DL21C and DL21C's Religious Affairs Committee invite you to a Political Author event with
Jeff Sharlet, nationally acclaimed investigative journalist, regular guest on The Rachel Maddow Show, and Rolling Stone reporter, discussing his book
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Jeff will discuss the history of The Family and how its members - Congressmen, diplomats, and other national leaders - have influenced our politics.
He'll also address the recent events unfolding in the "C Street House", home to Family members Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Chip Pickering, among others.
Books will be available for purchase and signing onsite
Free for members and for book purchasers; $5/non-members
About the book (from Publisher's Weekly):
The Family was established in 1935 to oppose FDR's New Deal and the spread of trade unions; since then, it has organized well-attended weekly prayer meetings for members of Congress and annual National Prayer Breakfasts attended by every president since Eisenhower. Further, the Family's international reach ("almost impossible to overstate") has "forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most oppressive regimes in the world." In the years since his first encounter, Sharlet has done extensive research, and his thorough account of the Family's life and times is a chilling expose.
Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family details how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism’s new frontiers.
About the author:
Jeff Sharlet, New York Times bestselling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (Harper, 2008) and a contributing editor for Harper’s and Rolling Stone, has been writing about the intersection of religion, politics, and culture for more than a decade. His writing on religion has earned him praise from writers such as Barbara Ehrenreich, who calls The Family “one of the most compelling and brilliantly researched exposés you’ll ever read,” and condemnation from the likes of Ann Coulter, who declares Sharlet one of the “stupidest” journalists in America.
Since 2003, Sharlet has been an associate research scholar at New York University’s Center for Religion and Media, where he has taught graduate seminars in American religious history and journalism.
In 2000, Sharlet cofounded an online literary magazine, KillingTheBuddha.com, winner of an Utne/Alternative Press Award, and named by Publishers Weekly one of the top 10 religion titles of the year. In addition to Harper’s and Rolling Stone, Sharlet has written for Mother Jones, New York, The Nation, New Statesman, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia Journalism Review, Oxford American, The Baffler, Lapham’s Quarterly, and The Forward. He has commented on religion and politics for NBC News, CNN, NPR, BBC, CBC, Al Jazeera, Air America, Radio France, The New York Times, Newsweek, and other media venues.
See you on the 23rd!