People should engage in an informed debate with Christian fundamentalists rather than alienating them, English professor Jeff Sharlet wrote in his latest book, "C Street: The Fundementalist Threat to American Democracy." Sharlet expressed his ideas using the example of a secretive organization known as the "Family," which has worked out of a residence in Washington, D.C., since the late 1980s.
In his book, Sharlet chronicles the C Street House, a Washington, D.C., residence that has acted as both a religious sanctuary and political space for a secretive organization that "sees itself as a ministry for the benefit of the poor, by way of the powerful," and "believes its members are placed in power of God," Sharlet wrote in "C Street."
"Fundamentalism isn't a person," Sharlet said in an interview. "It's not Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee rather, it's an idea."
Leaders connected with the "Family" include Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.; former Rep. Chip Pickering, R-Miss.; and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
At a 2009 press conference, Sanford revealed the existence of the C Street location, a "vital place" which has acted as a "hangout" for the Christian Right since 1994, Sharlet said. The C Street, Inc., residence is also registered as a church for tax purposes, Sharlet said.
Members of Congress who visit C Street attend prayer meetings where, according to Sharlet, they discuss conservative evangelical ideas such as male "headship" the idea that men should provide guidance to the women in their lives, as Christ did for his followers.
"These are very Christian conservative guys, but they don't read the Bible much," Sharlet said. "They don't believe in it much. Rather, they believe you can have a direct unmediated relationship with God."
Sharlet visited the C Street location numerous times on the invitation of a good friend, he said.
Sharlet stopped short of calling the "Family" a cult, saying that it is instead a "social movement," rooted in the history of American fundamentalism. The public must engage with, rather than alienate, this movement, Sharlet said.
"Cult' is not a very useful term, ever, as it obscures more than it reveals," Sharlet said. "We should approach fundamentalist thoughts as ideas. How do these ideas shape a person's political philosophies? What are the precedents for what he's doing, and where does he think he's going?"
Although the "Family" has existed for at least 70 years, few people scrutinized its activity, despite articles in The Washington Post in 1952, Playboy in 1975, The New York Times and Time Magazine in 1973 and the Los Angeles Times in 2002, Sharlet wrote in his book.
The "religious illiteracy" of political reporters is responsible for the relative lack of investigative reporting on the C Street residence and its connection to the "Family," Sharlet said.
"There's this weird limbo between the tiny and dying religious section of the newspaper and the political side," Sharlet said. "We need to be asking political leaders who filter their decisions through a narrow understanding of God, [by asking] questions like, What do you pray for?' and What is the spiritual authority, or structures of accountability in your religion?'"
The "Family" focuses on an international, "theo-centrist" goal of building an alliance of 200 world leaders aspiring to world peace, he said.
The "war on homosexuality" in Uganda and the "small but powerful movement of spiritual warriors concentrated within the officer corps" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars also receive attention in Sharlet's book as examples of modern-day fundamentalism.
Sharlet a recent addition to the College's English department originally developed an interest in creative non-fiction as an undergraduate at Hampshire College. He was inspired by James Agee's book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (1941), a narrative describing the lives of sharecroppers during the Great Depression.
"It was the most vital kind of writing I could imagine," Sharlet said. "If you're writing creative non-fiction, you want to go beyond the facts that comprise traditional journalism and delve into more complicated questions."
After graduating, Sharlet traveled abroad as editor of Yiddish-culture magazine "Pakn Treger." After profiling several scholars for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sharlet became drawn to the subject of religion, he said.
"With religion, you're writing about things that aren't tangible," Sharlet said. "You're going beyond the concrete, talking about people's beliefs what they do believe, what they don't believe, what they find meaning in."
Overall, Sharlet said he was less concerned about questions of party or electoral politics.
"I'm much more interested in how these guys experience their own particular mix of religion and politics," he said.
Sharlet will two teach intermediate and advanced-level creative writing classes in the Winter term in the English department.
