Last week, I was privileged to interview Jeff Sharlet, a journalist who’s been working in the area of religion for some time. Author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, a major portion of Sharlet’s effort has been pointed toward exposing the philosophy and methodology of a secretive, powerful, and influential fundamentalist organization, The Family, which is headquartered on C Street in Washington, D.C., and lead by a man named Doug Coe.
Sharlet has written a new book that continues in this vein: C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. It officially releases today, but I was able to review it before and then sit down with Sharlet last Tuesday.
We met up in Austin, Texas, for the Blandy Lectures at the Seminary of the Southwest, where he was the series speaker for 2010, and recorded the following, which is about an hour in length.
Our conversation included a compelling (and in retrospect all-too-brief) allusion to the influence Coe may have exerted in Falls Church. That’s at around the twelve-minute mark.
Click to listen, and forgive the odd pause at the beginning; we may have an improved version of the audio for you later: