Sam Brownback

Originally posted on Citizen Orange.

Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) is starting to feel the heat of pro-migrant voters, specifically Latino voters. Tonight, Univision will air a debate in which current Florida governor and U.S. Senate nominee Charlie Crist will come out in support of the DREAM Act.  The day before yesterday, Representive Kendrick Meek (D-FL), and also a nominee for U.S. Senate, hand delivered a letter to LeMieux.  This part of Meek's letter says it all:

It is important to note that the State of Florida stands much to gain from the passage of this legislation.  By alowing certain youths an opportunity at a solid education and a pathway to citizenship, we can stop the current cycle of immigrant poverty and break the social caste systems that discourage economic and personal growth.  Passage of the legislation will also help reduce high school dropout rates, boost college attendance and increas the poll of nurses, teachers, highly qualified recruits for the U.S. armed forces, and other high-need areas of our workforce.

Further, Florida has had a standing tradition of bi-partisan support for immigration reform with Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez helping lead the way with their sponsorship of the DREAM Act.  On the House side the legislation enjoys bi-partisan support with eight Florida members currently signed on as co-sponsors.

Kendrick Meek (16 September 2010)

In Arizona, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is also facing significant pressure.  The migrant youth movement in Arizona has been hounding him and converting Republicans wherever he goes.  Currently, undocumented youth who would benefit from the DREAM Act are camped outside of his office until he passes the DREAM Act.  A few days ago, members of the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition approached his daughter, Meghan McCain, and got her to state her support for the DREAM Act:

So it goes with the rest of the twelve Republican Senators we need to support the DREAM Act as actions happen across the country. 

Seven Republicans voted for the DREAM Act in 2007: Bob Bennett (R-UT), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Richard Lugar (R-IN), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).  If they refuse to vote for the exact same bill in 2010 they will expose themselves as the "party of no" that Democrats have accused them of.  It is bigger than just the 2010 elections, though.  If the Republicans do not vote in favor of getting the DREAM Act passed, now, they will turn off an entire generation of Latino voters. 

If the Democrats are playing politics with the DREAM Act, so be it.  Moderate Republicans should not let politics get in the way of the lives of millions of migrant youth, or the lives of the voters in the communities that undocumented youth are intertwined with, for that matter.  I personally can say that as furious as I've been at Democrats for tearing apart our communities with over a thousand deportations a day, they've got me focused on Republican votes and the upcoming elections, right now, like I've never been before. 

If my senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown (R-MA), votes against the DREAM Act I will work harder than I've ever worked on anything like this before to get him replaced with a pro-migrant Senator in 2012.  As Latino migrant youth leader Carlos Saavedra said in the New York Times "Our people will remember in November.  They will be ready to reward or punish."

Yesterday evening I had the chance to interview Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family about Kansas politicians: Congressman Todd Tiahrt, Senator Sam Brownack, and Rep. Jerry Moran and their connections to C Street. He had some tough words for Rep. Tiahrt whom he outed as a member of the religious cult on "The Rachel Maddow" show earlier this week.

Jeff Sharlet is a journalist who has been writing about religion for about 15 years and is a contributing editor for Harper's and Rolling Stone. He spent the last 5 years as a research scholar at the New York Research Center for Religion and Media.

In our interview I asked Jeff about how he was able to uncover this secret conservative cult. Jeff was invited into the cult as everyone else is, though he did not personally live in the C Street house he did stay at one very simular and visited the C Street house. He was able to share with me information about the organization that goes much farther than one house in Washington.

"The C Street house is one of many, not even the main one. The main one is gorgeous mansion over looking the Potomac river with a waterfall carved into the lawn called "The Cedar" in Arlington, Virginia. Around "The Cedar" there are about twenty properties associated with "The Family" one of which is this house called "Ivanwald" where at any given time maybe a dozen to eighteen men will live. These men are "being groomed for leadership" they tend to be in their early twenties when I was there I was around thirty I was pushing the outer age limit. If you stick around long enough you might get a mentor for a congressman, you have weekly sessions with politicians and business leaders and so on. In that capacity actually living at "Ivanwald" for a little less than a month I visited the "C Street" house a couple of times. The way I got into all of this was I was invited, thats the only way you get it. I write a lot about religion, a friend of my was afraid her brother had joined a cult and asked if I would talk to him. He said "no, no really it's not a cult you've got to come see this for yourself" He invited me. I think they we're really interested in having me as a member even though I'm not really an "elite", partly because I had been invited, partly because I'm a journalist so to say an influencer, and I think the we're pretty clear that part of what interested them was the fact that my father's Jewish, so they like the idea of Jews bowing before Christ. So they brought me into "The Family" and made me a member"

When I asked Jeff about Congressman Tiahrt's involvement he told me the story about his first time visiting the "C Street" home and seeing Rep. Tiahrt speaking with "The Family" leader Doug Coe as told in his book. Jeff laughed as he told us how he "brought them (Doug Coe, and Rep. Tiahrt) hot coco" as the spoke.

Tiahrt was a short shot glass of a man, two parts flawless hair and one part teeth. He wanted to know the best way “for the Christian to win the race with the Muslim.” The Muslim, he said, has too many babies, while Americans kill too many of theirs.

Doug agreed this could be a problem. But he was more concerned that the focus on labels like “Christian” might get in the way of the congressman's prayers. Religion distracts people from Jesus, Doug said, and allows them to isolate Christ's will from their work in the world.

“People separate it out,” he warned Tiahrt. “'Oh, okay, I got religion, that's private.' As if Jesus doesn't know anything about building highways, or Social Security. We gotta take Jesus out of the religious wrapping.”

“All right, how do we do that?” Tiahrt asked.

“A covenant,” Doug answered. The congressman half-smiled, as if caught between confessing his ignorance and pretending he knew what Doug was talking about. “Like the Mafia,” Doug clarified. “Look at the strength of their bonds.” He made a fist and held it before Tiahrt's face. Tiahrt nodded, squinting. “See, for them it's honor,” Doug said. “For us, it's Jesus.”

Coe listed other men who had changed the world through the strength of the covenants they had forged with their “brothers”: “Look at Hitler,” he said. “Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Bin Laden.” The Family, of course, possessed a weapon those leaders lacked: the “total Jesus” of a brotherhood in Christ.

“That's what you get with a covenant,” said Coe. “Jesus plus nothing.”

Rep. Tiahrt denied any involvement with the "The Family" in Saturday's Kansas City Star:

Tiahrt would not respond to questions, but said in a statement he has “never lived at the C Street House, nor have I participated in any regular Bible studies or so-called counseling sessions there.”

Jeff Sharlet, as detailed in Sarah Burris' post from last week on the Everyday Citizen, begged to differ telling an intimate, and disturbing story about a "counseling session" between "The Family" leader Doug Coe and a younger Rep. Todd Tiahrt as told above.

Yesterday a special aired in Wichita called "The Christian Mafia" where Rep. Tiahrt was once again found denying any involvement with the Family and also attacked Jeff Sharlet.

"In a Statement he (Tiahrt) calls Sharlet an unscrupulous author, and says "to be clear I have never lived at the C Street house nor have I participated in any regular bible studies or so-called counseling sessions there."

In my interview with Jeff yesterday one of the many things that we covered was Tiahrt's denial of any involvement with "The Family" Jeff had much to say about Tiahrt.

"At the very best, the very best, you can say about this is it is disingenuous, here we have a documented encounter and he (Tiahrt) needs to address that. If he wants to say you know what I went to this one session and it was so crazy this guy comparing Jesus to Hitler, then I would welcome him. Instead he claims to have no connections when it is clear that he has had a connection. More over he has an interesting connection, as I know from my review of 600 boxes of "The Family" documents, they believe in a concentric theology. What this means is Christ has one message for the masses, but the masses can't handle the truth. Then there's an inner-circle and they get a different message, and then there's an even more inner-circle and they get the real truth, and that's how Christ operates the World today, he reveals a different set of truths for the masses and the elites. It's anti-Democratic and anti-Christian but that's their approach to things. The Rhetoric about a "Totalitarian of Christ" thats inner-circle stuff. Whether they decided Todd Tiahrt was such a strong figure that they wanted to jump start him into the core teachings of the group or whether he had more of relationship with them, he's got to defend that. He definitely had a connection with them and he ought to explain what it was."

With accusations of Rep. Jerry Moran and documented cases of Congressman Todd Tiahrt being involved I asked Jeff what he thought about the race for fellow Family member Sen. Brownback's U.S. Senate between the two, and whether the family would prefer one over the other or run two Family members against each other.

"I can't tell you much about Jerry Moran, this is just one of the scoops that has come out during this whole "C Street" scandal. The only people I identify as being involved I have personally witnessed, been told personally by them or documented from "The Families" own records. I've never said Moran before this, because I didn't have this information but it is research that now needs to be done... This (two family members running against each other) happens all the time actually. That is one of the ways "The Family" survives, they don't endorse candidates they try to have as much access and influence as they can. Doug Coe, the leader of the group, says the work with power where they can and build new power where they can not. Based on a lot of research on the group, Jerry Moran is more their type of candidate, their problem with Tiahrt is the guy is a buffoon. They are looking for polished people."

It appears that "The Family" is bigger than just the "C Street" scandal, what was once seen as a place of religious gathering has turned out to be a place of back room dealings and secrets. This is the time for us to demand answer from our Local, State and National politicians as to what their involvement in "The Family" is and how far this really goes.

Look for more information from my interview with Jeff Sharlet through the week.

This evening I had the chance to interview Jeff Sharlet, author of "The Family" about Kansas politicians connections to Congressman Todd Tiahrt, Senator Sam Brownack, and Rep. Jerry Moran. He had some tough words for Rep. Tiahrt who he outed as a member of the religious cult on "The Rachel Maddow" show earlier this week.

Rep. Tiahrt denied any involvement with the "The Family" in yesterday's Kansas City Star:

Tiahrt would not respond to questions, but said in a statement he has “never lived at the C Street House, nor have I participated in any regular Bible studies or so-called counseling sessions there.”

Jeff Sharlet, as detailed in Sarah Burris' post from last week, begged to differ telling an intimate, and disturbing story about a "counseling session" between "The Family" leader Doug Coe and a younger Rep. Todd Tiahrt. (Click on the link to read Sarah's post.)

I spoke to Jeff today for the interview I will be publishing throughout the week, but we did cover Tiahrt's most recent comments and I wanted to share it with you as a brief teaser:

"At the very best, the very best, you can say about this is it is disingenuous, here we have a documented encounter and he (Tiahrt) needs to address that."

I have to say, that's pretty damning at it's best.

Look out this whole week for my interview with Jeff.

There was a great story on NPR yesterday that captured my attention. Pew recently released their extensive 35,000 person survey that examines the role of faith in daily lives and in political affiliation.

Here is a video that talks about it in an overview. I would embed it but there were issues.

It does a number of things that I consider notable. First, it does a great age demographic breakdown in Chapter 3 (pdf). 68% of 18-29 year olds consider themselves to be Christians. 43% of 18-29 year olds consider themselves to be Protestant but only 22% of those consider themselves Evangelical Protestants.

What is shocking is that more people are comfortable not only church hopping but are considering themselves to be unaffiliated with any religion at all. That number is on the rise according to the survey.

"A good percentage of folks in that group tell us that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives, but they have become disassociated from institutionalized religion," he says.

Among Americans ages 18 to 29, one-in-four said he or she is not affiliated with any religion."

When I think of the image of a Protestant Evangelical I see a young family maybe late 20's early 30's. Its actually old people 60-69 year olds consider themselves Protestant Evangelicals 29% and 70+ 30%.

Secondly, it deals with some of the smaller religions. When we talk about things like Evangelicals its a pretty broad group. Are we talking about Baptist Evangelicals, or Free Evangelicals, or non-affiliated Evangelicals? Most, (41%) of Protestant Evangelical churches are Baptist with 26% being Southern Baptist. And 64% of historically African American churches that are Protestant Evangelical are considered Baptist as well but they are more National Baptist.

This data is interesting when looking at retention rates from childhood. 60% of those who were raised in largely Evangelical families continued to identify as Evangelicals. But what is super interesting, is that a majority those who were less likely to stick around with traditional churches they grew up in were more likely to get involved in another "New Protestant" church. New Protestant Evangelicals are like the Rick Warrens and Joel Osteens of the world.

What they've seen too is that faith is no longer an indicator in voting preference. Where we saw a huge turnout for Republicans among Evangelicals in 2004 that is not necessarily the case anymore, according to reporter Alex Cohen.

"The new school of younger Evangelicals is big and getting bigger and they're not necessarily going to back McCain..."

According to Professor Clyde Wilcox from Georgetown University "Mega church leaders, you know, tend to be a little conservative, but in the middle. And they're not so afraid because they think their churches are doing just fine, so they are willing to enter into dialogue with all kinds of people..."

People, including Barack Obama...."

The piece goes on to tell the story about Obama's visit to Rick Warren's church in southern California in 2006 where he and Sam Brownback had an interesting exchange. Brownback welcomed Obama to "his house" and Obama later declared "This is my house too. This is God's house..."

As has been mentioned before both by Mike and by Zach Exley from Revolution in Jesusland, this is certainly Not Your Father's Religious Right. The "new school" is eager to deal with humanitarian causes, stopping genocide, creation care (i.e. global warming), and a slew of other issues where Republicans have faltered considerably.

The more Democrats become comfortable talking about their faith in a non-trite more genuine way and developing relationships with pastors in their districts or their states the less powerful I think the major old white guys will become.

In the end the cool thing is that Millennials are not merely changing the face of politics, they are changing the evangelical movement as well or they are simply leaving churches altogether which can put more "mainstream" churches into financial instability in the next 5-10 years.

As a Kansan, I simply HAD to post this to talk about our own hometown rightwinger Sen. Brownback.

Clearly - the electorate is getting in touch with their youtubeness and embracing the fun side of the next election.

If I were technophobic MySpace would be aboard a pale horse.

By golly they’ve done it again. Myspace is now hosting its own TownMeatings for the Presidential campaigns. Across the country MySpace will hold these townhall meetings where users can submit questions via MSIM and you can watch live as the old school consultants scramble to figure out how it all works. I smell another underwear question coming on. And so help me if I hear thong from anyone (including Edwards) they’ll lose my vote. I mean - there are some things about Brownie that I just don’t want to know.