Would you like to know about a group of six or seven fundamentalist Christian Congressmen who believe that they have been tapped by God to usurp more power for the already powerful?  Then consider Rachel Maddow’s discussion about The Family with Jeff Sharlet, author of a brand new book: The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Jeff knows about The Family because he went undercover and spent time living among them at 133 C-Street, the group’s headquarters in Washington D.C, which is a church that looks like a house.  Senator John Ensign lives at the house.  So does Senator Tom Coburn.  Mark Sanford mentions an affiliation with C-Street while he was having his affair.  What goes on at C-Street stays there, thanks to the secrecy pact enter by the members.  Wikipedia offers far more.

What do these guys want?  To do God’s will, of course.  What is God’s will?  As long as you are chosen by God, the means justify the ends.  Anything is justified, even monetary bribes; they sometimes call themselves “The Christian Mafia.”   They prefer to operate behind the scenes. Maddow sums up the aim of The Family:

promoting American power, world wide, unfettered capitalism with no unions, no programs to help poor people, all with this idea that godly powerful rich men should get as many resources as possible personally, and they should just privately help everyone else.

Here’s Maddow’s  interview.