Meet the Senators in the Creepy Right-Wing Cult Trying to Defeat Health Care Reform

Meet the Senators in the Creepy Right-Wing Cult Trying to Defeat Health Care Reform

www.alternet.org...

In the heat of summer, a din of voices arose from the U.S. Senate in opposition to the health care reform legislation that was taking shape in both houses of Congress. Overlooked in media coverage of the health care brouhaha is the membership of many of the senators who most vociferously oppose the legislation in the right-wing religious cult known as The Family.

With the Senate Finance Committee's passage last Tuesday of its version of health care legislation, expect the debate to flare again as the bill moves to the Senate floor. The Family's point men -- "key men" in the cult's theological lexicon -- will likely try once again to defeat reform in the service of their Supply-Side Jesus.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 20-10-2009 by grover]

mod edit, attempt to fix link

[edit on 20/10/09 by DontTreadOnMe]

Up front...I don't know what to think about this story.

I have heard of the Family before aka the Fellowship both praised and condemned.

From Wiki comes this:

en.wikipedia.org...

Author Jeff Sharlet did intensive research in the Family's archives, before the Family archives were closed to the public. He also spent a month in 2003 living at a Fellowship house near Washington, and wrote a magazine article describing his experiences. In his 2008 book about the Family, he criticizes their theology as elitist, an "elite fundamentalism" that fetishizes political power and wealth, consistently opposes labor movements in the US and abroad, and teaches that laissez-faire economic policy is "God's will." He criticizes their theology of instant forgiveness for powerful men as providing a convenient excuse so that elites who commit misdeeds or crimes can avoid accepting responsibility or accountability for their actions.

And the article this thread is based on says:

...Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Family members who did their bit to slow down reform in their roles on the negotiating team for the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill, remain unmoved by the 865 preventable deaths suffered each week by people without access to proper health care.

The God of The Family's teaching would never hold Grassley or Enzi -- or any other official -- to account for those deaths, because Grassley and Enzi are key men in God's plan...

and:

...It's that theology that led The Family, over the years, to aid and abet such dictators as Haiti's Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Indonesia's Haji Muhammad Suharto, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, and the brutal Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi, who among them killed more than a million people.

Also

The Family is not the religious right as we know it -- that noisy, moralizing fracas of a movement, rooted in the most conservative forms of the Baptist and Methodist denominations (and more recently expanded to include Pentacostals). In the 1990s, "family values" became the credo of the religious right's populist front, as its leaders set about convincing the nation's most socially conservative Protestants that the values of the left were inherently anti-family.

Their theology is summarized as:

Sharlet refers to The Family's theology as one of "elite fundamentalism," but that's not quite right. Fundamentalism refers to a literal reading of the Bible. Little in The Family's ideology seems rooted, either literally or figuratively, in the Gospels, or much in the Bible at all.

The Jesus of The Family is a Jesus unmoored from his own teachings; a blank slate of a Jesus who demands nothing but acceptance of the power structure of the world as it currently exists in exchange for his blessing. And since this Jesus is offered mostly to men of high rank, that's not so hard a bargain.

It's an idea that Coe, as Sharlet reports, calls "Jesus plus nothing." As the man who invited Sharlet into The Family explained, "We're not even Christian. We just follow Jesus."

Yet Jesus said to sell all of your possessions give the money to the poor and follow me...

He also said render unto Cesar what is Cesar's and render unto God what is God...

and he said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Prosperity gospel is a travesty of all that...but power gospel for the few?

Of course using Jesus to support the status quo is old hat...

but if this article is true and I do question it...you could not even call this following Jesus... rather a religious excuse for unrestrained supply side economics.

www.alternet.org...
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 20-10-2009 by grover]

All I have to say about health care reform is-

Show me the bill. Let me say it again. SHOW ME THE BILL.

All the rest of this is just fluff. Divide and conquer.

Who is writing the bill and when will it be shown to anyone, including the people that have to vote on it?

reply to post by endisnighe

If you read this OP and the linked article you will see it is really not about the health care bill.

reply to post by grover


Oh, it is an attack on the creepy right wing people known as the Family. That are attempting to derail the Chosen Ones healthcare.

That is what I got wrong. Let me just say I think the Family, along with all of the rest in Washington, should be tried for Treason against the American people.

How was that? Bi-partisan enough for you?

reply to post by grover


You know it is about the Health Care Bill, They called these two Sneators out for blocking it, or attempting to slow it down. I can gaurantee you this After the Dems our done writing the bill and mergin everything together its going to make everyones head spin. When the federal Goverment gets involved nothing ever turns out right.

reply to post by poedxsoldiervet



If its not "really" about HCR you need to change the title

reply to post by Remixtup

I am dead set against any religious bias in government or in writing laws.

Originally posted by endisnighe
All I have to say about health care reform is-

Show me the bill. Let me say it again. SHOW ME THE BILL.

finance.senate.gov...

There is 1,502 pages to keep you busy for a while.

reply to post by grover



Seperation of church and state means that the goverment shall not endorse any one relgion, it doesnt mean that people who are in postions of power who are elected by there districts can not consult there god or go against something becuase it is against there moral conviction.

reply to post by Libertygal


This is just one out of the five bills in the Senate can you imagine how big the final bill will be.? My god look at this one bill 1500 pages.

There is no doubt we need health care reform, but Uncle Sam cant do anything right, And I feel that some of these people who dont have Health Insurance dont want it (not all people mind you) My brother is one, he says the premiums are to much for him to pay, I think the premiums for his company are about 430 a month. I asked him if the government gave him an option would he take it, he said yes cause it will be free, Look if you cant take your health care into your own hands then you deserve what Uncle Sam gives you. ( mind you this isnt about all Americans without healthcare, just the freeloaders like my brother who want something for nothing)

reply to post by poedxsoldiervet


Yes, just one of the 5 bills they are merging as we speak, but at least it is something tangible to read and hold for a while. NO one says mosty, any, or all of this will be in the end bill, but hey. Probably a weapon of mass distraction.

And if your brother thinks his premiums are high now, wait till he gets his paycheck after the bill is passed. He will be paying much higher taxes = less income and still have to foot the premiums a few years before the reform insurance kicks in. Pay before you play.

What I want to know is why there is the mad rush to pass this health care stuff.....poll after poll shows most Americans are happy with their health care....poor people already get free health care....so do illegal immigrants. It is illegal to turn poor people away from hospitals.

If TPTB really cared about us, they would slow down and do the right thing. So if some 'creepy, right wing' representatives are trying to slow things down, so much the better.

reply to post by grover


I always wondered about that whole sell everything and give to the poor thing. I mean, won't you then become poor, make them rich, have lost everything, but ok you found Jesus. But, you committed an ultimate sin, right? And blocked those poor people from finding him, sending them instead, on the path to hell with your riches.

reply to post by AnnieNakki


The rush is, to get er done before the elections in 2010, cause after they all got thousands of pink slips from WnD, they know their time is short.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by Libertygal]

Originally posted by Libertygal

Originally posted by endisnighe
All I have to say about health care reform is-

Show me the bill. Let me say it again. SHOW ME THE BILL.

finance.senate.gov...

There is 1,502 pages to keep you busy for a while.

To reiterate, that is just one version. However, the real BILL that I want to see is the line item Bill that details the costs and just how these Costs (nothing is free) will be covered. Don't forget that we still have Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to pay for. Furthermore, we are about to have a massive population of newly retired Baby Boomers hitting the system. This is going to be a massive slash and burn campaign on existing programs to fund a new ill fated program.

It makes no sense. If we want a successful and true Healthcare reform, replace the congressmen with a random sampling of 500 doctors and their office administrators and let them come up with a solution. They see it from all perspectives. Patient. Insurance. Govt. and Pharmaceutical sales pitches. Notice, I put Patient first. A notion that seems to have been forgotten over the years.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by jibeho]

reply to post by grover


In the article is a link, so I followed that. You mean to tell me anyone thinks this is a *bad* thing?

"Ensign’s offerings span the hot-button issues of the health care debate and beyond: He wants to ban money for the controversial community activist group ACORN, block health coverage for illegal immigrants, halt the expansion of Medicaid and replace the word “fee” with the word “tax” throughout the bill."

And this was all "just to get attention" and "derail" the bill?

Just .. wow.

Sorry, this article just seems to be a drink of Kool aid to me, I ain't buying it.

reply to post by poedxsoldiervet


Then they are in wrong line of business, because been a politician this days means dirty fat rats gouging the population for personal interest and private, many just love and use Religion to hide their true intentions.

reply to post by jibeho


Oh I agree with you! Thing is, the bill is largely overseen by the SEIU thugs the Union buddies that won't have to TAKE the Government insurance! Thats because you and me, and everyone else are already indebted to pay THEIR premiums. You know, the guys that go see Obama once or twice a week when he had only spoken to his General in Afghanistan once in 72 days?

Not only will we still have Medicare, Medicaid, etc., but Pelosi alaso wants to add a VaT tax on TOP of all that. In other countries where they have VaT taxes, it is my understanding they don't add it on top of everything else. So would this not be double, even tripple taxation?

The first thing the Government should do is stop taking money for pet projects from Medicare, they have robbed it blind, and expand Medicare and Medicaid to cover these non-covered people. If that works, 'cause as we know nothing the Government does works, THEN we can talk about some other types. Until then?

The only reason is so many bills in congress is because all the Whores in congress that are trying to pay their dues to their campaign contributors that are not the voters of the nation.

Close doors meetings without the public view because the government sleeps with the same corrupted private insurance companies that they are trying to sell us as evil.

When people in this nation is going to understand that we has lost this nation to private interest, crazy religious zealous and foreign interest.

Wake up people.