The Family (2019) s01e01 Episode Script
Submersion
1 [birds chirping.]
[laughter, chatter.]
[guy.]
Guys, get off me! Get off me! [guys laughing.]
Hey, get off me! [man.]
Jesus said, "You have to put me before other people, and you have to put me before yourself.
" Hitler That was a demand, to be in the Nazi party.
They had to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of their father, mother, brother, sister, and their own life.
That was a covenant.
A pledge.
But the real work is invisible.
And it is invisibly spreading.
The more you can make your organization invisible, the more influence it'll have.
[man 2.]
They will accuse me of betraying their trust.
In a fundamental way, I did.
They want to be a secret, invisible organization.
I wrote two books about them.
But the story is no longer just about my experience.
[man 3.]
It took a long time before I realized just who the Family was, and the influence they have had in the leadership of our country.
This was a group with tentacles around the world, meeting with presidents, foreign leaders, to spread their view of Jesus throughout the world.
[newscaster.]
The National Prayer Breakfast: a Washington institution for Republican and Democratic presidents since Eisenhower.
[Reagan.]
I want to thank all those inside and outside of Congress who made this all possible.
[woman.]
They said he's the most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of.
He's like the Wizard of Oz.
[Reagan.]
I wish I could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is private.
[man.]
We need to reach leaders.
And then if you reach the leaders, then the whole nation will be influenced for Christ.
The notion was floated: What if we lived together? I was part of a group called C Street when I was in Washington.
[reporter.]
Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign, all embroiled in scandal Doing the Lord's work in the devil's playground.
[man.]
We meet with some really horrible people.
Dictators and murderers and thieves.
If I were a bad faith actor from another country, that is exactly the kind of meeting that I would want to exploit.
[man.]
Everybody in the room had their hands on this President-elect.
[man 2.]
This is what the Family's been waiting for.
He's God's man.
[woman.]
And they say it's about faith, but there's a shared understanding that what we're really about here is power.
[man.]
I lived with those guys, prayed with them at their headquarters at the seat of their power.
There were congressmen, senators, world leaders.
An invisible organization that had been hiding in plain sight for over 80 years.
[man 2.]
People think that there's something sinister.
There has to be a conspiracy.
It's the furthest thing from the truth.
[woman.]
It's a breathtaking enmeshment of Church and State.
[man.]
A humble example of leadership that the world has never seen.
- [man 2.]
That's a corruption of democracy.
- [man 3.]
It's the power of God.
[man 4.]
This is something that the world desperately needs.
[intro sequence plays.]
[man 1.]
Hark! All worry will be left behind.
All disappointment, too, will be gone forever.
[man 2.]
We adopted a program for a worldwide spiritual offensive.
[man 3.]
I know, as never before.
that we are all God's children.
[man 1.]
There is only one thing we can take with us through that door.
Those whom we have led to the Savior.
[man.]
Fear him.
Love him.
Submit yourself completely.
Then you will be His disciple.
[George W.
Bush.]
What we have begun, we will finish.
[man.]
One of the things I've always found interesting, even as a boy, is the idea that there are these battles between good and evil; that we are actively engaged in a war with the forces of evil every day, and that there are demonic influences in our lives, and that you have to be on guard.
So as a boy, this, on the one hand, makes the world a much scarier place.
On the other hand, it makes the world a more exciting place.
My mother died of breast cancer.
Um She was young, and I was just a kid.
[woman praying.]
She grew up in vaguely Pentecostal Christianity.
And as she lay dying, she would invite members of various faiths in to pray with her.
And I noticed some of them prayed for her salvation, that she would become a member of their faith, even in death.
And some of them prayed for her deliverance, for a reprieve from her suffering, so that she might live longer.
And that question of deliverance versus salvation, the world to come or freedom now, really struck me, and has lead me into all the stories that I've been interested in ever since.
When I was in my early 20s, I decided to write about religion.
And I was living in New York, working on this book, and I'd heard that an old friend of mine, a man named Luke, was in town.
[guys exclaiming.]
Luke was a very promising guy, from a sort of an upper-class family, and had a fine trajectory to his life.
Engaged to be married, and building a financial career.
But then he left all that and moved across the country to join, um, what his family feared was a cult.
He seemed to just drop out, just to disappear.
And so his family said, because they knew I wrote about religion, they said, "Would you meet with him and sort of see what he's up to?" This was very shortly after 9/11.
And one of the things he said he was there for He wanted to survey the ruins of secularism.
But he said, "Now we see clearly.
This is a battle between good and evil.
" He seems to be a transformed person.
And he told me about this amorphous thing that he had joined.
- He says [voices overlap.]
- "They're not Christians.
" We're followers of Jesus, and we just serve.
Who do you serve? Men who are chosen by God for leadership.
Politicians.
- Is there an organization? - No.
No church, no ministers, no rules and rituals.
You read the Bible, though, right? Sure, sure, but mostly, we work.
We rake leaves, play basketball, clean toilets.
Wait, you clean toilets for politicians? [laughs.]
I know it sounds weird - Yeah.
- but it's not.
It's just a bunch of guys living together.
It's great.
[Jeff Sharlet.]
It seemed so simple.
And then he invited me to come see it for myself.
And knowing almost nothing of it, I did.
[man.]
Do you take drugs, alcohol, or prescription medication? [Sharlet.]
You only got in by being recommended.
And had to go through a little interview at this office on Capitol Hill, with a senior aide to a Republican senator from Oklahoma at the time.
[aide.]
And do you have a girlfriend? [Sharlet.]
He asked me about my relationship with my girlfriend - [aide.]
Is she Christian? - Yeah.
[Sharlet.]
and about my parents.
Questions that I would later come to understand were sort of testing how much was I willing to renounce.
- And I answered them very honestly.
- [inaudible.]
Because you have to understand, I was in no way an investigative journalist at this time.
- [aide.]
Were you close with your mom? - I was, yeah.
[Sharlet.]
There was no stealth, no cleverness.
I told them I was a writer, and I'd been traveling around the country, trying to understand all the different ideas of Jesus, and I was interested in getting to know theirs.
[aide.]
Rent is $400.
That's with room and board.
[Sharlet.]
I think it was about a week later.
I passed the test.
I was welcome to come and just live with them and be a brother, as they put it.
A group of the brothers had come to pick me up, and they drove me across the river to Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington where a lot of intelligence community folks live.
And we went down into this cul-de-sac and past this big, beautiful Georgian mansion.
- Nice house, huh? - Yeah.
Wow.
Look, I didn't know how to explain you to the guys, so I just said that we're getting a new dude.
He's from New York.
- He's a writer.
He's Jewish.
- Half-Jewish, actually.
And he wants to know Jesus.
Know what they said? No.
"Bring him on.
" [Sharlet laughs.]
Let's go.
Everything to God in prayer Are there trials and temptations? [indistinct chatter.]
[Sharlet.]
So, I move to this house called Ivanwald.
Guys? This is, uh, Jeff.
[Sharlet.]
It was buzzing with all these guys.
Sort of a frat house kind of feel.
But no beer, no Nothing else, you know, very A pious frat house for God.
The Lord in prayer [Sharlet.]
And pretty quickly, I realized this is not what I thought it was going to be.
- Jeff.
- Hey, Jeff, welcome to Ivanwald.
- Thanks for having me.
- Yeah.
I think you're gonna enjoy staying here.
- Let's get you settled in.
- Yeah.
[man.]
If you hang out in certain sectors around Washington, you've heard about it.
There was a guy's house and a girl's house down the street, and it was this little enclave, sort of a sabbatical from regular life.
[brother hollers.]
[birds chirping, laughter.]
[Sims.]
There were guys from all over the world, all walks of life.
Religious, non-religious, questioning, skeptical.
It was raw.
It was real.
Little more like the 12 guys you read about in this this book, right? And as a young Christian working in politics, it was exactly what I needed.
Yeah.
[Sharlet.]
The regiment at Ivanwald was so precise it was relaxing.
No swearing, no drinking.
No sex, no self.
You don't waste time on newspapers.
Never watch TV.
[brother.]
steadfastly into heaven.
[Sharlet.]
You eat meat.
You study the gospels.
You play basketball.
- Yeah, here we go.
- I got outside.
[Sharlet.]
God loves a man who can sink a three-pointer.
[whooping, laughing.]
[brother.]
Hey, Jeff.
Will you lead us in prayer? [Jeff.]
Sure.
[brothers sigh.]
[sighs.]
Lord, uh, Lord God, uh, Heavenly Father.
Jesus, thank you so much for the guys here, and um, the chance to play basketball, and to to learn teamwork, and, um And learn how to fight for you.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Amen.
[light chuckle.]
Yeah.
- Bravo.
- There he is.
[Sharlet.]
The kind of storytelling that I've always found interesting is submerging of yourself in the lives of others.
Crossing into that world of belief until you're a little bit lost.
It's spiritually dangerous, in the sense that you could be converted.
And at Ivanwald, it meant seeing what happens if, for a time at least, I accepted their ideas.
"Where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
" [brother.]
It's intense, right? It's like, you can't run.
Doesn't matter where you turn, 'cause Jesus is going to be right there, waiting for you.
Jesus is smart.
[brother chuckles.]
He's going to get you.
[brother chuckles.]
Let's pray.
[Luke.]
"I call out to the Lord.
I pray to him for his favor.
" "I praise you for I am fearful" [Sharlet.]
We would pray to be broken.
We would pray to be nothing.
We would pray to learn how to obey.
[brother.]
In here, we're safe with our brothers, learning the ways of Jesus.
[Sharlet.]
They said this is our prime relationship with this Jesus.
- [brother.]
Does that make sense to you? - Yeah.
And so we would pray to crush what we would call our inner rebel.
- Jeff? - Hey.
- I see you're writing a lot down.
- Yeah.
But are you listening? I know it's a lot to take in, but this is all you really need.
It's the Bible.
It's the part that matters.
It's just Jesus.
[footsteps depart.]
[Sharlet.]
One of the things that surprised me was that though most of these men were very scripturally literate, they didn't care very much about the Bible.
There was a small book that you're given.
This little book that says "Jesus.
" That's it.
Just Jesus, nothing else.
And it was four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with the Book of Acts referred to here as Acts of Ambassadors.
And they didn't need to read too much further than that.
There's not a whole lot of theology.
There's no wrestling with God, with conscience, traditional concerns of fundamentalism.
They don't talk about the devil.
Just Jesus.
Just Jesus.
That's all.
Now, which part of Jesus was Psalm 137? 137 "O daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed, happy shall he be that taketh the little ones and dasheth them against the stones.
" Which part of Jesus would be in that? Jeff, brother, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he'll let you know when it's time.
[Sharlet.]
They said Christianity's been misunderstood.
That all the rubes out there, the suckers, they think that Christ came to preach equally to everybody.
Not so.
They said he had rings of power.
Closest are James and Peter.
Then you go out another circle, and there's the disciples.
And out here is everybody else, and they'll get the message, but they won't get it in unvarnished form.
They can't handle the truth.
Let us be nothing.
[Sharlet.]
But now we've moved from this outer ring to one of those very near inner circles.
- And we are the new chosen.
- [brother.]
Please, Jesus - [Sharlet.]
The ones that matter.
- work through us.
[Sharlet.]
As a brother in Ivanwald, as one among these new chosen, some of us were assigned to work in their headquarters called the Cedars.
We would rake leaves.
We'd clean toilets.
I thought this was so absurd, this religious movement of humbling yourself by cleaning the toilets of the powerful.
[Luke.]
Load some of these up.
[Sharlet.]
The Cedars is this big, white-pillared mansion that looks a little bit like the White House.
[camera shutter clicks.]
And it is very clearly the seat of their power, because it's where they host a lot of foreign leaders.
Wait, I recognize him.
That's that, uh, Republican Senator from Oklahoma.
[Luke.]
Yeah.
They all come here.
Left, right, Republican, Democrat.
But those terms don't reflect the movement's vision.
It's bigger than that.
We had the president of Uganda here the other day.
We prayed for him.
Yeah.
The Family has friends all over the world.
[birds chirping, leaves rustling.]
[Sharlet.]
There were African diplomats, Russian nationals, congressmen, senators, and that's when I realized: this is important.
This is not just a fascinating story.
These are powerful people.
[woman.]
Yeah, I'd heard about 'em, but it was more public lore.
They weren't neighbors that you really got to know very well.
[gate hinges creak.]
I got to know them because unfortunately one of their limousines ran over my cat.
So there there were a couple of incidents like that.
They didn't endear themselves to the neighborhood.
Hey! Carla's here, too.
- I found some correspondence.
- Oh, good.
Yes, yes.
Being involved in the neighborhood, I got the impression that you're either with them, or you're not with them.
They had a oh, a big map of the neighborhood.
This is interesting, Carla.
Did you know that they had a 3-by-4-foot map of the neighborhood with each house and a designated color, depending upon how supportive they were of the Fellowship? Green, yellow, and red.
Support, indifference, or antagonism.
- I forgot that, too.
- So it's kind of like a war map.
For a long time, I was the president of the civic association, which is why I knocked on the door one day and said, "I'd like to find out just what this is all about.
" So this very nice man gave me a tour of the big house, the Cedars.
And it was very much mid-nineteenth-century.
Beautifully restored in the style of interior decoration you'd have if you want to impress people.
And then they gave me a tour of the boys' residence hall.
And the boys are outside, landscaping and cleaning the gutters.
And the kids there said that they would continue to do this until God spoke to them and gave them their instructions for the rest of their life.
And I said, "I have to say that for a bunch of people in their 20s, these are abnormally passive.
" While I was in the boys' dormitory, one of them said, "You know, we have a Tuesday night prayer meeting.
Why don't you join us?" So I went to their Tuesday night prayer meetings, week after week after week.
What they offer their followers is a sense of belonging, a kind of unquestioning "We're with you through thick and thin.
" And there's something very alluring about that.
I wouldn't mind being accepted by a group of people unquestioningly.
[laughs.]
I only got a little glimpse of their theology, and I really don't know about their form of Christianity, or if even they are all Christians.
But when I learned how they're very unapologetically targeting the rich and powerful, I found that to be disturbing.
But I never asked any impolite questions.
I just sat and listened.
And then the following week, there was no prayer meeting.
And there was no prayer meeting ever again after that.
I think they were trying to shake me off.
[whispering loudly.]
Okay.
I know, I know.
Just try to take a deep breath.
You're home, right? I mean, wish I was there with you right now, I really do, but there's nothing I can do about it.
Because I can't just walk out of here! Be calm.
I will I'll ask them, okay? And maybe tomorrow, or No, no, you can't come here.
[crickets chirping.]
[men chatter indistinctly.]
[car engine turns over.]
- Hey.
- [car departs.]
How are you? [car door shuts.]
- Yeah, it's good to hear your voice, too.
- [car engine turns over.]
Yeah, no, I have a lot to tell you about, so Gonna have to confiscate that.
Let me call you back.
All right, bye.
I'm just kidding.
Phone calls are allowed, but they're discouraged for new brothers.
We want your full attention.
I was just, like, letting Luke have some time with his fiancee.
Luke's fiancee is a Jezebel.
She doesn't obey God.
We're accountable to each other, Jeff.
That's the brotherhood.
I'm here to make sure you don't deviate from Christ's will.
All right? Okay.
[Sharlet.]
It's important to remember, these brothers, they were not bad guys.
They were there because they wanted meaning in their life.
They wanted to feel like they were part of something valuable.
I remember one day, I'd been there for a while, and one of the brothers, he says, "Guys, I have something for you to do.
Arm wrestle.
" [indistinct chatter.]
Don't stiffen up, man.
[Luke.]
Here we go.
No, no, no.
Use your Lower, lower.
Get lower, Jeff.
[cheering continues indistinctly.]
[Sharlet.]
And then someone yells, "Fumble!" and then suddenly, they were all piling on me and, you know, hitting.
- [Jeff.]
Get off me! Get off me! - [brothers laugh.]
I said, get off me! [Sharlet.]
And at that time, I thought, "This is really strange.
" But as it turns out, there was actually a spiritual message to this.
The Jesus most of us are familiar with is tender and loving.
He's the lamb of God.
A figure of peace and gentleness.
But no, their idea of Jesus Jesus' love is strong.
As they'd said, "Jesus is not a sissy.
" And if Jesus was alive today, maybe he would be a Navy SEAL.
If Jesus was alive today, he'd be great at football.
And so this was spiritual training.
It was a kind of muscular Christianity.
And they were, as I came to understand, crushing Christ into me.
This was the initiation in which all our bodies became one.
[Jeff.]
I can't breathe! Guys, I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
Get off me.
[brothers laughing.]
[all panting.]
[brother.]
One falls down, his friend can help him up.
You're one of us now.
- Come on, circle up.
- [brother.]
Phew! [Sharlet.]
The brothers referred to our group as a family.
And they said I'd become a member of the Family.
Or the Fellowship, as it's sometimes known.
But the name is not important.
[borther whoops.]
Let's go.
[Sharlet.]
And sometimes I would make a mistake and refer to some political figure "Oh, so they're a member? Can we" "No, they are a friend of the Family.
" There was all these subtle distinctions.
And that's part of the invisibility of it.
I asked one time about the hierarchy, the organizational structure.
And they said, "Why do you keep talking about this? It's just me and you, you and you, and we are accountable to one another.
And that's just the way God wants it.
" It never occurred to me to, you know, sort of asked for an org chart.
Who are the people, how is it organized? What's the structure? And of course, the people who'd been around a long time were just really quick to say, "Don't call it anything.
" I'm like, "You gotta call it something.
" So yeah, you kinda call it the Fellowship, or you call it a group of friends following Jesus, whatever it was.
But definitions aside, you know, trying to stick a label on it, you see what's happening relationally, and where else is this happening? This is something that the world desperately needs.
Well, you're gonna have a shorter nose.
[brothers laugh.]
You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.
You have very intense eyes.
Thank you.
[older man.]
Hey, let's talk about the Old Testament.
Who would you say are its good guys? - Moses? - Noah? David.
King David, that's a good one.
What would you say made him a good guy? His faith was so strong.
King David liked to do some really bad things.
I mean, this is a guy who slept with another man's wife, Bathsheba, right? And he basically murders her husband.
And this guy is supposedly one of our heroes? Jiminy Christmas.
God likes this guy.
What is that all about? Is it because he tried? He wanted to do the right thing.
Anyone else? 'Cause he was chosen.
Yeah.
Chosen.
Interesting set of rules, isn't it? Let's say here one of you here raped three little girls, and now you're sitting here at Ivanwald.
What would I think of you? That I'm a terrible person? No, I wouldn't.
That's not why I'm here.
It's not my job to judge you.
I'm here for one thing.
What is that? Jesus? [both laugh.]
[Sharlet.]
That disturbing moment sort of crystallizes it for me.
This core idea that some people are more chosen than others.
And if you're chosen, doesn't matter what you do.
I'd still be with you.
- And then he said [voices overlap.]
- We elect our leaders, Jesus elects his.
And we warn everyone, the future king is coming.
Not just of this country but of the world.
[Sims.]
The Cedars is a set-apart place.
It's a historic place, it's a beautiful place, and it is a place that offers hospitality to the world.
[man clears throat.]
[Sims.]
There was a weekly breakfast that we were responsible for, I think we called it the ambassador's breakfast.
How many ambassadors were actually present is always, you know I think a fairly limited number.
But it was a chance for people who were in and out of various stages of public life to have breakfast together in prayer.
- Mr.
Attorney-General.
- Oh, my! It's so wonderful to see you.
[Sims.]
Folks are able to sort of let their guard down, folks in leadership positions, and have real conversations, out of the limelight.
Out of the eye of the camera.
And trusting that Jesus would would be present there.
This is impressive.
That's the former attorney-general.
[indistinct chatter.]
Matthew 11:27.
"No one knows the son except the father.
And no one knows the father except the son, and those to whom the son chooses to reveal himself.
I didn't have to ask who was in charge, because we talked about him often.
It was a guy named Doug Coe.
Know we're going to do everything we possibly can to be of help to you and your country.
[Luke.]
He hates the limelight.
It's not about him, it's about Jesus.
I wanted to give you a small gift of our small world.
[Sharlet.]
He was introduced to me as sort of like a brother, but he's like the first brother.
They said said he was a very simple man who was closer to Jesus than anybody alive, and that if Doug Coe prayed for something, it just happened.
They liked very much that nobody outside of the Family knew who Doug Coe was.
They loved telling stories about how Doug Coe just showed up in some president's office or some prime minister's house.
He was clearly a leader to this movement.
And so, you know, "Who is Doug Coe?" is what I really wanted to know at this point.
[man.]
You know what I'm concerned about? The Muslim.
The Muslim has too many babies.
We kill too many of ours.
What is the best way for Christians to win the race against the Muslims? Too many Muslim babies could be a problem.
But your focus on labels, Christian and Muslim, gets in the way of your prayers.
Organized religion distracts from Jesus.
We've got to take Jesus out of the religious wrapping.
How do we do that? It's good to have friends.
Do you know what a difference a friend can make? A friend that you can agree with? Two or three friends agree and pray.
They can do anything.
Agreement.
You're a writer.
What's that mean? Uh Unity.
Agreement means unity.
[Coe.]
Total unity.
You know, there's another word for that.
A covenant.
- Covenant.
- Hmm.
Can you think of anyone who made a covenant - with his friends? - Jesus.
Hitler.
Hitler made a covenant.
The Mafia made a covenant.
Look at the strength of their bonds.
It's a powerful thing.
You see, with them, it's honor.
With us, it's Jesus.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Osama bin Laden.
The Family possesses a weapon those leaders lacked.
The "total Jesus" of a brotherhood in Christ.
That's what you get with a covenant.
Jesus, plus nothing.
[Sharlet.]
That phrase, "Jesus plus nothing," simultaneously banal and totalitarian Well, guys, I gotta go.
leaves these congressman sitting there as if they've been given a revelation.
And it's just like other men have said.
"Doug helped bring me out of religion and into Christ.
" Doug Coe was a saintly person who put other people first.
Put a relationship with the Lord first.
And he didn't really want any accolades.
I remember, near the end of my season at Ivanwald, I got to help plan a prayer breakfast, and I remember Doug specifically saying, "Hey, Google me, and let's get any reference down.
We just I just don't want to be I don't want anybody to know, uh, and to have a sense of I'm sort of this power figure behind this.
I just, you know This is about the Lord.
This is about bringing people together.
This is about something much greater than me.
" [sighs.]
What a wonderfully reassuring thing, in a town that thrives on power and prestige and influence.
So let's be influential, but let's do it quietly.
Um So, you know, that was Doug.
Jesus Christ, when he organizes, the way he puts the organization together, he makes it invisible.
When you look at your body, you don't see your liver and your muscles and your brains hanging out.
[crowd laughs.]
What he did is he put the finest organization, and he put a beautiful skin over it.
When you look at the Mafia, they also use the same type of organization.
Everything visible [coughs.]
is transitory.
Everything invisible is permanent and lasts forever.
The more you can make your organization invisible, the more influence it'll have.
[Sharlet.]
I wrote openly in my journal, and less openly as time went on.
Things that surprised me, conversation I heard and questions that emerged.
As time went on, the journal becomes more and more of a detective's journal.
I wondered, what do they really mean by "Jesus plus nothing"? What kind of influence did they want to have in the world? I didn't know then what the ultimate vision was, but life at Ivanwald seemed to provide some clues.
One night, there was a social with our sister house, young women of this house called Potomac Point.
Some of them were really young.
Most were sort of in their mid-twenties.
There was also a few wives of the senior men around, who had these sort of den mother kind of roles.
[man.]
Careful, boys.
And they were intense.
[Sharlet.]
So obviously, there would be no sex.
- Hey.
Hello.
- Hey! - Are you going to a wedding? - You wore a tie.
- None of you guys wore ties.
- No.
- We didn't.
- [brother laughs.]
Ooh! [indistinct chatter.]
The whole organization is based around this idea of male headship.
- Hello.
- Hi.
"As Christ is to the church, so a man is to his family," and that there are these levels of hierarchy that must be observed throughout.
- mostly blueberries.
[laughs.]
- Thanks.
[Sharlet.]
It was the most gender-segregated world I'd ever lived in.
Guys, this is Jeff.
- Yeah.
Hi.
- He's new.
[Sharlet.]
And the women I got to speak to briefly would tell me that whereas the young men were being drawn into mentorship by maybe an influential senior member of the Family, maybe a politician Maybe you were going to get a junior job in a political office.
But for the women, that wasn't happening for them.
They were being mentored in service, and directed toward relationships with men of the Fellowship.
They said appropriate matches was the goal.
Hey, can I ask you something? - Yeah.
- Um You ever feel weird, like, serving men? - No.
- No? No.
They're so busy loving us, who's loving them? [Jeff.]
Hmm.
You know, God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us.
Jesus is a person.
A real person.
Not some abstract idea.
He wants you to know him.
How can you be so sure? Don't you have doubts? That's okay.
Doubt is just a prelude to joy.
[Sharlet.]
As a brother in Ivanwald, we were chosen.
Me, not you.
You might be a good person, but you're not a brother.
- You're not chosen.
I am.
- I can't breathe! That's what you got.
What did you give up? You gave up those who were not chosen.
Other relationships.
So you had the hierarchy, the concentric rings.
At the middle is Jesus.
And next is your cell, your brothers, and we are only accountable to one another.
And then after that, your family, your children, your parents, your partner.
After that.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao.
That kind of absolute loyalty, that was the goal.
[Coe.]
I've seen pictures of the young men in the Red Guard, 20 years, 20, 22 years old, in China.
A table laid out like a butcher table.
They would bring in this young man's mother and father.
Lay her on the table, with a basket on the end.
He would take an axe and cut her head off.
The Viet Cong.
Hitler.
Mussolini, with the Blackshirts.
The one thing in every one of their oaths is we pledge to be totally unified, even to death.
That was a covenant, a pledge.
[Sharlet.]
After I spent many days there, I had come to feel some affection for the brothers, and I was feeling more a part of it.
[brothers laughing.]
[Sharlet.]
I had gone not with any plan of how long exactly I was going to stay.
You know, sort of depending on what I found.
[birds chirping.]
I'd seen all these different, and in some cases outlandish, Jesuses.
But Ivanwald was really the most unusual thing I'd encountered.
[indistinct chatter.]
And I thought, "Wow, look at these guys, they're always thinking about one another.
There is a kindness here.
" And so I wasn't ready to leave.
Then one day, Luke, the man who brought me into it His fiance had apparently been sexually assaulted and of course his first inclination was, "I'm on the next plane.
I have to go see her.
" The brothers went, "No.
No.
We're your brothers.
Your loyalty is to us.
And why was she sexually assaulted? Where was she that this happened to her? What was she doing?" But Luke went anyways, and they were so contemptuous of that.
They said Luke was a loser.
He chose her rather than playing sports with his brothers.
That made him a loser.
You Jesus before everything else.
It seemed so simple.
It's not.
You're doing the right thing.
Hope it works out for you, Jeff.
I really do.
I know you still have a lot of questions.
You ask a lot of fucking questions.
[chuckles.]
Yeah.
This might answer some of them.
[zips bag.]
Is there more of this? Yeah, a lot more.
For an invisible organization, they sure do have a lot of files.
Hmm.
All right, man.
- I'm out.
- Hey.
- Good luck.
- Yeah, safe travels.
[Sharlet.]
So I started reading the history of what I've gotten involved in.
Not just a Christian organization, but a fundamentally anti-democratic movement at the heart of religious conservatism in the United States for 70 years.
"We desire to see a leadership led by God, leaders of all levels of society" And what I discovered was that this organization that denied it was an organization was really one of the greatest networks of powerful figures in the world.
[overlapping, echoing voices.]
Uganda, Romania, Nigeria [Coe.]
This is the beginning of a worldwide spiritual offensive.
It began with a meeting of 19 business executives [Sharlet.]
Submerge the institutional image.
[Coe.]
No organization, no membership, - no publicity.
- [Sharlet.]
Jesus infiltrating the world.
[Coe.]
Only God can know the measure of influence we have had [Sharlet.]
Chosen.
the man who will commit himself a challenge to be a true - We desire to see a leadership led by God.
- [Sharlet.]
Chosen.
[Coe.]
Leaders of all levels of society - [overlapping.]
led by God.
- Chosen True disciples [Coe.]
Much has been accomplished.
Brothers committed to Christ Much more must be accomplished.
The enemy is still at large.
[outro song playing.]
[laughter, chatter.]
[guy.]
Guys, get off me! Get off me! [guys laughing.]
Hey, get off me! [man.]
Jesus said, "You have to put me before other people, and you have to put me before yourself.
" Hitler That was a demand, to be in the Nazi party.
They had to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of their father, mother, brother, sister, and their own life.
That was a covenant.
A pledge.
But the real work is invisible.
And it is invisibly spreading.
The more you can make your organization invisible, the more influence it'll have.
[man 2.]
They will accuse me of betraying their trust.
In a fundamental way, I did.
They want to be a secret, invisible organization.
I wrote two books about them.
But the story is no longer just about my experience.
[man 3.]
It took a long time before I realized just who the Family was, and the influence they have had in the leadership of our country.
This was a group with tentacles around the world, meeting with presidents, foreign leaders, to spread their view of Jesus throughout the world.
[newscaster.]
The National Prayer Breakfast: a Washington institution for Republican and Democratic presidents since Eisenhower.
[Reagan.]
I want to thank all those inside and outside of Congress who made this all possible.
[woman.]
They said he's the most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of.
He's like the Wizard of Oz.
[Reagan.]
I wish I could say more about it, but it's working precisely because it is private.
[man.]
We need to reach leaders.
And then if you reach the leaders, then the whole nation will be influenced for Christ.
The notion was floated: What if we lived together? I was part of a group called C Street when I was in Washington.
[reporter.]
Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign, all embroiled in scandal Doing the Lord's work in the devil's playground.
[man.]
We meet with some really horrible people.
Dictators and murderers and thieves.
If I were a bad faith actor from another country, that is exactly the kind of meeting that I would want to exploit.
[man.]
Everybody in the room had their hands on this President-elect.
[man 2.]
This is what the Family's been waiting for.
He's God's man.
[woman.]
And they say it's about faith, but there's a shared understanding that what we're really about here is power.
[man.]
I lived with those guys, prayed with them at their headquarters at the seat of their power.
There were congressmen, senators, world leaders.
An invisible organization that had been hiding in plain sight for over 80 years.
[man 2.]
People think that there's something sinister.
There has to be a conspiracy.
It's the furthest thing from the truth.
[woman.]
It's a breathtaking enmeshment of Church and State.
[man.]
A humble example of leadership that the world has never seen.
- [man 2.]
That's a corruption of democracy.
- [man 3.]
It's the power of God.
[man 4.]
This is something that the world desperately needs.
[intro sequence plays.]
[man 1.]
Hark! All worry will be left behind.
All disappointment, too, will be gone forever.
[man 2.]
We adopted a program for a worldwide spiritual offensive.
[man 3.]
I know, as never before.
that we are all God's children.
[man 1.]
There is only one thing we can take with us through that door.
Those whom we have led to the Savior.
[man.]
Fear him.
Love him.
Submit yourself completely.
Then you will be His disciple.
[George W.
Bush.]
What we have begun, we will finish.
[man.]
One of the things I've always found interesting, even as a boy, is the idea that there are these battles between good and evil; that we are actively engaged in a war with the forces of evil every day, and that there are demonic influences in our lives, and that you have to be on guard.
So as a boy, this, on the one hand, makes the world a much scarier place.
On the other hand, it makes the world a more exciting place.
My mother died of breast cancer.
Um She was young, and I was just a kid.
[woman praying.]
She grew up in vaguely Pentecostal Christianity.
And as she lay dying, she would invite members of various faiths in to pray with her.
And I noticed some of them prayed for her salvation, that she would become a member of their faith, even in death.
And some of them prayed for her deliverance, for a reprieve from her suffering, so that she might live longer.
And that question of deliverance versus salvation, the world to come or freedom now, really struck me, and has lead me into all the stories that I've been interested in ever since.
When I was in my early 20s, I decided to write about religion.
And I was living in New York, working on this book, and I'd heard that an old friend of mine, a man named Luke, was in town.
[guys exclaiming.]
Luke was a very promising guy, from a sort of an upper-class family, and had a fine trajectory to his life.
Engaged to be married, and building a financial career.
But then he left all that and moved across the country to join, um, what his family feared was a cult.
He seemed to just drop out, just to disappear.
And so his family said, because they knew I wrote about religion, they said, "Would you meet with him and sort of see what he's up to?" This was very shortly after 9/11.
And one of the things he said he was there for He wanted to survey the ruins of secularism.
But he said, "Now we see clearly.
This is a battle between good and evil.
" He seems to be a transformed person.
And he told me about this amorphous thing that he had joined.
- He says [voices overlap.]
- "They're not Christians.
" We're followers of Jesus, and we just serve.
Who do you serve? Men who are chosen by God for leadership.
Politicians.
- Is there an organization? - No.
No church, no ministers, no rules and rituals.
You read the Bible, though, right? Sure, sure, but mostly, we work.
We rake leaves, play basketball, clean toilets.
Wait, you clean toilets for politicians? [laughs.]
I know it sounds weird - Yeah.
- but it's not.
It's just a bunch of guys living together.
It's great.
[Jeff Sharlet.]
It seemed so simple.
And then he invited me to come see it for myself.
And knowing almost nothing of it, I did.
[man.]
Do you take drugs, alcohol, or prescription medication? [Sharlet.]
You only got in by being recommended.
And had to go through a little interview at this office on Capitol Hill, with a senior aide to a Republican senator from Oklahoma at the time.
[aide.]
And do you have a girlfriend? [Sharlet.]
He asked me about my relationship with my girlfriend - [aide.]
Is she Christian? - Yeah.
[Sharlet.]
and about my parents.
Questions that I would later come to understand were sort of testing how much was I willing to renounce.
- And I answered them very honestly.
- [inaudible.]
Because you have to understand, I was in no way an investigative journalist at this time.
- [aide.]
Were you close with your mom? - I was, yeah.
[Sharlet.]
There was no stealth, no cleverness.
I told them I was a writer, and I'd been traveling around the country, trying to understand all the different ideas of Jesus, and I was interested in getting to know theirs.
[aide.]
Rent is $400.
That's with room and board.
[Sharlet.]
I think it was about a week later.
I passed the test.
I was welcome to come and just live with them and be a brother, as they put it.
A group of the brothers had come to pick me up, and they drove me across the river to Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington where a lot of intelligence community folks live.
And we went down into this cul-de-sac and past this big, beautiful Georgian mansion.
- Nice house, huh? - Yeah.
Wow.
Look, I didn't know how to explain you to the guys, so I just said that we're getting a new dude.
He's from New York.
- He's a writer.
He's Jewish.
- Half-Jewish, actually.
And he wants to know Jesus.
Know what they said? No.
"Bring him on.
" [Sharlet laughs.]
Let's go.
Everything to God in prayer Are there trials and temptations? [indistinct chatter.]
[Sharlet.]
So, I move to this house called Ivanwald.
Guys? This is, uh, Jeff.
[Sharlet.]
It was buzzing with all these guys.
Sort of a frat house kind of feel.
But no beer, no Nothing else, you know, very A pious frat house for God.
The Lord in prayer [Sharlet.]
And pretty quickly, I realized this is not what I thought it was going to be.
- Jeff.
- Hey, Jeff, welcome to Ivanwald.
- Thanks for having me.
- Yeah.
I think you're gonna enjoy staying here.
- Let's get you settled in.
- Yeah.
[man.]
If you hang out in certain sectors around Washington, you've heard about it.
There was a guy's house and a girl's house down the street, and it was this little enclave, sort of a sabbatical from regular life.
[brother hollers.]
[birds chirping, laughter.]
[Sims.]
There were guys from all over the world, all walks of life.
Religious, non-religious, questioning, skeptical.
It was raw.
It was real.
Little more like the 12 guys you read about in this this book, right? And as a young Christian working in politics, it was exactly what I needed.
Yeah.
[Sharlet.]
The regiment at Ivanwald was so precise it was relaxing.
No swearing, no drinking.
No sex, no self.
You don't waste time on newspapers.
Never watch TV.
[brother.]
steadfastly into heaven.
[Sharlet.]
You eat meat.
You study the gospels.
You play basketball.
- Yeah, here we go.
- I got outside.
[Sharlet.]
God loves a man who can sink a three-pointer.
[whooping, laughing.]
[brother.]
Hey, Jeff.
Will you lead us in prayer? [Jeff.]
Sure.
[brothers sigh.]
[sighs.]
Lord, uh, Lord God, uh, Heavenly Father.
Jesus, thank you so much for the guys here, and um, the chance to play basketball, and to to learn teamwork, and, um And learn how to fight for you.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Amen.
[light chuckle.]
Yeah.
- Bravo.
- There he is.
[Sharlet.]
The kind of storytelling that I've always found interesting is submerging of yourself in the lives of others.
Crossing into that world of belief until you're a little bit lost.
It's spiritually dangerous, in the sense that you could be converted.
And at Ivanwald, it meant seeing what happens if, for a time at least, I accepted their ideas.
"Where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
" [brother.]
It's intense, right? It's like, you can't run.
Doesn't matter where you turn, 'cause Jesus is going to be right there, waiting for you.
Jesus is smart.
[brother chuckles.]
He's going to get you.
[brother chuckles.]
Let's pray.
[Luke.]
"I call out to the Lord.
I pray to him for his favor.
" "I praise you for I am fearful" [Sharlet.]
We would pray to be broken.
We would pray to be nothing.
We would pray to learn how to obey.
[brother.]
In here, we're safe with our brothers, learning the ways of Jesus.
[Sharlet.]
They said this is our prime relationship with this Jesus.
- [brother.]
Does that make sense to you? - Yeah.
And so we would pray to crush what we would call our inner rebel.
- Jeff? - Hey.
- I see you're writing a lot down.
- Yeah.
But are you listening? I know it's a lot to take in, but this is all you really need.
It's the Bible.
It's the part that matters.
It's just Jesus.
[footsteps depart.]
[Sharlet.]
One of the things that surprised me was that though most of these men were very scripturally literate, they didn't care very much about the Bible.
There was a small book that you're given.
This little book that says "Jesus.
" That's it.
Just Jesus, nothing else.
And it was four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with the Book of Acts referred to here as Acts of Ambassadors.
And they didn't need to read too much further than that.
There's not a whole lot of theology.
There's no wrestling with God, with conscience, traditional concerns of fundamentalism.
They don't talk about the devil.
Just Jesus.
Just Jesus.
That's all.
Now, which part of Jesus was Psalm 137? 137 "O daughter of Babylon who are to be destroyed, happy shall he be that taketh the little ones and dasheth them against the stones.
" Which part of Jesus would be in that? Jeff, brother, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he'll let you know when it's time.
[Sharlet.]
They said Christianity's been misunderstood.
That all the rubes out there, the suckers, they think that Christ came to preach equally to everybody.
Not so.
They said he had rings of power.
Closest are James and Peter.
Then you go out another circle, and there's the disciples.
And out here is everybody else, and they'll get the message, but they won't get it in unvarnished form.
They can't handle the truth.
Let us be nothing.
[Sharlet.]
But now we've moved from this outer ring to one of those very near inner circles.
- And we are the new chosen.
- [brother.]
Please, Jesus - [Sharlet.]
The ones that matter.
- work through us.
[Sharlet.]
As a brother in Ivanwald, as one among these new chosen, some of us were assigned to work in their headquarters called the Cedars.
We would rake leaves.
We'd clean toilets.
I thought this was so absurd, this religious movement of humbling yourself by cleaning the toilets of the powerful.
[Luke.]
Load some of these up.
[Sharlet.]
The Cedars is this big, white-pillared mansion that looks a little bit like the White House.
[camera shutter clicks.]
And it is very clearly the seat of their power, because it's where they host a lot of foreign leaders.
Wait, I recognize him.
That's that, uh, Republican Senator from Oklahoma.
[Luke.]
Yeah.
They all come here.
Left, right, Republican, Democrat.
But those terms don't reflect the movement's vision.
It's bigger than that.
We had the president of Uganda here the other day.
We prayed for him.
Yeah.
The Family has friends all over the world.
[birds chirping, leaves rustling.]
[Sharlet.]
There were African diplomats, Russian nationals, congressmen, senators, and that's when I realized: this is important.
This is not just a fascinating story.
These are powerful people.
[woman.]
Yeah, I'd heard about 'em, but it was more public lore.
They weren't neighbors that you really got to know very well.
[gate hinges creak.]
I got to know them because unfortunately one of their limousines ran over my cat.
So there there were a couple of incidents like that.
They didn't endear themselves to the neighborhood.
Hey! Carla's here, too.
- I found some correspondence.
- Oh, good.
Yes, yes.
Being involved in the neighborhood, I got the impression that you're either with them, or you're not with them.
They had a oh, a big map of the neighborhood.
This is interesting, Carla.
Did you know that they had a 3-by-4-foot map of the neighborhood with each house and a designated color, depending upon how supportive they were of the Fellowship? Green, yellow, and red.
Support, indifference, or antagonism.
- I forgot that, too.
- So it's kind of like a war map.
For a long time, I was the president of the civic association, which is why I knocked on the door one day and said, "I'd like to find out just what this is all about.
" So this very nice man gave me a tour of the big house, the Cedars.
And it was very much mid-nineteenth-century.
Beautifully restored in the style of interior decoration you'd have if you want to impress people.
And then they gave me a tour of the boys' residence hall.
And the boys are outside, landscaping and cleaning the gutters.
And the kids there said that they would continue to do this until God spoke to them and gave them their instructions for the rest of their life.
And I said, "I have to say that for a bunch of people in their 20s, these are abnormally passive.
" While I was in the boys' dormitory, one of them said, "You know, we have a Tuesday night prayer meeting.
Why don't you join us?" So I went to their Tuesday night prayer meetings, week after week after week.
What they offer their followers is a sense of belonging, a kind of unquestioning "We're with you through thick and thin.
" And there's something very alluring about that.
I wouldn't mind being accepted by a group of people unquestioningly.
[laughs.]
I only got a little glimpse of their theology, and I really don't know about their form of Christianity, or if even they are all Christians.
But when I learned how they're very unapologetically targeting the rich and powerful, I found that to be disturbing.
But I never asked any impolite questions.
I just sat and listened.
And then the following week, there was no prayer meeting.
And there was no prayer meeting ever again after that.
I think they were trying to shake me off.
[whispering loudly.]
Okay.
I know, I know.
Just try to take a deep breath.
You're home, right? I mean, wish I was there with you right now, I really do, but there's nothing I can do about it.
Because I can't just walk out of here! Be calm.
I will I'll ask them, okay? And maybe tomorrow, or No, no, you can't come here.
[crickets chirping.]
[men chatter indistinctly.]
[car engine turns over.]
- Hey.
- [car departs.]
How are you? [car door shuts.]
- Yeah, it's good to hear your voice, too.
- [car engine turns over.]
Yeah, no, I have a lot to tell you about, so Gonna have to confiscate that.
Let me call you back.
All right, bye.
I'm just kidding.
Phone calls are allowed, but they're discouraged for new brothers.
We want your full attention.
I was just, like, letting Luke have some time with his fiancee.
Luke's fiancee is a Jezebel.
She doesn't obey God.
We're accountable to each other, Jeff.
That's the brotherhood.
I'm here to make sure you don't deviate from Christ's will.
All right? Okay.
[Sharlet.]
It's important to remember, these brothers, they were not bad guys.
They were there because they wanted meaning in their life.
They wanted to feel like they were part of something valuable.
I remember one day, I'd been there for a while, and one of the brothers, he says, "Guys, I have something for you to do.
Arm wrestle.
" [indistinct chatter.]
Don't stiffen up, man.
[Luke.]
Here we go.
No, no, no.
Use your Lower, lower.
Get lower, Jeff.
[cheering continues indistinctly.]
[Sharlet.]
And then someone yells, "Fumble!" and then suddenly, they were all piling on me and, you know, hitting.
- [Jeff.]
Get off me! Get off me! - [brothers laugh.]
I said, get off me! [Sharlet.]
And at that time, I thought, "This is really strange.
" But as it turns out, there was actually a spiritual message to this.
The Jesus most of us are familiar with is tender and loving.
He's the lamb of God.
A figure of peace and gentleness.
But no, their idea of Jesus Jesus' love is strong.
As they'd said, "Jesus is not a sissy.
" And if Jesus was alive today, maybe he would be a Navy SEAL.
If Jesus was alive today, he'd be great at football.
And so this was spiritual training.
It was a kind of muscular Christianity.
And they were, as I came to understand, crushing Christ into me.
This was the initiation in which all our bodies became one.
[Jeff.]
I can't breathe! Guys, I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
Get off me.
[brothers laughing.]
[all panting.]
[brother.]
One falls down, his friend can help him up.
You're one of us now.
- Come on, circle up.
- [brother.]
Phew! [Sharlet.]
The brothers referred to our group as a family.
And they said I'd become a member of the Family.
Or the Fellowship, as it's sometimes known.
But the name is not important.
[borther whoops.]
Let's go.
[Sharlet.]
And sometimes I would make a mistake and refer to some political figure "Oh, so they're a member? Can we" "No, they are a friend of the Family.
" There was all these subtle distinctions.
And that's part of the invisibility of it.
I asked one time about the hierarchy, the organizational structure.
And they said, "Why do you keep talking about this? It's just me and you, you and you, and we are accountable to one another.
And that's just the way God wants it.
" It never occurred to me to, you know, sort of asked for an org chart.
Who are the people, how is it organized? What's the structure? And of course, the people who'd been around a long time were just really quick to say, "Don't call it anything.
" I'm like, "You gotta call it something.
" So yeah, you kinda call it the Fellowship, or you call it a group of friends following Jesus, whatever it was.
But definitions aside, you know, trying to stick a label on it, you see what's happening relationally, and where else is this happening? This is something that the world desperately needs.
Well, you're gonna have a shorter nose.
[brothers laugh.]
You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.
You have very intense eyes.
Thank you.
[older man.]
Hey, let's talk about the Old Testament.
Who would you say are its good guys? - Moses? - Noah? David.
King David, that's a good one.
What would you say made him a good guy? His faith was so strong.
King David liked to do some really bad things.
I mean, this is a guy who slept with another man's wife, Bathsheba, right? And he basically murders her husband.
And this guy is supposedly one of our heroes? Jiminy Christmas.
God likes this guy.
What is that all about? Is it because he tried? He wanted to do the right thing.
Anyone else? 'Cause he was chosen.
Yeah.
Chosen.
Interesting set of rules, isn't it? Let's say here one of you here raped three little girls, and now you're sitting here at Ivanwald.
What would I think of you? That I'm a terrible person? No, I wouldn't.
That's not why I'm here.
It's not my job to judge you.
I'm here for one thing.
What is that? Jesus? [both laugh.]
[Sharlet.]
That disturbing moment sort of crystallizes it for me.
This core idea that some people are more chosen than others.
And if you're chosen, doesn't matter what you do.
I'd still be with you.
- And then he said [voices overlap.]
- We elect our leaders, Jesus elects his.
And we warn everyone, the future king is coming.
Not just of this country but of the world.
[Sims.]
The Cedars is a set-apart place.
It's a historic place, it's a beautiful place, and it is a place that offers hospitality to the world.
[man clears throat.]
[Sims.]
There was a weekly breakfast that we were responsible for, I think we called it the ambassador's breakfast.
How many ambassadors were actually present is always, you know I think a fairly limited number.
But it was a chance for people who were in and out of various stages of public life to have breakfast together in prayer.
- Mr.
Attorney-General.
- Oh, my! It's so wonderful to see you.
[Sims.]
Folks are able to sort of let their guard down, folks in leadership positions, and have real conversations, out of the limelight.
Out of the eye of the camera.
And trusting that Jesus would would be present there.
This is impressive.
That's the former attorney-general.
[indistinct chatter.]
Matthew 11:27.
"No one knows the son except the father.
And no one knows the father except the son, and those to whom the son chooses to reveal himself.
I didn't have to ask who was in charge, because we talked about him often.
It was a guy named Doug Coe.
Know we're going to do everything we possibly can to be of help to you and your country.
[Luke.]
He hates the limelight.
It's not about him, it's about Jesus.
I wanted to give you a small gift of our small world.
[Sharlet.]
He was introduced to me as sort of like a brother, but he's like the first brother.
They said said he was a very simple man who was closer to Jesus than anybody alive, and that if Doug Coe prayed for something, it just happened.
They liked very much that nobody outside of the Family knew who Doug Coe was.
They loved telling stories about how Doug Coe just showed up in some president's office or some prime minister's house.
He was clearly a leader to this movement.
And so, you know, "Who is Doug Coe?" is what I really wanted to know at this point.
[man.]
You know what I'm concerned about? The Muslim.
The Muslim has too many babies.
We kill too many of ours.
What is the best way for Christians to win the race against the Muslims? Too many Muslim babies could be a problem.
But your focus on labels, Christian and Muslim, gets in the way of your prayers.
Organized religion distracts from Jesus.
We've got to take Jesus out of the religious wrapping.
How do we do that? It's good to have friends.
Do you know what a difference a friend can make? A friend that you can agree with? Two or three friends agree and pray.
They can do anything.
Agreement.
You're a writer.
What's that mean? Uh Unity.
Agreement means unity.
[Coe.]
Total unity.
You know, there's another word for that.
A covenant.
- Covenant.
- Hmm.
Can you think of anyone who made a covenant - with his friends? - Jesus.
Hitler.
Hitler made a covenant.
The Mafia made a covenant.
Look at the strength of their bonds.
It's a powerful thing.
You see, with them, it's honor.
With us, it's Jesus.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Osama bin Laden.
The Family possesses a weapon those leaders lacked.
The "total Jesus" of a brotherhood in Christ.
That's what you get with a covenant.
Jesus, plus nothing.
[Sharlet.]
That phrase, "Jesus plus nothing," simultaneously banal and totalitarian Well, guys, I gotta go.
leaves these congressman sitting there as if they've been given a revelation.
And it's just like other men have said.
"Doug helped bring me out of religion and into Christ.
" Doug Coe was a saintly person who put other people first.
Put a relationship with the Lord first.
And he didn't really want any accolades.
I remember, near the end of my season at Ivanwald, I got to help plan a prayer breakfast, and I remember Doug specifically saying, "Hey, Google me, and let's get any reference down.
We just I just don't want to be I don't want anybody to know, uh, and to have a sense of I'm sort of this power figure behind this.
I just, you know This is about the Lord.
This is about bringing people together.
This is about something much greater than me.
" [sighs.]
What a wonderfully reassuring thing, in a town that thrives on power and prestige and influence.
So let's be influential, but let's do it quietly.
Um So, you know, that was Doug.
Jesus Christ, when he organizes, the way he puts the organization together, he makes it invisible.
When you look at your body, you don't see your liver and your muscles and your brains hanging out.
[crowd laughs.]
What he did is he put the finest organization, and he put a beautiful skin over it.
When you look at the Mafia, they also use the same type of organization.
Everything visible [coughs.]
is transitory.
Everything invisible is permanent and lasts forever.
The more you can make your organization invisible, the more influence it'll have.
[Sharlet.]
I wrote openly in my journal, and less openly as time went on.
Things that surprised me, conversation I heard and questions that emerged.
As time went on, the journal becomes more and more of a detective's journal.
I wondered, what do they really mean by "Jesus plus nothing"? What kind of influence did they want to have in the world? I didn't know then what the ultimate vision was, but life at Ivanwald seemed to provide some clues.
One night, there was a social with our sister house, young women of this house called Potomac Point.
Some of them were really young.
Most were sort of in their mid-twenties.
There was also a few wives of the senior men around, who had these sort of den mother kind of roles.
[man.]
Careful, boys.
And they were intense.
[Sharlet.]
So obviously, there would be no sex.
- Hey.
Hello.
- Hey! - Are you going to a wedding? - You wore a tie.
- None of you guys wore ties.
- No.
- We didn't.
- [brother laughs.]
Ooh! [indistinct chatter.]
The whole organization is based around this idea of male headship.
- Hello.
- Hi.
"As Christ is to the church, so a man is to his family," and that there are these levels of hierarchy that must be observed throughout.
- mostly blueberries.
[laughs.]
- Thanks.
[Sharlet.]
It was the most gender-segregated world I'd ever lived in.
Guys, this is Jeff.
- Yeah.
Hi.
- He's new.
[Sharlet.]
And the women I got to speak to briefly would tell me that whereas the young men were being drawn into mentorship by maybe an influential senior member of the Family, maybe a politician Maybe you were going to get a junior job in a political office.
But for the women, that wasn't happening for them.
They were being mentored in service, and directed toward relationships with men of the Fellowship.
They said appropriate matches was the goal.
Hey, can I ask you something? - Yeah.
- Um You ever feel weird, like, serving men? - No.
- No? No.
They're so busy loving us, who's loving them? [Jeff.]
Hmm.
You know, God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us.
Jesus is a person.
A real person.
Not some abstract idea.
He wants you to know him.
How can you be so sure? Don't you have doubts? That's okay.
Doubt is just a prelude to joy.
[Sharlet.]
As a brother in Ivanwald, we were chosen.
Me, not you.
You might be a good person, but you're not a brother.
- You're not chosen.
I am.
- I can't breathe! That's what you got.
What did you give up? You gave up those who were not chosen.
Other relationships.
So you had the hierarchy, the concentric rings.
At the middle is Jesus.
And next is your cell, your brothers, and we are only accountable to one another.
And then after that, your family, your children, your parents, your partner.
After that.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao.
That kind of absolute loyalty, that was the goal.
[Coe.]
I've seen pictures of the young men in the Red Guard, 20 years, 20, 22 years old, in China.
A table laid out like a butcher table.
They would bring in this young man's mother and father.
Lay her on the table, with a basket on the end.
He would take an axe and cut her head off.
The Viet Cong.
Hitler.
Mussolini, with the Blackshirts.
The one thing in every one of their oaths is we pledge to be totally unified, even to death.
That was a covenant, a pledge.
[Sharlet.]
After I spent many days there, I had come to feel some affection for the brothers, and I was feeling more a part of it.
[brothers laughing.]
[Sharlet.]
I had gone not with any plan of how long exactly I was going to stay.
You know, sort of depending on what I found.
[birds chirping.]
I'd seen all these different, and in some cases outlandish, Jesuses.
But Ivanwald was really the most unusual thing I'd encountered.
[indistinct chatter.]
And I thought, "Wow, look at these guys, they're always thinking about one another.
There is a kindness here.
" And so I wasn't ready to leave.
Then one day, Luke, the man who brought me into it His fiance had apparently been sexually assaulted and of course his first inclination was, "I'm on the next plane.
I have to go see her.
" The brothers went, "No.
No.
We're your brothers.
Your loyalty is to us.
And why was she sexually assaulted? Where was she that this happened to her? What was she doing?" But Luke went anyways, and they were so contemptuous of that.
They said Luke was a loser.
He chose her rather than playing sports with his brothers.
That made him a loser.
You Jesus before everything else.
It seemed so simple.
It's not.
You're doing the right thing.
Hope it works out for you, Jeff.
I really do.
I know you still have a lot of questions.
You ask a lot of fucking questions.
[chuckles.]
Yeah.
This might answer some of them.
[zips bag.]
Is there more of this? Yeah, a lot more.
For an invisible organization, they sure do have a lot of files.
Hmm.
All right, man.
- I'm out.
- Hey.
- Good luck.
- Yeah, safe travels.
[Sharlet.]
So I started reading the history of what I've gotten involved in.
Not just a Christian organization, but a fundamentally anti-democratic movement at the heart of religious conservatism in the United States for 70 years.
"We desire to see a leadership led by God, leaders of all levels of society" And what I discovered was that this organization that denied it was an organization was really one of the greatest networks of powerful figures in the world.
[overlapping, echoing voices.]
Uganda, Romania, Nigeria [Coe.]
This is the beginning of a worldwide spiritual offensive.
It began with a meeting of 19 business executives [Sharlet.]
Submerge the institutional image.
[Coe.]
No organization, no membership, - no publicity.
- [Sharlet.]
Jesus infiltrating the world.
[Coe.]
Only God can know the measure of influence we have had [Sharlet.]
Chosen.
the man who will commit himself a challenge to be a true - We desire to see a leadership led by God.
- [Sharlet.]
Chosen.
[Coe.]
Leaders of all levels of society - [overlapping.]
led by God.
- Chosen True disciples [Coe.]
Much has been accomplished.
Brothers committed to Christ Much more must be accomplished.
The enemy is still at large.
[outro song playing.]