Charlottesville Words

From BookBalloon:

There is a secret sect at the heart of American politics that is wooing Senators, grooming future leaders, effecting diplomacy with dictators.This is not the evangelical or fundamentalist movement as it’s popularly portrayed. Their leadership models are Hitler — and Jesus Christ. They call themselves The Family. “We work with power where we can,” the Family’s leader, Doug Coe, says, “build new power where we can’t.”

Author Jeff Sharlet will be at Book Balloon’s Q & A on July 14-16 to answer your questions about his latest book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Jeff Sharlet is a contributing editor for Harper’s and Rolling Stone. He has been writing about the intersection of religion, politics, and culture for more than a decade. He has reported from inside the most secretive sanctums of American fundamentalist power and from every corner of the megachurch nation. 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. At NYU, Sharlet created TheRevealer.org, a review of religion and the media, with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trust.

His 2005 Harper’s cover story, “Inside America’s Most Powerful Megachurch,” was part of Harper’s winning National Magazine Award entry, and his 2003 Harper’s cover story, “Big World,” was anthologized in Best Music Writing. Sharlet is currently working on The Hammer Song, a history of postwar American protest music to be published by Basic Books in 2009. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Julia Rabig, and a fascist cat named Richard.

Please join us July 14-16 with your questions for Jeff Sharlet. Registration is required to participate on the Forum. But it’s painless, free, and guaranteed zero spam. Click here to sign up.