Shadowy Christian Group Tied to Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Will Attend National Prayer Breakfast:

[amborin]

At National Prayer Breakfast, Obama to Address Shadowy Christian Group Tied to Uganda's 'Kill the Gays' Bill

February 1, 2010 |

The National Prayer Breakfast, an annual Washington exercise attended by politicians of all stripes who wish to demonstrate their piety, is one of those must-go events for the U.S. president, or so the conventional wisdom has it. Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has attended.

But the prayer breakfast, however benign it may seem on the surface, is really a display of power for an underground religious group that often shapes U.S. foreign policy in ways not easy to see, and sometimes at odds with the policy goals of the government. This Thursday, President Barack Obama is expected to address the gathering, as he did last year. But if there was ever a year for the president to have a sudden scheduling conflict, it's this one.

The breakfast draws leaders from all sectors of society, including a hefty contingent from the military. It's a coveted invitation. The event is usually the only public sighting of its sponsor, the shadowy right-wing religious network known as the Family. Around the periphery of the event, the Family does what it does best: bringing together leaders from developing countries of special concern to U.S. business interests with members of Congress and people in government who hold the keys to the foreign aid kingdom.

"This is the bullying tactics of banality," said Jeff Sharlet, author of the definitive book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, in an interview with AlterNet in December. "This is not about a banality of evil, but the evil of banality. The breakfast itself is a very bland event, but it's surrounded by this week-long lobbying festival which isn't visible."

Introductions are made and meetings arranged for foreign dignitaries through the auspices of the Family, led for the past 40 years by Washington insider Doug Coe and comprising powerful men from all over the world, including a number of prominent members of Congress. That group of powerful men includes two who are behind a controversial anti-gay law in Uganda, proposed by two politicians with strong ties to the Family. The law carries the death penalty for what it calls "aggravated homosexuality."


The Prayer Breakfast is closed to the media, except for those in the press corps who travel with the president. "It's a private event," explained Joe Mitchell of the National Prayer Breakfast Committee via a voice mail left in response to AlterNet's request for access. Invitations to the Prayer Breakfast go out on congressional letterhead, Sharlet said, even though the stated purpose of the gathering is distinctly Christian and not ecumenical -- a violation of the spirit of the First Amendment. "So, too bad Muslims, too bad, Jews -- this event is not for you," Sharlet said.


snip

http://www.alternet.org/news/145366/at_national_prayer_breakfast%2C_obama_to_address_shadowy_christian_group_tied_to_uganda%27s_%27kill_the_gays%27_bill

[annabanana]

1. Shadowy Christian Group Tied to Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill Will *HOST* National Prayer Breakfast:

It's their party. It's always their party, has been for decades.

[jkshaw]

2. Didn't Rachel Maddow say tonight that those

two Ugandans were NOT going to attend?

Awful thing nevertheless, and does not represent the diversity that is the American population.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. It is THEIR EVENT.

[G_j]

4. I believe they started it. nt

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Started it, organize it, sponsor it, run it.

This is The Family's Big Public Event. It is The Veiled Theocracy's Big Show.