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The Uses and Abuses of "Hitler"
Jeff Sharlet: Washington Post today reports on a campaign fracas in Northern Virginia that involves me -- but the WaPo deems it appropriate to speculate on my truthfulness without contacting me. The issue? James Socas, Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Frank Wolf, has cited an article I wrote in Harper's in 2003 in which I reported from inside the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family, a deliberately secretive network of "followers of Jesus" in government, the military, and business. Most are are standard issue Christians, many are unaware of the group's origins and core philosophies, and a few are privy to the unusual theology at the group's heart: "Jesus plus nothing," which is to say, an explicitly anti-democratic (that's small d) pursuit of a governance model in which leaders serve not their constituents, but Jesus, and Jesus only -- hence the "plus nothing."

How do you know what Jesus wants? Through an extremely selective study of the gospels guided by the group's de facto leader, Doug Coe, and through "leadership lessons." Where do you turn for these? The group is partial to men who ruled with absolute power: Mao, Pol Pot, and -- you guessed it -- ol' Adolf. They are not Nazis. I repeat: They are not Nazis. Many, in fact, are genuinely dedicated to human rights abroad, the poor at home, and peaceful conflict resolution -- former Senator Mark Hatfield, a maverick Republican known for his integrity, is an example of the best of the group. Others -- such as the late General Costa e Silva, dictator of Brazil; the late General Suharto, genocidal dictator of Indonesia; the late Siad Barre, dictator of Somalia; the late Strom Thurmond; Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma; and Zach Wamp, an openly and proudly theocratic congressman from Tennessee -- aren't so sweet. What they have in common is a belief in the organizational models offered by dictators, the real problem with which, they think, is their neglect of Jesus. Imagine if Hitler had been working for Jesus, they suggest. Well, you be the judge of how desirable that'd be. ...