Here is an excerpt:

Jeff Sharlet's new book The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, is in the best tradition of American investigative journalism. Sharlet, a scholar of religion based at New York University, writes with insight, verve and, thankfully, none of the bogus punditry and bad sociology that often passes for informed discourse about the contemporary role of religion in public life. His refreshing narrative style is as engaging as his groundbreaking information.

The story begins when Sharlet is invited to join a Christian community in Virginia, (suburban Washington D.C., really), called Ivanwald. It turns out to be an entry level training facility for a network of what Sharlet calls "elite fundamentalists" that operates partly in the open, but mostly behind the scenes of power for much of the American Century --and into the present day.

Read the whole review, here.  

To read an interview with Jeff Sharlet, or to order the book, click here.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Did you know how powerful the group was when you first started reporting on The Family?

I didn't even know what the group was when I joined. I was invited to join a house of young jocks who wanted to live and study a peculiar, hyper-masculine idea of Jesus together. But very quickly I realized there was much more to it than that. The house I joined, "Ivanwald," was just one among many owned by The Family, including a giant old mansion overlooking the Potomac called The Cedars, in which The Family hosts congressmen, ambassadors, generals, and even foreign heads of state. My first few days at Ivanwald, The Family received visits from Senator Jesse Helms and the then-newly elected conservative prime minister of Norway. That was such an odd combination that I started paying much closer attention.

What significant role has the group played in American history?

The Family doesn't work from the outside, like most Christian fundamentalist groups, but from the inside. Their influence has been staggering--they played key roles in U.S. involvement with the Cold War's worst killers, the rise of what I call the "Popular Front" of Christian fundamentalism, its public presence, and, more recently, the creation of Faith-Based Initiatives, which even one of their own members--and a former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for the Faith-Based scam--refers to as a vote-getting machine. The Family began in 1935 as an elite anti-New Deal coalition, and by the late 1940s, their members and friends in Congress had succeeded in rolling back some of FDR's greatest achievements. Then they moved on to foreign policy, becoming matchmakers for foreign dictators seeking access to American power. There was General Suharto of Indonesia, who ordered the murder of at least half a million of his own citizens, and General Siad Barre of Somalia, who reduced his nation to rubble, and a couple of lunatics so drunk with power they actually thought they were gods, Emperor Selassie of Ethiopia and Papa Doc Duvalier, the vicious ruler of Haiti. That's just for starters; their archive is a gallery of monsters. They call them "key men," chosen for leadership by God. Simply put, The Family helped steer American foreign policy in the most horrific directions for generations. And it's still doing so.  

Of all the fundamentalist groups that have been formed in America since its founding, why do you think this one is the most enduring?

Because they work from the inside, not from the outside. From the very beginning, the group was comprised of elites who didn't need to bang a pulpit to be heard. They simply made a few phone calls. In fact, The Family disdains the showy tactics fundamentalists like the late Jerry Falwell, or Pat Robertson. Their members aren't televangelists, they're politicians--Senator Sam Brownback, Senator Jim Inhofe, Representative Joe Pitts, John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, many others. They're willing to collaborate with liberals if doing so will help advance their agenda. As their leader, Doug Coe, says, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

What do you find most dangerous about The Family?

Their disdain for transparency, and the inner circle's contempt for democracy. That's an incredibly dangerous combination of views when held by men--the inner circle is almost all male--with tremendous access to power. This isn't a left / right issue. It's not about Democrats vs. Republicans, or liberals vs. conservatives. It's about an authoritarian sect that deliberately exercises power and influence behind the scenes, declares that it doesn't exist, shifts money about off the books, and seeks to achieve a "government led by God" not through the democratic process--which would be just fine, even if I don't agree with that end--but backroom alliances. It's an accountability issue.

The fact is that there are always secretive networks contending for influence with and even power over our elected, appointed and career government officials.  This is one of them and although they go to considerable lengths to stay in the shadows, and to publicly pooh pooh their significance, the Ensign episode is more than a little eye opening and promises to cast some fresh sunlight on their shadowy, antidemocratic operations.