bonus content. We started bonus episodes. You get these early releases of all my podcasts, early ad free. There's extra bonuses about my life, about what's going on with my book. And we're also starting Sunday service where we try to take Sundays back a little bit for education, community, just being together. Um, and I'm also doing a lot of Christmas work here in Nashville. I'm going to be supporting both national and local food banks, local homeless shelters. We're also going to be organizing, organizing community wide events. And the way to find that out, I will make announcements on the podcast when I can, but the way to find that out is to go to montymater.com go to my contact page and sign up for my newsletter. That is the best way to keep track of where that's going, how you can help and hopefully give you some steps to do the same thing in your communities. And by the airing of this podcast, one of the ways that we're raising money for those funds to feed families, make sure people are taken care of this winter because I'm not participating in corporate Christmas this year. I'm not buying gifts, I'm not shopping. Please don't spend any money on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Let's just let corporations know that they don't have us in a chokehold. One of the things I'm doing to raise money is there's going to be a line of really good, I think it's really good Jesus gear on my website. Things like read the red letters, things like Jesus would feed kids, things like that. A hundred percent of the proceeds from every single one of the items from that line will be going to feed families in the United States over the winter holidays and make sure that their heat stays on, that they have food in their cabinets. So all of the money from that is going to go and we're going to do groups of volunteers, teams of people. You'll get to see videos of those donations being given to different organization organizations here in town that have been consistently helping people. We want to support them. And I'm going to jump right in. If you are looking around at Christian nationalism today and you're like, where did this come from? How did we get here? How did Christianity get morphed into this abusive, violent, mock the poor when they don't have snap benefits? It is because it is a direct result of what the family did. And Abraham Verde, because of his belief that the wealthy were the recipients of God's grace in the Gospel and completely distorting the Gospel of Christ to the benefit of those who lust for power. So let's get into it. Power isn't accidental. It's something that one pursues, driven by what they intend to do once they have it. A big part of wielding power is to make sure people know you have it, while constantly reminding others of how powerless they really are. But what about the kind of power that works in the shadows? The kind of power that thrives on obscurity? The power is honestly most effective, not in spite of its secrecy, but because of it. The Roman Empire created a blueprint for religion to have a stranglehold on governmental power. And they would be in awe of the scale to which the Fellowship, or more popularly known as the Family, has built on that rubric. It would be hard to find any sole entity with as much worldwide power, impact and influence than the Fellowship Foundation. In fact, by the end of this, some of you may think I'm laying out the plot of a dystopian TV series. Unfortunately, this is a real timeline. It is the year 1935. The Great Depression has thrown millions of Americans into worklessness and uncertainty. In Seattle, Washington, a Norwegian born Methodist minister our our lead character of this story, Abraham Verde, organizes a small breakfast prayer meeting. But his vision is not about bread lines or soup kitchens or helping people. He believes his calling is to the powerful business leaders, civic officials, political figures. That breakfast meeting, he will say later, signals a new direction. Not ministry to the down and out, but ministry to the quote, up and out. Verde will build from a small seed network of prayer cells and breakfast groups among America's economic and political elite. Over decades this network will evolve into a global fellowship, the family, a movement of influence, not mass mobilization of power, not poverty relief. A movement that will challenge the very boundary of separating church and state. Faraday was born in Norway in 1886 and emigrated to the United States in 1905. He trained as a Methodist minister, worked in early charitable roles including Goodwill Industries in Seattle. But by the mid-1930s he shifted focus. In April of 1935, he organized that first prayer breakfast and completely changed the direction of his quote ministry. Verdi claimed to have had a vision in that time frame that God instructed him to redirect his ministry away from the poor to those with wealth. This theological pivot is critical. It signals a departure from the classical Christian social gospel emphasis on the poor and helping the downtrod downtrodden towards a leadership focused theology. According to Veri in 1935 he receives a vision from God first in the person of James Frell, the head of the U.S. steel at the time, who tells him in this vision that all economic hardship, poverty is God's punishment for disobedience. So anyone suffering from poverty or struggle is receiving just punishment from God and that intervention is rebellion. No word on exploited exploitative systems or discriminations? Nope. You were born poor because God wanted to punish you then. Verde claims to have had a second revelation that Christianity has been getting it wrong for the last 2000 years. That Christianity is not a gospel of faith or helping the poor and the needy, but to serve what God in this vision again called the up and out. That Abraham's mission was to minister to and serve the wealthy. Because if you can get the wealthy's heart right with God, then those men, again only men in their charitable goodness will dispense charity to the less fortunate. Trickle down charity, just like trickle down economics, is not real and has never ever ever worked. Not once, not one time. We have never seen an example of a Christian leader or of organizations willfully taking money and paying a living wage. We see that recently with SNAP benefits, the number one recipient of people spending their SNAP dollars is Walmart who also has the most full time employees who are on SNAP benefits because they don't make a living wage. Trickle down charity isn't real because of this vision. Abraham would support deregulation and the charitable men who were clearly chosen by God because of their success should not be hindered by any kind of regulation, unions or accountability because we should trust them to do the right thing. Any governmental intervention into the economy or regulation was rebellion against the hand of God in the free markets and an attack on God's chosen elite. The brand of Christian fundamentalism marketed by the family equates free markets with Christianity. Any social intervention as rebellion against God and it equates these free markets and Christianity itself with American power and exceptionalism. Reminder that the key distinction between a Christian nationalist and a Christ follower is the foundational belief in American exceptionalism and that America is a key player in of Christ and ushering in the end times. Choosing an anti union wealth centric theology in the context of the 1930s was not a neutral move. The US government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt had launched the New Deal, a sweeping set of regulatory and relief programs intended to stabilize the economy and lift many out of destitution. Veride opposed those interventions. He distrusted labor organizing and regulatory government and promoted instead a model in which Christian Elites would lead the nation through faith and influence. This particular brand of Christianity sold by the family can be summarized this way. Quote, strongly opposed the New Deal. Verde favored an unregulated economy in which the less fortunate would depend on the religiously motivated charity of those in whom God had already vested power and wealth. End quote. By 1942, he had relocated operations to Washington D.C. and by 1943 had incorporated the movement as the National Committee for Christian Leadership, which the next year became International Christian Leadership or the icl. The opposition to regulation in the economy and market comes from the phrase invisible hand that originates with Adam Smith, the 18th century Scottish economist whose 1776 work the wealth of Nations became the cornerstone of classical capitalism. Smith argued that when individuals pursue their own economic self interest within a free market, they unintentionally promote the collective good, guided by what he metaphorically called the invisible hand. In this case the invisible hand of God. In other words, prosperity and balance emerge naturally when markets are left alone without inner interference from government or institutions. This completely neglects the human problems of greed, discrimination and violence. By the early 20th century, this idea had been absorbed into American economic theology. Many Protestant fundamentalists, especially during the interwar and Cold war periods, recast free market capitalism as not merely efficient but divinely ordained. It was now the only quote Christian economy. They came to believe that the market itself was a reflection of God's order, a self regulating moral system that rewarded hard work, discipline and faith. This is where we get the idea of pull yourself up by your bootstraps, neglecting that not everyone has boots to begin with. Government intervention, whether through welfare programs, labor unions or regulatory oversight, was therefore viewed not just as economic meddling, but as spiritual rebellion. Figures like Verity, founder of the family and later business backed evangelicals like Billy Graham's allies and the Christian libertarian movement, saw the New Deal social programs as an effort to both freedom, as an affront to both freedom and faith. To them, regulating the market was tantamount to denying God's providence, disrupting the natural hierarchy between the blessed, the wealthy and the dependent, the poor. This alliance of theology and economics formed what historians call Christian free market fundamentalism, the belief that capitalism operates as God's chosen mechanism for moral and social order. Within this framework, regulation becomes synonymous with sin. Government stepping into the place of God's invisible hand. Hopefully this is starting to make sense. Why? They make certain claims around regulation and the government as if it is some kind of sin against God. In practice, this ideology fueled opposition to labor protections, corporate oversight, welfare initiatives, framing them as socialist or atheistic threats. The irony being that many of these major corporations and billionaires and millionaires Take tax funded subsidies all the time. They are participants in a very socialist program. But it's rules for me, not for thee. The result of this is a powerful moral defense of inequality. Well, it's God's will that you're poor and it's God's will that I'm rich and I'm able to treat my workers however I want because God has said I can. And it's an ideology that performed, Transformed economic privilege into evidence of divine favor and made unregulated markets not just a policy choice, but a form of worship. It was also this form of dysregulation that led to the great depression in the first place. And the stage was set. A ministry aimed at business and political elites, Anchored in the critique of state led welfare and labor power and structured around small groups of what were called key men who would govern by christian conviction. Allegedly, if the world is run by christian men, they don't need accountability because they will take care of the poor and we can trust them to act ethically. Completely dangerous, paternalistic and utterly delusional. So what lies at the heart of the movement's theology? There's several interwoven ideas. The first is the divine election of the elites. In verde's conception, God has placed certain individuals in business, politics and civic leadership in positions of influence, and they are the primary instruments of divine purpose. For example, a source states that jesus appeared to him in the form of the president of US Steel and told him to gather these key men who would beat back the labor unions in his name. The second ideology is elite over the masses. Rather than mobilizing the masses and honoring democracy, Verde's movement focused on influencing a small number of powerful individuals. The movement is organized according to a model or an inner circle of apostles who exercise spiritual authority. The third is the free market minimal regulation worldview. Verde opposed the new deal and viewed unions and government regulation as threats to the divine order of leadership. And an in the times article said quote, in Verde's worldview, free market capitalism is divinely ordained. Ordained and unions and regulations are a form of blasphemy. And fourth, it was a critique of social welfare. Redirect charity to the elites. Rather than advocating for broad social programs to assist the poor, Verde promoted the idea that the less fortunate should depend on the religiously motivated charity in those whom God has given wealth. The result is a doctrine that commentators summarize as a chosen rich or big man theology that the powerful are chosen by God. The role of others is not empowerment, but dependency. If your poor, your job is to be obedient and keep your mouth shut and hope that the rich elite will shower you with grace. As one philosopher writes, the powerful must hold large reserves so that they can shower on the weak. Only the big man can change the world. And that comes from the philosophers for change. The interesting thing about it is again that this is never what we've seen as deregulation happens. As corporations get higher tax breaks, they take more and more money, paying their c suite up to 400% of what their average worker is making. And their average worker can't afford a house, can't afford to eat and is on snap benefits while having a full time job. But this type of movement's internal structure grew accordingly. Started with small breakfast meetings, prayer cells, inner apostle groups and outer disciple networks. These groups were not about grassroots activism, but about elite alignment. Get all of the rich and powerful on the same program so that they can become more rich and powerful. In short, leadership via quote Christian elites, not democratic mobilization of the poor. Verde did support democracy or that the people should have a say in how they are governed. Verde's movement did not merely preach leadership, it acted politically. In the mid-1930s, labor strikes on the west coast unsettled business elites. Verde saw union organizing as communist inspired and responded by aligning with business leaders to counter them via Christian prayer groups. Does sound familiar? Anything that makes the wealthy uncomfortable is communist. And while the wealthy participate in socialist programs in the United States, again like government subsidies that are taxpayer funded, it is somehow communist, evil, selfish and greedy. If a poor person gets $6 a day to eat food. According to one account, the family's original founder used panic engendered by A major 1935 West coast strike to enlist a group of prominent Seattle business leaders to join him in promoting anti labor Christianity. It is unfortunate that in America, widespread white evangelical Christianity has very much been pro segregation, anti civil liberties and anti union and anti worker protections. And obviously very anti feminist and women's rights. His opposition to the new deal came in part from an anti labor, quote, anti socialist standpoint. He viewed organized labor strikes and economic regulation as socialist or collectivist threats. Threats to what you might ask? Well, more money getting to the rich that God has chosen to be his favorites. For example, he sought to shape business leaders and elites through prayer groups to reject labor's demands, even if those labor demands revolved around safety in the workplace. He believed that God had placed these individuals of the business elites and the political elites in position of influence and that the laborers should not have a say against these key men, these divine men. Again, this is sometimes called the chosen rich doctrine. And critics summarize his theology as one where the less powerful were expected to become dependent on charity and the powerful were to be responsible for gifting that charity out of the goodness of their hearts. Verity's emphasis on the up and out leading through the elites, rather than the down and out serving the impoverished first is emblematic of this orientation. In simpler words, he believed the Gospel should focus on those who lead, not primarily on those who follow. He believed that the Church's thousands of years of charity, which many of the church did participate in all the way through the Victorian era, had gotten Jesus's message wrong. Even though it was Jesus who commanded the wealthy to sell all their possessions and give to the poor, he in his economic theology, Veride said he discounted broad based social welfare programs or labor empowerment as the chief path to moral renewal. Remember, suffering poverty are God's punishment to make you more righteous and you should accept that punishment. He privileged private initiative by elites aligned with Christian values. He constructed a kind of spiritual justification for laissez faire capitalism with elite leadership with no regard to social justice, equity, equality of opportunity. Consequently, his movement early on aligned with of course, anti union and anti regulation interests in business leaders. He was the architect of the National Prayer Breakfast, actively opposed labor strikes in San Francisco all the way to Seattle, and brought those labor strike opposition all the way to Washington D.C. and this vantage again sharply diverges from the Christian social justice traditions that emphasize serving the marginalized. In that schema, the poor and the striking worker were not subjects of empowerment. They were potential threats. It was blasphemy, it was sin, it was rebellion against God. And during the 1930s, American workers were striking over a combination of economic desperation brought on by tariffs and a deregulated system. They were protesting exploitative labor conditions and the fight for union recognition that they should be able to unionize without retribution. All of this being intensified by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1939, mass unemployment, wage cut cuts and unsafe working conditions pushed millions of workers into labor action, transforming the decade into one of the most turbulent in U.S. labor history. The Great Depression devastated wages and job security. Industrial output plummeted by half and unemployment reached nearly 25% in 1933. Employers slashed pay, lengthened hours and fired union organizers. Strikes erupted as workers demanded living wages enough to make a living and job stability. An example of this is in 1934 Toledo Auto Life strike in Ohio. Workers protested low wages and dangerous working conditions. The strike turned violent when the National Guard was sent to intervene, killing two of the workers. And it became a major victory for industrial unionism. Before the New Deal, unions had very little legal protection. Employers use private militias, police and the National Guard to break strike. Workers demanded the right to organize without retaliation. And then this did lead to the landmark actions after 1933 when FDR's National Industrial Recovery act, the NIRA and later the Wagner act recognized labor rights. It is these workers fighting are the reason that we have a way to hold employers accountable if we're unfairly laid off. It's the reason they can't call the cops on us if we want to join a union or organize. Another example of this is from 1936-37, the Flint sit down strike against General Motors. One of the most important strikes in US history. Workers occupied factories for 44 days forcing GM to recognize the United Auto Workers. And this inspired unionization across auto, steel and rubber industries that were very exploitative and very dangerous. One of the top priorities for these strikes were safety hours and job security. Many strikes centered on dangerous conditions and brutal schedules. Mine and factory workers labored 12 to 14 hour days in unsafe environments with little pay and no benefits. The 1934 West Coast Longshoremen strike, which was led by Harry Bridges Dock workers shut down the ports from San Diego to Seattle demanding union recognition, fair hiring and safer conditions. Police violence left several dead, but the workers ultimately won key concessions. Remember that the greatest resistance to an authoritarian regime is organized labor and striking with your money. They also the strikes in the 1930s were not just about wages. They were about dignity and democracy in the workplace. Workers organized across racial and ethnic lines demanding equality and respect in industries that relied on segregation and exploitation. The rise of the Congress of Industrial organizations or the CIO in 1935 marked a shift toward inclusive mass based unionism. Verde believed that your ultra wealthy Christian employer should be able to exploit you to whatever degree they saw fit. And since you were poor and being punished by God, your job was to submit to that abuse and obey. Rather than advocating for structural reforms to redress inequalities, Verde's model emphasized charitable intervention by elite Christians and business owners. The less fortunate would rely on the benevolence of the chosen, not on government programs or institutions of mass participation. This stands in contrast to the broader Christian social gospel tradition. This is also where they get the idea of well, it shouldn't come from the government. It should come from the churches and charities, even though the churches and charity aren't doing that. Under Verde's leadership, the movement expanded from local prayer breakfast into a nationwide network of key men groups. One of the movement's early successes was the election of one of its members. A Seattle lawyer named Arthur Langley as a mayor of a city of the city in 1938 and the governor of Washington in 1940. In 1953, Verride, with evangelist Billy Graham helped establish the annual Presidential Prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. which would later become the National Prayer Breakfast. His emphasis was on building what he called cells of power. Small groups of influential men meeting for prayer, Bible study and fellowship, not mass church gatherings of ordinary congregants. The idea was that these powerful men would steward the nation under God's mandate behind closed doors. In Verde's conception, the elite, not the masses, were the primary spiritual targets. They were the leadership and their influence was exercised through networks rather than electorate driven democratic processes. This is part of the key ingredient that Christian nationalists do not effectively believe in the democratic process. They do not believe in elections on a core value, but simply that certain God appointed men should be in charge of everything and that everyone else should submit to their doing. It's why Steve Bannon uses the language when talking about Trump that he is God's chosen elect, he will be president in 2028. It is buying into this conception that if they do steal elections or they gerrymander, it's just to serve the higher purpose. Purpose to allow God's chosen elite to rule the way God has ordained it. In the hierarchical society, the state and economy should be shaped through Christian led elites rather than democratic movements. They do not like grassroots movements. They do not like to see a movement where people are represented. One of the phraseologies used by the movement is Jesus plus nothing, emphasizing a personal obedience to Christ rather than institutional religion. But within the frame of this powerful network sounds good on the outside. Except when you realize that what they mean by nothing is no effort towards social justice or equality. One of the most striking features of the family is its flexible use of political influence under a religious banner. For example, the annual breakfast meeting of political leaders and business elites again evolved into what is now the National Prayer Breakfast, a ritual of state and faith intertwined. It was founded in 1953. Conceived by the movement as a consecration of the governing class to the service of Jesus. Brings in a lot of questions about the separation of church and state as well as the belief in religious plurality that all religions of all Faiths deserve a seat at the table. It's not a long shot to believe that the Family is at its core, hugely influential for adding under God to the Pledge of allegiance in 1954 and in God we trust to currency in 1956, particularly with their influence influence on Eisenhower. Those phrases did not exist in the Pledge of Allegiance or on currency prior to that. On the question of the separation of church and state, critics observe that the movement treats the First Amendment boundary as a myth. As one interviewee put it, since the 1930s, the family have been saying that the separation of church and state is a myth. They don't believe in the First Amendment. This is why the Heritage foundation repeatedly talks about getting rid of all the amendments. Now they call this the original Constitution, wanting to go back even prior to the Bill of Rights rights because if the First Amendment does not exist, the church separation of church and state does not exist. It's easier for them to work around and it's easier for them to negate civil rights, women's women, excuse me, women's right to vote, which has been a huge topic in Christian nationalism in the last few months. The reason they want to go back to this quote, original Constitution is to remove those hurdles to their consolation of power. Thus, the movement doesn't merely navigate the intersection of religion and politics. It actively erodes the boundary by by embedding religious fellowship within the halls of power with minimal transparency and often outside of democratic oversight. They also do not believe in religious pluralism, as I mentioned before, but in religion. Religious dominance of only their version of Christianity. According to Gwenica magazine, it says it's some are more equal than others theory and that you see in the family's expression of power is the head and the heart and the real politic of world power. This is often mirrored in Christian fundamentalism's hierarchy within the family, that this is just God's will. Some are more equal than others. Men are just elevated in the hierarchy because God has ordained it. So the movement's orientation suggests a redefinition of service and charity from structural justice to elite mediated benevolence. But also remember that if someone can feed you, they can also starve you. Faraday died in 1969, but his movement has continued to grow and evolve over decades. It built networks within US Congress, the executive branch, business elites and international spheres. According to Christian Century, the Fellowship became an elite movement, little concerned with the mundane tasks as mobilizing rank and file traditionalists. Rather, it exercises power by controlling the height of American institutions. The family and the Fellowship also play really well with the Seven Mountains mandate, which dictates that elite privileged Christians should be controlling every aspect of government to usher in the end times. And again, this is closely related to Dominion theology, which claims that it is the Christian duty to control the entire earth, not help it, not administer justice, not serve it, but to control and dominate it. And it's a very big misinterpretation of the command in Genesis. In more recent years, the movement has featured in the works of the Family, the book the Family, the Secret of Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Charlotte and the subsequent Netflix documentary. And if you have not read that book or watched that documentary documentary, I highly recommend it. Those critiques emphasize the movement's secrecy, its comfort with authoritarian figures, and its capacity to influence across party lines. Yes, the the system Democrats are also very deeply embedded within this structure, and the Family has a long history of supporting dictators and authoritarian regimes. This episode is brought to you by Netflix from the creator of Homeland. Claire Danes and Matthew Reese star in the new Netflix series the Beast and me Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt, justice and doubt. You will not want to miss this. The Beast in Me is now playing only on Netflix. This episode is brought to you by Corona when you're on a beach with an ice cold Corona in hand, how can you not feel centered? But did you know you can get that vibe anywhere? That's because weather afterwards, work at barbecues or at a bar with just a squeeze of lime. Corona brings you La Playa mentality. Because while we all want the beach life, paradise doesn't always have palm trees. Corona La Playa awaits. Get yours@order corona.com Relax responsibly. Corona Extra Beer imported by Crown Import, Chicago, IL While Verde did not necessarily use the phrase God's chosen rich, that's really what his philosophy boils down to. Again, this divine election of elites, elites over the masses. The masses don't know what they're doing. God has decided that only the rich and the powerful should be able to make these decisions. And that free market and minimal regulation, regardless of social injustice, is a moral good. And using prayer cell networks and invisible power, the structure of the movement again, these small hidden prayer cells meeting privately exclusively men that are linked to anti democratic bias. Now, the National Prayer Breakfast obviously includes women, but these smaller cells, males are typically only men. In his formulation, the rich and Powerful are not wealthy for their own sake, but were entrusted with spiritual responsibility to lead in God's kingdom on earth and defend against what he regarded as socialist or collectivist threats such as the New Deal. So the rich in his frame framing were chosen not because of arbitrary status, but because God had ordained them. And his movement thus merged this Christian language with elite leadership. And it's one of the sad things about what's happened with Christian nationalism since the 1920s is that the language of Christianity, the the beautiful service bound language of Christianity that so many people have true allegiance and faith in has been hijacked and manipulated using common phrases and terms to get the average person to buy in, to get the poor Christian to buy in so that you can exploit them. The founder, Abraham Verde, believed that religion and politics mixed best behind closed doors away from the prying eyes of the press and the din of the vox populi. And that just means, means the voice of the average person essentially. Despite that, again, his legacy is very much felt. And the National Prayer Breakfast is still held in Washington D.C. many politicians and business leaders continue to use similar small prayer groups and Bible study networks. The idea of Christian leadership is tied to public office. It's very unusual if we see any political leader run without at least being under the guise of being a Christian, even if their actions say something, something very, very different. It was Verde's ideology that would lead to the consolidation of power and influence unlike any this country has ever witnessed to. He envisioned a form of leadership grounded in God and Christianity alone and proposed that the conflicts of the world were more than just political and pragmatic, but actual battles between the forces of good and evil going back to adding under God and the change to the Pledge of Allegiance as well to our currency. It was in 1953 that he got on the radar of President Eisenhower who attended a meeting after being invited by Verde and Billy GRE Graham. The President was reluctant to get involved, citing the first amendment as he should and he valued the separation of church and state. But Eisenhower was dealing with a different conflict of American interests. The Cold War. I don't think that it was ever Eisenhower's intention to violate the separation of church and state. But in the interest of the Cold War, he got sucked into the family. At the time, communism was the most volatile four letter word in American conflict with the Soviets and anything associated with them had become as American as apple pie and racism. You had anything to do that was not super capitalism. Big eagle Christian, you were a socialist or a communist and you were a Spy for the Soviets to be suspected of communist leanings was enough to warrant FBI surveillance operations and even assassination plots. It also lab. It was also the label attached to anything new or misunderstood. We see that now where it's anything that's different, anything that's progressive, anything that's a new idea, it's antifa, it's one woke, it's, you know, radical leftist. And think of it this way, people misuse the term woke now. And that's what commie meant in the mid 20th century. Anything people didn't like, anything that was new, anything that dared talk about social justice and equality. Oh, you're just a commie. Seems like a good time to revisit the difference between communism and socialism, since those often get conflated and misused as the same term. While both communism and socialism emerged from critiques of industrial capitalism, they differ sharply in structure and degree. Communism is a political and economic system as articulated by Karl Marx and later Lenin. Advocates for the complete abolition of private property and class distinctions. Under communism, all means of production, factories, land, resources are owned collectively and goods are distributed according to need. It envisions a stateless, classless society where money and markets eventually disappear. Amazing in ideology, but it neglects that often the singular party, because since it is a political institution, is controlled by a political party that that party is going to suffer from the human conditions of greed, selfishness and prejudice. Socialism, on the other hand, is an economic system. It's not a political system. It's an economic system that can be inserted into various political structures. By contrast, socialism allows for varying degrees of private ownership, but emphasizes that major industries, especially essential services such as healthcare, housing and energy, should be owned collectively or heavily regulated for the public good. Socialism says that insurance companies, laws around health care should always favor the poor and middle classes before it favors the elite. How can these services be regulated in such a way that they offer the most public domain good? It's a very common sense system. In socialism, wealth and power are redistributed through democratic means. Progressive taxation again making the rich pay their fair share, social welfare that provides a safety net for everyone who is a citizen, and public programs without erasing market mechanisms. You can still be wealthy, exceptionally wealthy, but tax law should always favor the poor and the middle class before it buys a billionaire his fifth yacht. But socialism aims to reduce economic inequality by using public policy to correct the imbalances of capitalism. No political or economic system is perfect. Any unrestrained economic system will collapse. Unrestrained capitalism, as we're seeing now, does not work favorably for the masses. In the United states, the top 10% control 67% of the economy because of our lack of regulation in socialism. By funding universal health care, education, housing and worker protections, socialist systems shift resources toward the working class and marginalized populations, ensuring that basic human needs are met regardless of income. These programs, financed through progressive taxation on wealth and corporate profits, help close the wealth gap by redistributing excess capital from the richest sectors to public welfare and infrastructure. The result is a stronger social safety net, higher social mobility, reduced poverty rates, and therefore reduce crime rates and the need for incarceration. Historically, countries with robust social democratic systems, such as those in Scandinavia, demonstrate how well regulated markets combined with socialized services can create a more equitable, stable and prosperous society without eliminating personal freedom or innovation. But anti communist rhetoric was so deeply ingrained in American politics that it was nearly a religion in and of itself. And again, anything that's socialist is by default communist, even though they weren't the same thing. Again, remember that these structures in this rhetoric is being used to profit the illusion elite. They're playing by a different set of rules. They're engaging in socialism by taking your tax dollars, but you can't ask for social programs to be given to the working class. To oppose communism in America was to oppose this force of evil that was trying to undo the fabric of American life. Does that sound familiar? It's often what we hear. I think of when Zoron just won his campaign, all these messages of he's going to impose Sharia law, the Muslims are taking over. None of that is true, and it's never been true. But it's the demonization of other the same that they did with anti communist rhetoric. Verde framed the Cold War as a battle of faith as much as politics. And this was enough to show President Eisenhower of the potential impact of these prayer breakfast meetings draw a clear distinction between the godly Christian United States and the godless, atheistic, evil communist Soviet Union union. Eisenhower was the first US President to participate in what would eventually become the National Prayer Breakfast, and no president has missed it since. Over the next 15 years, the scope of the National Prayer Breakfast grew and with it the influence of the Fellowship Foundation. Led by verriday, there were 125 groups established in 100American cities, including 16 in Washington, D.C. there were over 100 more groups created around the globe. The tension of the Cold War rose and the Fellowship developed into not just a social club, but a necessary weapon against evil forces abroad. And as with any group where power is so vital. A change in leadership will say a lot about the direction and intention of its members. So in 1969, the fellowship had its first test of those values. When Abraham Verde passed away, in came his successor, a relatively unknown man from Oregon named Douglas Coe. Prior to becoming the leader of the Fellowship, Coe was an aide to Veride. He'd identified. He'd been identified for leader leadership early on, placed into mentorship of Billy Graham, who was a frequent guest of Veride's. Near the end of Verde's tenure, there was a goal to submerge the institutional image of the Fellowship. Coe picked up this baton after Verde's passing. Doug Coe valued secrecy, preferring for the Fellowship to operate in obscurity, manipulating its power without public fanfare. He was notorious for declining interview requests and rarely spoke in front of large audiences. He eschewed publicity for himself and especially for the Fellowship. He believed that if the mission became about popularity or fame or what he called the flesh, it would inevitably take away from their stated mission of bringing leaders closer to God and what Jesus would want them to achieve. In Coe's words, quote, the more you can make your organization invisible, the more influence it will have. End quote. Under Coe's leadership, the Fellowship foundation took on a much lower profile, Slowly abandoning the idea of being seen as an organization. They got rid of their branding for anything outside of tax exemption and became referred to only as the Family by Washington and political insiders. It sounds very culty. Very, very culty. Doug co wanted to make the organization itself into a facility of Jesus. Operating free from vanity and self indulgence. The organization became a non organization. No members, no staff, no structure, just power. Even in the case of their flagship events, cold pulled back the identifying elements of the International Christian Leadership, or ic, the name under which they sponsored the breakfast since its inception. To this day, many people still believe that the National Prayer Breakfast is a government sponsored event. It is not a government sponsored event and for good reason. Co wanted it that way. Invitations came from individual members of Congress. Every sitting president has attended since 1953. While the First Amendment separates church and state, the founding Fathers went out of their way to put into writing that the United States is not a Christian nation. This annual event became an affirmation of the opposite. And I think the founding Father Father's real opinion about the separation of church and state is said best in the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 where they said the US government is in no way founded on the Christian religion. That document went through Congress without debate and was passed Unanimously. But the National Prayer Breakfast has become an opportunity to profess that the country was not just secretly influenced by the Christian faith, but was operating as an arm of God. And the danger of being the arm of God is that if you believe that God has appointed you, God is on your side. Only you have the correct interpretation, interpretation of religion. It allows for you to point at your enemy and say, you oppose me, therefore you oppose God, therefore I am enabled to enact violence or prejudice against you. Positioning the Fellowship foundation as a major player in American politics supported his intention of making inroads with other nations as a purveyor of Christian ideology. But the faith veiled the organization's deeper desire for power. Because it's always ultimately about power and about money. The Cold War presented the perfect opportunity for an entity like the Fellowship to rise to power. There was a vague yet identifiable enemy, easily presented as the epitome of evil, combined with a nation divided by domestic conflict. Doug Coe identified a void and made sure to put the Fellowship in place to fill it. More notably, he used conflict as an opportunity to infuse the Fellowship into international affairs. The Fellowship had one goal and held maniacally to that goal, often in spite of members displaying values in opposition to is often said that God uses imperfect vessels to do his perfect work. The Fellowship took this adage, a literature, literally. They openly, in meetings, did not care someone's political stances about LGBTQ rights or abortion or their personal lives or personal indiscretions. They simply cared that could this person further the power and the influence of the family. Over the course of the decades, in many international wars and conflicts, the Fellowship positioned itself as an influential entity with foreign leaders, regardless of the values or the practices of those leaders, including genocide side which we will get into. For an organization led by a man who glorified Hitler's power and leadership ability, it isn't surprising to find CO fostering relationships with despots, dictators, and war criminals. I want to read that again. CO glorified Hitler's power and leadership ability. Sound familiar? In simpler terms, if there was a chance to increase the reach and influence of this version of Christianity around the world, it was a chance worth taking regardless. Regardless of who it was taken through, the path mattered less than the destination. The philosophical approach would hold incredible sway over the Fellowship's dealings, both foreign and domestic. And I want to take a moment here to draw again a distinction between a Christian nationalist and a Christ follower. There are so many churches and Christ followers who have done so much charitable work so much fight for social justice, so much work to get rid of segregation and Jim Crow and pass the Civil Rights Rights Act. So many. And it is so unfortunate that the goodness of those movements has been hijacked by something like this where they glorified someone who was evil and as vile as Hitler if it meant they could have more Power in 1978, Cohen the Fellowship were behind the scenes players in the Camp David Accords, a meeting among President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Andwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Mennekim begin to seek a framework for peace in the Middle east. Co met with President H.W. bush in the 1980s while hosting the Iraq Ambassador to the US Fellowship organized meetings between two warring African leaders, Rwandan President Paul Gagame and Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila, which eventually led to peace deal between the rivals. There's no telling how many more events have been impacted by Cohen the Fellowship, but only due to his intense desire to remain secretive. But it also makes you wonder what were they getting out of the deal? A reasonable person might wonder how a man in an organization so deeply and passionately outwardly devoted to spreading the word of Christianity could seek connection with so many countries and leaders who do not share those beliefs or in some cases actively resist such theology. This is where it's good to look more closely at the stated goals of the Fellowship. The stated mission of the Fellowship foundation is to develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together to go out as ambassadors of reconciliation modeling the principles of Jesus based on loving God and loving others to work with leaders of many nations and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. Youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved. This sounds incredibly innocent and innocuous enough, right? It has all the trappings of a typical corporate mission statement to say little and take no sides. There's no condemnation of injustice or inequity. They're usually just a gum combo mix of benign terms that can be mixed and matched any which way without changing the meaning of the overall statement. Their statement is so inclusive the Fellowship actually gets actually gets criticized by other right leaning Christian organizations for being too inclusive and not emphasizing scripture and church attendance enough. Part of the Fellowship's power comes from how loosely connected they are to requirements for what it means to be a Christian. It allows them to take these quote, imperfect vessels in whether it's cruel or unfaithful or perverted men and claim that they're vessels of God. They are a group of people bonded by a love for Jesus Christ, allegedly, and the standard is tepid enough to allow for bigger for a bigger reach in their Fellowship of Christian Organizations in their Washington D.C. prayer groups, you will find Democrats and Republicans playing nice praying together. Doug Coe has the rare distinction of being regarded with praise by both Ronald Reagan and Hillary Clinton. One member of a DC Prayer group even went on record by saying, if people knew the number of Democrats and Republicans who pray together and actually like each other behind closed doors, they would be amazed. But in the Fellowship's presence in Washington and its focus on political leaders is neither incidental nor accidental. As described by investigative reporter Jeff Chartlett in that book the Family, one of his two books devoted to the family and his experience within the group, the theology leans toward elite fundamentalism, fetishiz political power and wealth and believing that reduced government is God's will, which is not in the Bible, quite frankly, at all. More curiously, their theory of instant forgiveness has proven useful for powerful men seeking sanctuary from their crimes and faults. Remember instant forgiveness because these are imperfect men who face temptation which allows them to align with evil men and allow them to forgive them immediately cover up their crimes and their indiscretions while claiming to be a Christian organization and avoiding accountability and responsibility for their actions. The Fellowship has a storied history of working hard to cover up financial crime, extramarital affairs and sexual impropriety as they work to spread the Word of God. Deeply ironic, the fellowship runs a three story mansion in D.C. dubbed the C Street Center. Despite tax form stating a close financial relationship with the C Street center, the Fellowship has long denied any involvement with or ownership of the property. This building, which is a residential building, is zoned as a church to avoid taxes. But in addition to its usual prayer meeting, it also houses multiple Republican members of Congress in some of its 12 bedrooms, usually below market price to incentivize members of Congress to stay there. According to Charlotte, who lived in in the lived as an intern in the C Street Center. The House is a luxury establishment in which female interns are basically unpaid maids. Male interns act as servants to the residing congressman, right down to cleaning their toilets. The residents enjoy reduced rent that might as well be considered an improper gift according to House and Senate rules, who are not allowed to accept those gifts. As you would expect, the Fellowship at its vast legal team shielded the group and its members from various investigations by external groups, news outlets and the irs. But the benefits of the Proximity to this organization don't stop there. Multiple members of Congress who happen to enjoy connection to the Fellowship have seen their names in the headlines for sex scandals and extramarital affairs. In 2009, Republican Senator John Ensign admitted to an affair with his campaign trust treasurer Cindy Hampton, who also happened to be the wife of Vince Ensign's co co chief of staff Doug Hampton, who was also a close friend of a member of the Fellowship. Prior to Ensign's confession, multiple members of the group's leadership, including Senator Tom Coburn and Doug Co sons Timothy and David Co, held meetings with the Hamptons and Ensign with the hope of ending the affair without any blowback on the politician, the party or the Fellowship. Those good, strong, strong Christian values and traditional family marriage. After agreeing to end the affair, Inside immediately contacted Cindy and resumed their connection, eventually being caught by her husband. It is alleged that after this, Senator Coburn essentially bribed Doug Hampton to stay quiet by providing financial relief and employment while Coburn called his efforts trying to bring closure to a painful episode for the two families. There is a track record of the Fellowship's willingness to do any anything to preserve their status and stature in Washington and to avoid harming the Republican Party's brand. The family was getting plenty of practice rehearsing those talking points because in the same year another Fellowship member, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, disclosed seeking counseling at the C Street center during the months before news of his affair with an Argentine journalist. For those of you who weren't following this insane story as it unfolded, Mark Sanford is the guy who disappeared for a week and turned his phones off while allegedly spending time with his mistress like people thought was he was missing. Around the same time as these first two instances, it was discovered that Fellowship member and former House Representative Chip Pickering had been engaged in affair with his high school sweetheart for most of his 20 year marriage. Two decades of an affair. Pickering's now ex wife accused the Congressman of continuing the affair while residing in the C Street Center. Covered up by both the Fellowship and the other residents. They often use the story of David and Bathsheba as a justification for absolving powerful men of their sins. And I hate, hate this. It enrages me. So in case you're, you're not someone who's read the Bible, you're not familiar with this story, I will sum it up for you. King David sees Bathsheba bathing in her house while he's staying home from the war. He sends guards to go kidnap her. He rapes her. Because you cannot give consent if the Person who wants to sleep with you can kill you and your husband. The wife of one. She's the wife of one of his soldiers. He rapes her, assaults her when she gets pregnant. He conspires to have her husband Uriah killed in battle. Battle to cover up his sin. But this story is cited as a testament to how much God is willing to forgive. Because even though David raped this woman and then murdered her husband, he was still referred to as a man after God's own heart. And I cannot tell you how many churches I grew up in that use this as an excuse to justify the mistreatment of men, whether it was domestic violence, physical assault, rape, pedophilia, grooming minors. As long as they were willing to say they were so sorry, it was totally fine because of the story of David. And you know that that standard never applied to women. But the handling of these situations had little to do with preserving Christian family values because this organization does not give two shits about Christian family values or morality. It has everything to do with preserving the Fellowship status as Washington's premier power brokerage. In accordance with their philosophy, nothing and no one is bigger than their mission. There are acceptable consequences and the organization is prepared to cope with them if it means their sphere of influen remains intact. As Reagan put it during one of the National Prayer Breakfast speeches, part of why they work so well is they're a secret. And that means that no single person, including and especially its leaders, are as important as the goal. But after decades of amassing such power and influence among the most powerful figures in the country, in the world, what happens next? What do you do with all that power? Allow me to point you to the National Prayer Breakfast and its slow transformation from a gathering of American politicians for the purpose of prayer and flow fellowship to a congregation of leaders from around the world. Remember what I told you about co capitalizing on the effects of the Cold War and the anti communist sentiment? Well, as the Cold War ebbed in the 1980s and eventually ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Doug Ko saw a void among the people of Russia who were suddenly free and in search of hope. The Fellowship had prepared for this moment since its first prayer breakfast and began reaching young and impressionable leaders among the newly liberated people of Eastern Europe. Europe God became a weapon. While the Soviet Union was atheist by doctrine, the Christian faith endured throughout its entire reign. Even during the Cold War when Christians were actively persecuted by the Soviet government, their belief in the word of God was unwavering. The Fellowship put boots to the ground immediately to fill the void left behind by the Soviet government. Rather than aim to preach and fellowship with hundreds of thousands or millions of people, the Fellowship opted to connect with the leaders of a nation and through Congress, with them, infused their leaders leadership with the Fellowship's version of Christ's teachings. Over the years, the Prayer Breakfast began to be more than a religious community. These events grew into a method by which to bring world leaders together to discuss serious policy matters in behind closed doors and with less regulation or intervention. It was essentially a lobbying convention. As a result, the Prayer Breakfast began popping up around the world, from Japan to Australia to Uruguay to Uganda. And given the Fellowship's penchant for flawed leaders, to say the least, they cultivated relationships with some of the most violent and reprehensible figures in modern history. Such reach makes the National Prayer Breakfast ripe for opportunity for outside actors to infiltrate it and exploit it with their own cross purposes. When the goal is nothing but power, morals tend to take a back seat. It's easy to brush off such shuts. Excuse me, it's easy to brush off such concern as conspiratorial until you realize how many of the Fellowship's interests align with the malignant action of foreign administration administrators. Ugandan President Yuri Museveni once attended a National Prayer Breakfast and walked away so inspired he mimicked the gathering in his country with the support from the family. It must be said that Museveni has dedicated a portion of his dictatorial reign to the eradicating of homosexuality from his country, going so far as to enact legislation against it. The Anti Homosexual Homosexuality act imposes life sentences and in some case the death penalty for what they call aggravated homosexual sexuality. In May of 2023, Museveni signed into law this act, which criminalizes same sex conduct, introduces penalties for the promotion of homosexuality and for aggravated homosexuality, which they define as repeated acts. Sex with a person living with HIV or sex with a minor prescribes a possible death sentence. Now, I will say I do agree with the death sentence for sex with a minor. I will say I do agree with that because I'm tired of pedophiles not being afraid. We need a little bit more of that. Under this law and the surrounding climate, civil society reports documented heightened violence against members of the LGBTQ community, discrimination, arbitrary arrests based on accusations with no evidence, and extortion against members of the LGBTQ community. NGOs report hundreds of cases of human rights violations, evictions, arrests, beatings and sexual assaults. Following state policy and rhetoric, Museveni himself has made public statements dismissing homosexuality, saying we don't have homosexuality in UN Uganda in June. In some examples of this in June 2012, police raided an LGBT rights workshop. Armed police stormed a lawful human rights training attended by LGBT activists. Participant participants were interrogated and dispersed. In February 24th of 2014 after the act was signed into law. August 1st, 2014 it was struck down on a technicality. Museveni signed AHA expanding criminal penalties for same sex contact conduct. So much for freedom. On August 4th through 9th of 2016, the police raided a Kampala Pride event. Police violently broke up pride activities, assaulting and detaining attendees. Rights groups condemned it as an unlawful raid. In March 29th of 2020, COVID 19 pretext raid on an LGBTQ center. Police arrested 20 plus homeless LGBTQ children charging them with negligent act, likely to spread infection and disobedience of lawful orders. This was a shelter for the home homeless and many of them spent weeks on remand before the charges were eventually dropped. May through September of 2021 raids and mass arrests at shelters. Dozens arrested at an LGBTQ shelter, some reportedly subjected to forced anal exams. Many of the charges were later dismissed. August 3rd through the 5th of 2022 the government halted operation of sexual minorities. Uganda the state NGO bureau ordered what was called smug to cease operations. International domestic rights groups called it a targeted ship shutdown of Uganda's leaders of the LGBTQ organization. In September. August through September of 2023 the first prosecutions under the Anti Homosexuality act took place and waves of abuses were documented. A 20 year old became the first person charged with aggravated homosexuality which is eligible for the death penalty. Rights groups reported evictions, assaults and the multiple charges under the new law. Many people held without remand bond OR Representation Documentation March 12, 2024 the court upholds the refusal to register civil rights groups representing the LGBTQ community and May 26, 2025 HRW reported ongoing abuses since the passage of this law. Comprehensive documentation of arrests, extortion, evictions, clinic closures and the Chilling Effects on Expression association and a denial of health services. The Fellowship is suspected of allegedly funding multiple multiple trips to Africa, especially Uganda, to lobby on behalf of this bill before it was enacted into law in 2023. The original kill the Gays bill was first written by a fellowship associate called David Bahati. U.S. congresspeople have even spoken at the Ugandan iteration of the prayer breakfast in support of the anti LGBT legislation, including Representative Tim Wahlberg of Michigan. The foundation has spent over $20 million over the past 10 years in UN Uganda, and over 50 million throughout the continent, according to a report from Open Democracy. Over the years, Doug Ko fielded criticism for meeting with many other tyrants and dictators such as Sudan's Omar Al Bashir, Somali Siad Barre, and Indonesia Suhartu often inviting them to his estate in Arlington, Virginia. These are cruel, evil, authoritarian dictators. In some cases, a dictator doesn't have to attend the breakfast to find himself the topic of discussion. As President Obama and and others had spoken about Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi on multiple occasions, referencing his human rights record and US Foreign policy towards the strongman, the gathering became inextricably linked to policy, discussion, politics, lobbying, and as a result, special interests both foreign and domestic Meet the computer you can talk to with Copilot on Windows Working, creating and collaborating is as easy as talking. Got writer's block? Share your screen with Copilot Vision to help spark inspiration and use Copilot voice to have a conversation and brainstorm ideas. Or maybe you need some tech help with Copilot Vision. Copilot sees what you see. Let Copilot talk you through step by step guidance so you can master new apps, games and skills faster. Try now@windows.com copilot hello friends. Guess who? That's right, it is the the Replacer. Once again, I've been called on so you can play the new Call of Duty Black Ops 7 with three expansive modes, 18 multiplayer maps and the tastiest zombie gameplay you've ever freaking seen. Call of Duty Black Ops 7 available now. Rated M for Mature Doug Ko once stated how important it was that people of all cultures and religious backgrounds can be joined together by the teachings teachings of Jesus. He took pride in the Fellowship's willingness to fellowship with communists, atheists and Muslims and any anyone willing to open their minds to the Word of God. This convenient interpretation of strict of scripture gave the organization an alibi as foreign bad actors descended on the gathering in the 21st century. They don't believe in religious pluralism. They've made that very clear. But to make the statement of well, we're going to fellowship with anyone provided they're opening to listening to the Word of God allowed for these dictators, many of whom are in other violent forms of fundament fundamentalist religion, to come into these prayer breakfasts to be able to participate in the political maneuvering. At the time of Ko's death in 2017, many of his family members had leadership roles in the Fellowship foundation, while Coe had built the organization into something greater than Abraham Verde could have possibly imagined six decades earlier. His son in law, Doug Burleigh, took a more public turn with the family's work, granting interviews, speaking publicly and publishing books about his faith. Berlay already has a larger public profile than his predecessor ever aspired to, Doug Berlay, who was a frequent attending of the Arlington meetings and who has deep ties to the Soviet Union going back to 1965 when he was on a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship. Since then, he's been a frequent visitor to all 15 nations of the former Soviet Union, organizing prayer groups, so called Jesus Conferences, and national prayer Breakfasts in both Russia and Ukraine. These gatherings gave him access to leaders and key figures of those nations, such as Alexander Torzin and Maria Butina, both of whom attended the national prayer breakfast in D.C. in 2017, one month after President Trump's inauguration. Alexander Torshin is a Russian politician and Maria Butina is one of his close associates and the founder of the Right to Bear Arms, which is basically the Russian version of the nra. Through their connection with the nra, they are alleged to have funneled money into Trump's presidential campaign from Russia. The money was traced as far as far as Russian organized crime and even the Russian government with the objective of influencing the US Presidential election. Much of this money was also spent on Facebook campaigns spreading misinformation meant to polarize the American public to drive them further to the right and to the left so that there could be a destruction of the political system within the United States. It's more than coincidence that the money was spent by a wing of the NRA that isn't required to disclose its donors, and as a result of these investigation, Torshen was sanctioned, his assets frozen, and he was barred from entering the United States. This was not Torshen's first time being accused of money laundering for organized crime, as he was investigating by the Spanish government for his ties to Alexander Romanov, a leader of a Tangaskaya gang. And if that wasn't suspicious enough, his associate Maria Bettina was investigated and struck a deal with the FBI, pleading guilty to conspiracy to be an illegal foreign agent and serving 18 months in prison before being deported. Both Torgine and Butina were frequent attendees of the annual NRA conference, being photographed with American politicians like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Senator Rick Sanders Santorum. In addition, Butina also attended a national prayer breakfast twice, alongside a contingent of over 60 Russian officials to lobby on behalf of Russian political interest. After being released from prison, she started serving in Russian Parliament. Because of course, the breakfast had ballooned into a multi day affair, attracting thousands of guests from all over the world and was more loosely monitoring monitored, allowing a more unknown entities to mingle with lawmakers to lobby for political gain again, both foreign and and domestic and those with political influence in the US to be able to negotiate without scrutiny. It took being infiltrated it took the National Prayer Breakfast being infiltrated by a literal Russian spy for the US government to step in and take the reins. But that doesn't undo how entrenched the Fellowship foundation is within American political landscape. Since 2023, the event has been sponsored by the National Prayer Breakfast foundation and is held in a different location with fewer attendees. They've also created a rule prohibiting any actions made for personal, political or financial gain, though I can't begin to imagine how that rule could be enforced. The public and private connection between the Family and the Prayer Breakfast is nearly impossible to undo beyond cosmetic changes, just changing the facade on February 6th of 2020, under the lights of the Hilton Ballroom, Donald Trump held up an acquitted headline and the President used what was once marketed as a bipartisan devotional to settle political scores. With cameras trained on the ds, he blasted his impeach foes, turned a ritual of piety into a victory rally for critics. This was the moment the old illusion finally cracked. The breakfast born of Abraham Verdi's elite first theology and long midwifed by the Family, had become a stage for power, not prayer. But the rupture didn't happen all at once. In the years leading up to 2020, the Prayer Breakfast had already become a magnet for influential operations again, most infamously Maria Butina case in which a Russian operative leveraged the breakfast networking ecosystem to cultivate high level context. The embarrassment stained the brand, sharpened questions on who exactly was paying for proximity to the US power in this event that the Family helped run. But those questions didn't fade after 2020. They intensified. And again, it wasn't until 2023 that Congress had seen enough. On the eve of that year's breakfast, the lawmakers announced that the venerable gathering would be pulled out of the orbit of the Family's nonprofit and put under a new, smaller entity chaired by former Senator Mark Prior. The public rationale was simple transparency, tighter invite lists, fewer backroom side events, and importantly, severing the formal ties to the Fellowship. This move was widely reported as a takeover or a split, and a rare instance of official Washington acknowledging that old secretive arrangements had become untenable and unethical. But the remap the we reworked format didn't end the story. It changed the battlefield. Advocacy groups praised the break but still warned that the new structure could perpetuate a government blessed religious religious right, one that normalizes elite religion as an access to power. Meanwhile reported tracking the shuffle of roles around the event and flagged open questions about donor disclosure and governance at the new foundation. The through line was clear. After 2020, the breakfast and by extension the family's crown jewel platform was forced into a defensive crouch, with lawmakers trying to quarantine official participation from the private influence industry that surrounded it. But if you follow the money, and we should always follow the money, the family didn't vanish. IRS filings compiled by ProPublica show the fellowship foundation continued to raise and spend millions annually through 2022 and 2023, well after the split. In 2023 alone, the organization reported roughly $10.4 million in revenue, with an overwhelming majority of contributions and nearly $9.8 million in expenses. In 2022, revenue topped $9.3 million million whatever else changed in Washington, donors kept the engine humming. These filings also list paid associates that confirmed the institution rebranded and routed away from the official breakfast remains financially robust. The continuity matters because personal relationships, small cells and quiet congressional study groups were always the family's real instrument, not banners or press releases. Even as Congress shrank and remanaged the marquee event, the broader network Hill Bible studies, off camera luncheons and private meetings continue to provide lanes for Christian Right elites, particularly men, to meet, share talking points, reinforce a political theology that prioritizes chosen leadership over mass accountability. In the Trump years, that theology had founded a ready framework. Trump is the imperfect vessel. Remember David and Bathsheba, the strong man, sanctified not by virtue but by victory. We know God chose him because he won. Analysts who track the movement's doctrines say that posture persisted into the 2020s, shaping how part of the Christian Right learned to rationalize power first and ethical ethics later. And the split didn't stop Trump from returning to the breakfast stage in February of 2025. He addressed the gathering under its new management, using the platform to announce the federal effort targeting anti Christian bias, which does not exist in the United States. The venue had changed. The choreography faith wrapped tightly around executive power looked eerily familiar. For critics of the Family's model, it was proof that the ceremonial embrace of the elite religion in the Capitol can still launder a political message in devotional language for allies. This is the point. If you Zoom out from 2020 to now, the Arc looks like this the family shaped breakfast becomes a Trump era spectacle. The Patina scandal and the years of scrutiny trigger a formal divorce from the Fellowship. Congress corrals the event under a new foundation. The Fellowship foundation keeps raising millions regardless, and Trump aligned Christian nationalist currents continue to use the breakfast, whatever its legal wrappings are, as a stage for fusing piety to a policy. The breakfast strength, but the worldview that built it is really the same. And you can hear the shift in how watchdogs describe the post split landscape. Some some cheer the severing as a long overdue firewall. Others argue that it's cosmetic and it doesn't actually mean anything. Because once the state ritual is set, once cameras are rolling and presidents are praying, access reconstitutes itself around whoever controls the invite list. And that's very, very true. The names on the stationary changed in 2020 2023, but the gravitational pull of the elite religious network orbiting around it did not. And the back of the Fellowship's Arlington address, the filings suggest a familiar cadence. Contributions in programs and grants out, staff paid to curate relationships, precisely the quiet, durable work that keeps decades old network influential after headlines move on. It's not the spectacle that matters, it's the continuity. In that sense, 2020-Now is less a break than a mask change. The brand was bruised, the structure retooled, but the project endured. The family taught Washington that faith could be a private language of power whispered inside rooms, sanctifying the strong and smoothing the edges of policy with the velvet of prayer. In 2020, the language that went loud in 2023, Congress tried to turn the volume down, but the danger persists when elite religion embeds itself in the rituals of the state. It trades transparency, transparency for proximity and converts accountability into grace for only the already power powerful. That damage a politics in which public faith becomes a backstage pass where doctrine justifies hierarchy and abuse and where the most important decisions are made not out in the open, but behind cross lit curtains of influence. Until that model is confronted, not just renamed, not just rebranded, the wall between the separation of church and state will keep its cracks and power will keep finding the prayer room. And that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. I do recommend that documentary and that book. The family has come and is still one of the most important groups as far as being able to push Christian nationalism to the front. And they're a very dangerous group because when we violate religious liberty it puts us all inherently at risk. I just want to say some quick thank yous to everyone supporting the show. First, thank you to my Patreon members who are the reason that I'm able to afford to come to this beautiful studio and have great sound. Thank you to Seeger and Phoenix Studio for just making this so much easier for me. Thank you to Lara Battles Jared for preliminary research behind the scenes work and I want to do some shout outs for my Patreon members. If you'd like a shout out or you'd like to support my work, you can find that@patreon.com Monte Mater I want to say thank you to Margaret Dixon, Ms. Ashley, Candice, Henry Bradley Warren, Kisa Salazar, Julie Barbara Sandoval, Christian Andolin, Tiffany McDonald, Mansour Middleton, Caroline Lansky, Megan Pinder, Wendy Seiler, Julie Adams, Aubrey Pabin, Bella Hermita, Christina John Johns, Rick King, Melissa Stradley, Shawnee Drake, Duncan Ulon Valor Tyke weems, Sharon Barry, V3R, Alyssa this, Angela Vivaldi, Ella Barnum, Lex, Reyna332 and Aaliyah. Thank you so much for your time for your investment. Thank you for being part of this show. I challenge you to learn a little bit more about what's going on behind the scenes, challenge yourself to stay involved and stay home hopeful so that we can disrupt these harmful systems and hopefully build a more equitable system for everyone of all faiths and religions and walks of life and build a type of faith and theology, regardless of your religion, that prioritizes helping the poor and the downtrodden and lifting everyone up instead of just some specific special elite. I don't believe that for a second. I believe that God honors all human life and that our job is to help those who to need it most first. And I will see you next week on Flipping Tables.