This isn't any kind of Jesus I've ever heard of

So last Saturday morning, I watched Bill Maher on DVR, as I do every Saturday morning during the Real Time with Bill Maher season. He had Jeff Sharlet on to discuss his book on the American fundamentalist movement amongst Washington's elite and its intersection with politics via "The Family." The Family is a shadow organization started to oppose FDR's New Deal and that has today infiltrated every level of politics here and abroad. At first it sounded like so much BS conspiracy theory. He kept tossing around the group's affinity for the organizational practices of Hitler, Mao and Ho Chi Minh and how they are using those to organize America politically. Still, I ordered the book. Today, I started reading it, and I'm horrified because it makes you rethink the religious right, not in its grassroots anti-gay, anti-civil rights formulation, but in it's Machiavellian, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" formulation that seeks world domination. Highly recommended reading though it's scaring the hell out of me how many high ranking politicians were a) groomed by the family b) cozy with the family or c) using the family to do things that are supposed to be done through our official government with some semblance of accountability.

Sharlet describes this secret cadre of right-wing elites who have deemed themselves "chosen" to seize control of the means of production across the world, as well as governments everywhere, in the name of Jesus. And -- via what Sharlet calls "divine diplomatic immunity" through their covenant with God -- they are allowed to do so by any means necessary (palling around with genocidal maniacs isn't a problem). This way, when Christ comes back, these soldiers for Christ will be in place to do his will. Their Jesus isn't a Jesus worried about the poor or curing lepers. This Jesus is all about the pursuit of power. It sounds nuts, but the book is a first hand account of Sharlet's living with the family in an Arlington, Virginia mansion. ... Uggh... And I'm only through chapter 1. Sharlet also blogs on religion at: http://killingthebuddha.com/.