Bart Stupak, Family 'Minister', Wrapped in C Street Like a Bug in a Rug
Michigan Representative Bart Stupak has been living at the now infamous Washington, DC, "C Street House" at least as far back as 2002, when in an interview for a September 27, 2002 story by Lisa Getter published in the Los Angeles Times, Showing Faith in Discretion, Stupak told Getter, "We sort of don't talk to the press about the house." Journalist Jeff Sharlet, who after Lisa Getter's 2002 story has blazed a trail of in-depth research into the Family, and who lived at a Family group home for a year, states that among the benefits of the well appointed C Street House is personal maid service, courtesy of female students from a local Christian college. Rooms at the 8,000 square foot C Street House, which features according to Getter "12 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, five living rooms (including one with a big-screen TV), four dining rooms, three offices, a kitchen--and a small chapel" go for $600 dollars a month, dramatically below area market rates - which by some estimates (excluding the free maid service) would normally run $1500 a month. This raises the question: does the apparent $10,000-plus yearly benefit, that C Street residents enjoy, amount to a political or campaign contribution which should be officially declared ? In 2002, Representative Stupak suggested to LA Times reporter Lisa Getter that C Street House residents shared a collective code of silence - which is certainly suggestive given journalist Sharlet's report that Family members sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as a "Christian mafia." Seven years after the Getter interview, during the summer of 2009, with the emergence of a trio of sex scandals tied to national-level current and former Republican politicians who lived at or were linked to the C Street House, Bart Stupak claimed to know nothing at all about the Family or about what goes on at C Street. As Stupak told Michigan messenger journalist Ed Brayton, in response to a question about the C Street House, "I don't belong to any such group, I rent a room at a house in `C Street.' I do not belong to any such group. I don't know what you're talking about, [The] Family and all this other stuff." In 2002 Chip Grange, an attorney for the Fellowship, told Lisa Getter, "The C Street property is a church." Grange went on, "It is zoned as a church. There are prayer meetings, fellowship meetings, evangelical meetings." The target ? "Our mission field is Capitol Hill." Evidence is that Bart Stupak has for years played an important role in the Family's Washington, DC, evangelism efforts. The Family maintains prayer groups in the House and Senate which operate in conjunction with The Family's signature yearly public event, the National Prayer Breakfast, that was established in 1953. As the Fellowship Foundation's 2001 990 form describes, "The Foundation helps facilitate the National Prayer Breakfast held annually in Washington, DC, widely attended by business, political and spiritual leaders from around the world. This event is held in conjunction with the U.S. House and Senate Prayer groups." In 2004, Stupak told the UPI he was "chairman of the House prayer group that meets every Thursday for one hour." But that's not the end of Bart Stupak's Family related responsibilities. At the 2008 National Prayer Breakfast Stupak stated he was co-chair of the House Prayer Breakfast, an institution which, according to Family/Fellowship records at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois, was established by the Family/Fellowship in 1942. Stupak has twice spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast. Long-time leader of the Family Doug Coe has advocated the leadership lessons of Hitler, Lenin and Mao, and spoken admiringly of the ability of Bolshevik revolutionary cells to take over Russia. The Family does not own the C Street House; a sister ministry, the international behemoth Youth With a Mission, holds title to the property. Youth With a Mission's founder and head Loren Cunningham advocates that Christians should infiltrate key sectors of society such as government, business, education, and media.
Bart Stupak, Family 'Minister', Wrapped in C Street Like a Bug in a Rug | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
Bart Stupak, Family 'Minister', Wrapped in C Street Like a Bug in a Rug | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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