Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Hyde Schools => Topic started by: Anonymous on October 26, 2007, 05:10:24 AM
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While some schools and states have been aggressive about investigating problem teachers and publicizing it when they're found, others were hesitant to share details of cases with the AP — Alabama and Mississippi among the more resistant. Maine, the only state that gave the AP no disciplinary information, has a law that keeps offending teachers' cases secret.
Excerpt from:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h28L ... wD8SD5OJO0 (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h28LEG90GGTAaEOfdBPKwb5kXdawD8SD5OJO0)
By MARTHA IRVINE and ROBERT TANNER
So in contrast to all other states in the Union, Maine has passed legislation against transparency in cases of sexual predation in its schools. Finally, some relevant and interesting research! Thanks!
One tends to doubt that the state of Maine is concerned about the reputations of its offending teachers. Keeping offending teachers' cases secret protects the reputations of the schools that employ them. Since such a bill is not in the public's interest, it was probably not originally intended to protect public school systems. It represents rather the interests of the consortium of private schools in Maine. It is not too far-fetched to conjecture that Hyde is primarily or even solely responsible for seeing this unique bill adopted, for, of all private schools in Maine, Hyde is the prime beneficiary, given the high risk of sexual harassment arising from the sexually explicit information sharing that goes on there between teachers and students. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it: Hyde has a long and well-known history of sex-offending teachers.
Questions I'd like to see answered: Who pushed for the adoption of this bill, unique in the nation in its protection of sex predators? What governor signed it? Did they have ties to Joe Gauld? Did they have ties to Jean Gannett Hawley, chairman of the board of Gannett Newspapers in Portland, Maine, whose husband Sumner taught at Hyde and was one of Joe Gauld's closest friends?
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Questions I'd like to see answered: Who pushed for the adoption of this bill, unique in the nation in its protection of sex predators? What governor signed it? Did they have ties to Joe Gauld? Did they have ties to Jean Gannett Hawley, chairman of the board of Gannett Newspapers in Portland, Maine, whose husband Sumner taught at Hyde and was one of Joe Gauld's closest friends?
Well, Sumner was one of the offending sexual predators, and considered by some (depending on the source you read), one of the founders of Hyde School, along with Joe Gauld, of course.
I believe the consortium you are looking for will be made up of many souls, who perhaps share a golfing past time, or who sell real estate amongst each other. Perhaps even antique furniture? And there will be an attorney or two thrown in there, for sure...
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Well, Sumner was one of the offending sexual predators, and considered by some (depending on the source you read), one of the founders of Hyde School, along with Joe Gauld, of course.
I can't see Sumner as other than the sweet sympathetic old man who introduced me to Wordsworth, Frost, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky.
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haha. and you thought he was just grooming your mind... ..
bet he didnt give you a special goodnight kiss.
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I was never so fortunate. Does that mean he's innocent of any hanky panky?
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not innocent.
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I'm listening.
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I'm listening.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=22964&start=20 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=22964&start=20)
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Your link only convinces me that Sumner was not a pedophile. The post mentions an alleged incident of consensual sex between Sumner and another adult.
Also, and this casts serious doubt on the allegation, Sumner had already retired several years before the incident was alleged to have taken place. The post says it occurred in the early eighties, but according to the Hyde Web site:
"In 1970, Sumner married Jean Gannett, chair of the board of Guy Gannett Publishing, Co., and spent eight more years as a faculty member and administrator at Hyde before retiring in 1978. After his retirement, he joined Hyde's Board of Trustees."
http://www.hyde.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=51292 (http://www.hyde.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=51292)
There's also a problem of verisimilitude. I can't imagine a seventy-year-old homosexual successfully seducing a young groom.
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He was still answering his phone at Hyde school in 1982. I know this for a fact. Go figure. You gonna believe hyde PR at this point? hahaha Ive got a bridge I want to sell to YOU!
You think sex with a former student of yours is really "consensual?" With all the brainwashing that goes on there? Plus not the only incident, read on. Lets think bout the age diff, maybe 50-60 yrs? oh yeah, you're the one who likes Socrates..
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He was still answering his phone at Hyde school in 1982. I know this for a fact. Go figure. You gonna believe hyde PR at this point? hahaha Ive got a bridge I want to sell to YOU!
You think sex with a former student of yours is really "consensual?" With all the brainwashing that goes on there? Plus not the only incident, read on. Lets think bout the age diff, maybe 50-60 yrs? oh yeah, you're the one who likes Socrates..
Be that as it may, you are wrong to label Sumner a sexual predator. No court of law in the land would convict him of that. Socrates wasn't sloppy with language.
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From a TOPICA (http://http://lists.topica.com/lists/elijaxonbear-gangajidisgraced/read/message.html?sort=&mid=913389104&start=7) list discussion of a teacher-student aka guru-follower liason; both parties were adults at the time, but it came out later that the young woman was kind of talked into it, and didn't really want the relationship. The circumstances were actually quite psychologically destructive to her. The poster is quoting from THIS (http://http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Forbidden-Zone-Peter-Rutter/dp/0449147274) text by Dr. Peter Rutter. I came across this when I was reading up on that Eli Jaxon-Bear/Gangaji scandal that someone sent me a link to. Link to posts with more details of that latter tale HERE (http://http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=20404&start=119).
Rutter takes the position that a "forbidden zone always exists in the relationship between doctor and patient, therapist and client, clergyman and congregant, lawyer and client, teacher and student. All of these professions carry a special trust not to abuse the seen or unseen dependent elements that inevitably develop." Because of the greater power of the professional, the client is unable to give truly informed consent, and it is thus the responsibility of the person in the more powerful position to control the necessary boundary between the two parties.
"Amorous relationships that might be appropriate in other circumstances are always wrong when they occur between any teacher or officer and any student for whom he or she has a professional responsibility. Further, such relationships may have the effect of undermining the atmosphere of trust on which the educational process depends. Implicit in the idea of professionalism is the recognition by those in positions of authority that in their relationships with students there is always an element of power. It is incumbent upon those with authority not to abuse, nor seem to abuse, the power with which they are entrusted."
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Maybe Maine should change their license plates; instead of "Vacation Land," the plates should read "Predation Land."
Once upon a time I really did love Maine.
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He was still answering his phone at Hyde school in 1982. I know this for a fact. Go figure. You gonna believe hyde PR at this point? hahaha Ive got a bridge I want to sell to YOU!
You think sex with a former student of yours is really "consensual?" With all the brainwashing that goes on there? Plus not the only incident, read on. Lets think bout the age diff, maybe 50-60 yrs? oh yeah, you're the one who likes Socrates..
Be that as it may, you are wrong to label Sumner a sexual predator. No court of law in the land would convict him of that. Socrates wasn't sloppy with language.
Naw, Sumner was no sexual predator, at least not any more than I'm a honkin' honky golfing fiend, har har har!! At least I walk the course; gotta keep what's below the belt in good shape, nudge nude nudge...
So Sums indulged in a lil "mentorship" once in a while... Most of the laddies didn't complain, at least not too loudly, at least not louder than some prescient and select bank deposits couldn't allay, har har. Can't say I was above a little of that myself, heh heh, though I did try to wait a bit. Don't like to tangle with those overprotective mothers, ya know? So I still get some kissypoo come graduation day, and pat their little fannies one last time... Another year, another dozen or so million $$.
Now if you want to talk about courts and convictions, and I don't mean the ones 'bout character this time, ya DID see that bit about how we take care of our teaching personnel, eh? Har har har, nice to know one's business neighbors here in Maine, har har. We high wage earners got to stick together. Those kinds of problems are best taken care of on the greens, boy! Didn't you know that?
Waitin' for my kissypoo, because I'm a golfing fiend!
Joseph W. Gauld, The Educator
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I'm just adding my 2 cents to the original post in this thread because quite frankly it I was quite incensed when I found out about that Maine law. However as this article points out it's been on the books for quite a long time and we in Maine will have that legislation changed.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/ ... certified/ (http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/10/20/maine_law_bars_details_of_why_teachers_decertified/)
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Maine law bars details of why teachers decertified
By Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer | October 20, 2007
AUGUSTA, Maine --Teachers in Maine have been accused of sexual involvement with students, but state law bars disclosure of how many educators lost their certifications as a result.
A 1913 statute prohibits the state Department of Education from providing access to documents that show why certification has been denied, revoked or suspended. The department cited that law in rejecting a Freedom of Access request by The Associated Press for records of disciplinary actions against certified teachers between 2001 and 2005.
The request was part of a seven-month investigation in which AP reporters sought records on teacher discipline in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Across the country, sexual misconduct allegations led states to take action against the licenses of 2,570 educators from 2001 through 2005. That figure includes licenses that were revoked, denied and surrendered.
Young people were victims in at least 69 percent of the cases, and the large majority of those were students.
Nine out of 10 of those abusive educators were male. And at least 445 of the cases the AP found involved educators who had multiple victims.
There are about 3 million teachers in the United States.
In Maine, the teacher confidentiality law blocked release of any revealing data. Even Gov. John Baldacci knows how restrictive Maine's law is.
While running for his first gubernatorial term in 2002, Baldacci opposed Maine's "fingerprinting" law which requires school employees to submit to criminal background checks and fingerprints to prevent those with histories of sexual abuse from being hired.
After Baldacci was elected, his education commissioner, Susan Gendron, sought to provide him with the numbers of decertifications in order to persuade him to change his mind, said David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the department. The move was denied at first, but Gendron ultimately received clearance from the state attorney general's office to provide the numbers.
An AP review of news reports from recent years, data from the state's Sex Offender Registry and records from state courts provides a glimpse into the problem in Maine. It confirms convictions of two teachers and one other school employee between 2001 and 2005 for sex offenses.
In Gorham, a junior high school teacher pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexual abuse of a minor for having contact with a 14-year-old student. Timothy Fogg received a two-year sentence with all but six months suspended. State records show only that his certification ended in 2002, but no reason is given.
In Windham, former Latin teacher James Bourget pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge involving a 16-year-old student and received a 364-day suspended jail sentence. Bourget's teacher certification also ended in 2003.
Records turned up names of a drama club adviser in Westbrook who was convicted of unlawful sexual contact with a 17-year-old, but there is no certification record listed for him. A driver education instructor was acquitted of a charge of unlawful sexual contact in March 2002 and state records show teacher certification ending in 2004.
Records also show numerous other cases in which teachers and coaches in Maine public and private schools were accused of sexual offenses involving students prior to 2001. One case stems from a prominent educator's offenses in Massachusetts.
The sex registry says the former head of Maine's English-as-a-second-language program, Bernard "Barney" Berube, was sentenced in February to 90 days for two counts of indecent assault and battery of a child under 14. The charges stemmed events at a summer camp in Massachusetts in 1976.
Maine's fingerprinting law had turned up about 1,300 people with convictions as of 2001. The convictions include misdemeanors and felonies and a wide range of crimes.
The state had fingerprinted about 29,000 people out of a total work force of 45,000 to 50,000 as of 2001. The Department of Education, citing Maine's confidentiality law, refused to release updated figures.
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More from Boston.com
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"state law bars disclosure of how many educators lost their certifications as a result."
1. teachers do not have to be certified to teach in private schools
2. chances of hyde reporting transgressions?
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Does anybody know if ANY of Hyde's teachers are even certified?
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Here is the afore noted news article in the format presented to Mainers. Much abbreviated, a somewhat different slant to the tone, and 9 days later. Somewhat curious, since the Associated Press author of the lengthier version is based in Augusta, ME.
Wonder whether loyalties to Baldacci amongst the Press ownership(s) might have something to do with that?
UPDATE, Nov. 15, 2007: I have since found this same (below) article from another source (not Maine) which does note the AP writer credits, and it is also by Glenn Adams of Augusta, ME. It would appear that some in Maine are trying to keep the heat on this issue, as odie noted previously.
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Governor Eyes Revision Of Maine Confidentiality Law (http://http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=73517)
Web Editor: Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 10/29/2007 1:55:17 PM
Updated: 10/29/2007 1:56:48 PM
AUGUSTA (AP) -- Governor Baldacci is considering asking lawmakers to revise a Maine law that keeps secret the reason why a teacher loses certification.
The 94-year-old law was brought to Baldacci's attention after an Associated Press series about sexual misconduct by teachers in the nation's schools.
As part of its investigation, the AP requested teacher decertification records in all of the states. Maine was the only state that provided nothing.
The Maine Department of Education cited the law barring the release of any information about why teaching certificates have been suspended, revoked or denied.
Baldacci says he has discussed the confidentiality law with Education Commissioner Sue Gendron and may submit legislation during the upcoming session to change it.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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While some schools and states have been aggressive about investigating problem teachers and publicizing it when they're found, others were hesitant to share details of cases with the AP — Alabama and Mississippi among the more resistant. Maine, the only state that gave the AP no disciplinary information, has a law that keeps offending teachers' cases secret.
Excerpt from:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h28L ... wD8SD5OJO0 (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h28LEG90GGTAaEOfdBPKwb5kXdawD8SD5OJO0)
By MARTHA IRVINE and ROBERT TANNER
So in contrast to all other states in the Union, Maine has passed legislation against transparency in cases of sexual predation in its schools. Finally, some relevant and interesting research! Thanks!
One tends to doubt that the state of Maine is concerned about the reputations of its offending teachers. Keeping offending teachers' cases secret protects the reputations of the schools that employ them. Since such a bill is not in the public's interest, it was probably not originally intended to protect public school systems. It represents rather the interests of the consortium of private schools in Maine. It is not too far-fetched to conjecture that Hyde is primarily or even solely responsible for seeing this unique bill adopted, for, of all private schools in Maine, Hyde is the prime beneficiary, given the high risk of sexual harassment arising from the sexually explicit information sharing that goes on there between teachers and students. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it: Hyde has a long and well-known history of sex-offending teachers.
Questions I'd like to see answered: Who pushed for the adoption of this bill, unique in the nation in its protection of sex predators? What governor signed it? Did they have ties to Joe Gauld? Did they have ties to Jean Gannett Hawley, chairman of the board of Gannett Newspapers in Portland, Maine, whose husband Sumner taught at Hyde and was one of Joe Gauld's closest friends?
I don't gte it. Why would hyde be "prime benificiary"? This seems far-fetched.
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Perhaps, yes. As much as I would like to put the candles on top of the birthday cake, this isn't it.
For one thing, there are quite a large number of private schools in Maine, most of which have been in operation far longer than Hyde School. To say Hyde School would be the prime beneficiary is really turning a blind eye to reality. Moreover, as Odie saw fit to point out, this law has been in effect since 1913, which is long prior to Gauld's march on Augusta.
Maybe someone has overreached herself/himself a bit with speculation?
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Governor Eyes Revision Of Maine Confidentiality Law (http://http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=73517)
Web Editor: Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 10/29/2007 1:55:17 PM
Updated: 10/29/2007 1:56:48 PM
AUGUSTA (AP) -- Governor Baldacci is considering asking lawmakers to revise a Maine law that keeps secret the reason why a teacher loses certification.
The 94-year-old law was brought to Baldacci's attention after an Associated Press series about sexual misconduct by teachers in the nation's schools.
As part of its investigation, the AP requested teacher decertification records in all of the states. Maine was the only state that provided nothing.
The Maine Department of Education cited the law barring the release of any information about why teaching certificates have been suspended, revoked or denied.
Baldacci says he has discussed the confidentiality law with Education Commissioner Sue Gendron and may submit legislation during the upcoming session to change it.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
I've been informed that progress on changing the above mentioned 96-year-old law has "stalled." Perhaps someone's closets have not been cleaned out enough yet?
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Perhaps Baldacci's backpedaling may have something to do with the following...
For more on "The Fellowship," aka "The Family," see also this thread in the 'Feed Your Head' forum:
Funderwear
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29329 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=29329)[/list]
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THE PORTLAND Phoenix
Issue Date: May 9 - 15, 2003
Does John Baldacci belong to a secretive, powerful, conservative Christian group? (http://http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/top/ts_multi/documents/02877355.asp)
He says no. It was just a cheap rent in Washington, DC. So was he deceiving his "brothers in Christ"?
BY LANCE TAPLEY
What does it mean for Maine that, when he was a congressman, John Baldacci lived for four years in a church in Washington, DC, run by a secretive, powerful, right-wing Christian organization?
Yes, that's right, he literally lived in a church, known as the C Street Center.
According to Governor Baldacci, it means nothing that he lived there. "It was a cheap rent," he said dismissively in a brief interview. He refused to say anything more about the subject, aside from the observation that "it has been well covered" in the press — even though the fact that he lived in a religious community has been completely uncovered in the Maine press until now.
This is not the case in the national press, where interest in his place of residence, and the theological movement associated with it, has been swelling, though Baldacci himself has only been a footnote to the stories.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Harper's magazine, and the Associated Press news service, his former address, 133 C Street, S.E., two blocks from the United States Capitol, is legally and actively a church, and the six to eight congressmen and US senators domiciled on the top floor are brothers in "the Family" or "the Fellowship," a mysterious, 60-year-old, conservative, worldwide group dedicated to ending the traditional American separation between religion and politics.
The Family, or the Fellowship (both names are used by different sources), is a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. But . . . seriously, could our down-to-earth John Baldacci be a member of a Christian cabal? True, since he ascended to the governorship he has shocked some in his Democratic Party with his service-slashing, Big-Business-friendly fiscal conservatism, and he has reneged on his campaign promise to limit the fingerprinting of teachers. As a state legislator in the 1980s and early 1990s, he was quite conservative.
Yet, in Congress, he was considered moderately liberal, and few people would consider his positions on social issues expressive of the Christian right. He is pro-choice on abortion and favors equal-rights laws for gays. These stands disagree with even the more mainstream Catholic Church into which he was baptized.
Perhaps his residence at the C Street Center was just what he said it was: an inexpensive place to stay.
"So he lied to a religious group for a cheap place to rent?" asked, rhetorically, Tom Fusco, who led Jonathan Carter's Green Independent Party campaign for the governorship against front-runner Baldacci. Either he agreed with the religious life or he deceived them, Fusco added. "And it's shameful that this kind of information was not reported in the campaign — to help people make their choices."
But only one national story about the inner workings of the Family/fellowship had surfaced by last fall, in spite of the group's above-ground work, which has been known widely for years: the sponsorship of prayer groups — hundreds around the globe and, most notably, Washington's annual National Prayer Breakfast, attended by 3000 people including the president and many other dignitaries.
The spokesman for the C Street Center, Jim Slattery, a former Democratic congressman from Kansas, seemed as disheartened as Tom Fusco when informed that Baldacci had denied any religious content to the life he lived at the C Street Center — as if, like the apostle Peter, he had denied knowing Christ.
"I have no comment on that," he said glumly. "I'm not going to judge him."
Slattery, an earnest, voluble man, explained that there was no denominational requirement to live at the house, and one didn't have to be conventionally religious to live there. Still, he said the assumption was that residents would find "value in understanding the teachings of Jesus. It's all about the teachings and the spirit of Jesus."
In amplifying the thinking behind the Center and its Family or Fellowship members, Slattery seemed to despair about getting his point across.
Jesus is arguably the most important person who has lived in the last 2000 years, he said, but "there is so much deep cynicism and ignorance of matters of faith and religion among many intellectuals. I have observed through the years that in the quintessential Ivy League Eastern Establishment there's not much interest in matters of the spirit."
Yet, he averred, "the force of the Christian religion is extremely powerful in American politics."
That is precisely why some people are worried about the Family/fellowship.
Whose Family is this?
Revelations about the Family/fellowship began emerging last fall with a story by investigative reporter Lisa Getter in the Los Angeles Times. She describes an organization that, while "in the shadows," has had "extraordinary [political] access and significant influence on foreign affairs for the last 50 years."
Its accomplishments range from financing an anticommunism film used by the Pentagon in the Cold War to, in recent years, bringing together the warring leaders of the Congo and Rwanda in the first of a string of meetings that led to a peace treaty. The Fellowship (Getter's preferred label for the group) also has brought several notorious, right-wing Latin American generals to Washington for prayer meetings — men connected to the torture of civilians and CIA-linked death squads.
Getter quotes the group's long-time leader, Doug Coe, 73, as saying that its mission is to establish a "family of friends" around the world by spreading the word of Jesus to powerful people: "The people that are involved in this association . . . are the worst and the best. Some are total despots. Some are totally religious. You can find what you want to find."
Members, who carry no cards and are very loosely defined, are required to keep quiet about their activities. But publicly available documents reveal that the Fellowship Foundation — a central legal entity, but far from the only one involved with the group — has an $11-million-a-year budget and a board of directors including Grace Nelson, wife of Florida's Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson. Its president is Richard Carver, Air Force assistant secretary under President Reagan. Its rich backers include Jerome Lewis, a Denver oilman; Republican contributor Michael Timmis; and Paul Temple, a Maryland investor. Among members, Getter writes, are congressmen who are in charge of the State Department and foreign-aid budgets.
"It's an incredibly secretive, powerful group that has entree all around the world," Getter said in an interview about her article. "It has tentacles everywhere."
The group was founded by Abraham Vereide, a Methodist minister who, in 1930s' Seattle, thought he could fight Socialist influence in local government through the power of prayer groups. He took his idea to Washington during World War 2, where the political establishment — particularly, the right — embraced him. The first National Prayer Breakfast was held in 1953, with President Eisenhower in attendance. One of Vereide's first supporters on Capitol Hill was Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, a Maine Republican who had won a term as governor in the 1920s by gaining the support of the Klu Klux Klan, and who himself may have been a Klan member.
In addition to 133 C Street, the organization owns a $4.4-million estate, the Cedars, just outside the District of Columbia in Arlington, Virginia, as well as a number of homes near the Cedars, some of which house young men and women who serve both as apprentices in the Fellowship and servants for the Cedars. The mansion is a political and religious meeting place for the rich and powerful as well as a hideaway for the likes of Michael Jackson and various ethically or maritally challenged members of Congress.
The C Street Center where Baldacci lived is used for "prayer meetings, fellowship meetings, evangelical meetings," according to a Fellowship lawyer quoted in Getter's article. "Our mission is Capitol Hill."
Getter, in an interview, maintained "if you lived there, you're part of the Fellowship." She was given a tour. "It's a gorgeous place," she said. A $1.1-million three-story brick townhouse, it was once a Catholic nunnery and, after that, headquarters of the quite secular Public Citizen, a public-interest watchdog group founded by Ralph Nader.
In her piece, Getter mentions Second District Representative Baldacci as a resident of 133 C Street, along with other congressmen including Representative Zach Wamp (R-TN), Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), and Senator John Ensign, a Republican from Nevada. A second US senator, Sam Brownback (R-KS) now lives there.
Another investigative writer, Jeffrey Sharlet, whose piece "Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover Among America's Secret Theocrats" appeared in the March Harper's, also visited 133 C Street. In order to write about the organization, he joined its young acolytes who work at C Street as well as at the Cedars. He calls the organization "the Family." In an interview, he said that's the name he heard exclusively.
The members of Congress who live at C Street, Sharlet writes, are "brothers in Christ just like us, only more powerful. We scrubbed their toilets, hoovered their carpets, polished their silver." In the interview, he described C Street as a place for "centering your decision-making on Christ."
Sharlet, in both interview and Harper's article, sees the Family as a scary institution — not exactly conspiratorial, he said, but behind-the-scenes activists whose work is troubling. Among his observations:
- "The most important thing for them is power," and the ultimate goal of the Family is "a government built by God."
- "Doug Coe is one of the most important people on the planet."
- Coe — whom he described as "frighteningly charismatic" — and his son David Coe, the Family's heir apparent, refer to the Mafia and Hitler as role models in the acquisition of power, although, in the Family's case, power is gathered to spread the word of Jesus. "You guys are here to learn how to rule the world," he quotes David Coe telling the residents at the house — called Ivanwald — where he lived with the other male apprentices/servants.
- The group, although bipartisan, is deeply conservative. While somewhat opposed to institutionalized Christianity, "they have a deep affection for the military" and see themselves as waging "spiritual war." In his instruction by the Family, he heard about "biblical capitalism" — laissez-faire capitalism. Among those involved, he writes, are many prominent corporate executives as well as John Ashcroft, the attorney general, and Charles Colson, the Nixon aide convicted in the Watergate scandal who became an evangelist.
- In the Family's prayer groups, or cells, a central idea, Sharlet said, is to cede your life to the authority of the group. Yet membership makes you part of "a chosen, and if you're in leadership, God has chosen you." He believed this kind of thinking "starts shifting you rightward."
After his article appeared, Sharlet received phone calls and an email that he considered threatening. He has run with the topic of the Family, giving interviews to news media from England to Australia. Abroad, many people are fascinated and concerned with Washington's peculiar mix of Christianity and politics.
Another writer/researcher on the subject, Ben Daniel, a Presbyterian minister from California, also sees the Fellowship (his preferred moniker) as creepy. He believes it promotes what he calls "spiritual abuse" in the tyranny it exerts over members' lives. In an article soon to appear on the Beliefnet.org religious news Web site, he sees the organization fostering "environments wherein the kind of spiritual abuse often associated with cults can thrive." In an interview, he frankly described the Fellowship as a cult of power.
"Absolute commitment is required," he writes.
The organization views women through 19th-century bifocals, he believes. At the Cedars, for example, the young women servants are requited to wear "feminine" attire such as long skirts, a requirement also mentioned by Sharlet in his article.
More important for the young apprentices, Daniel writes, "work that does not meet strict standards can result in a worker's public humiliation."
Illustrating the weirdness, Daniel writes of a former Fellowship employee relating to him that he was "chastised for offering a drink of water to the chauffeur of a foreign ambassador who was attending a prayer meeting at the Cedars." He quotes an ex-member from San Francisco who depicts the Fellowship as "a priesthood of rich white guys," whom no one wants to cross because of their power and wealth.
The most recent news story about 133 C Street and the "secretive religious organization" of the Fellowship appeared last month in an Associated Press dispatch carried by numerous newspapers around the country, including the Portland Press Herald, although it didn't mention Baldacci — probably because he had left Washington in January to become governor.
The AP story relates that the Center's tenants "dine together once a week to discuss religion in their daily lives" — a meeting described by a tenant, Representative Jim DeMint (R-SC), as a Bible study group. Most C Street lawmakers/residents refused to comment to the AP reporter or the other writers (and none would return phone calls to this writer) on their lives at the house.
But, after the AP story appeared, Representative Zach Wamp, the Tennessee Republican, was questioned by the Knoxville News Sentinel on whether his rent was improperly subsidized by a religious association. Wamp replied that the group didn't lobby Congress. And Common Cause, the national government-ethics watchdog organization, weighed in with the supportive observation that $600 a month didn't represent "an incredibly bargain rate" for a room in a house with shared bathrooms, even in expensive DC.
Some of the congressmen who lived there also shared an interest in a good time. Baldacci and two of his congressional cohabiters at the C Street Center were among the subjects of a Vanity Fair magazine article that appeared in December, 2001. The gossipy piece by Vicky Ward ("The Capitol buildings ooze sexual tension"), portrayed nine congressmen boisterously partying it up with lobbyist-invited, attractive young females at Washington's Capital Grille restaurant. The session of "rowdy" song and drink took place on September 13, 2001, immediately after some of the congressmen returned from viewing the damage at the Pentagon inflicted by the terrorist attack.
In addition to Baldacci (featured in a photo along with two colleagues and a pretty young woman), the dinner party included his C Street roommates Bart Stupak and Michael Doyle (D-PA). The article created a stir on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Some of the congressmen involved — post-Monica Lewinsky, post-Chandra Levy, as well as post-September 11 — found themselves explaining to their local news media their relationship with pretty young interns and their sensitivity about terrorist attacks.
Baldacci was treated with care in Portland, including a rousing editorial-column defense in the Maine Sunday Telegram. Another Portland papers' story did not challenge Baldacci's statement that "Nobody was partying" — contradicted by the Vanity Fair photos alone. The episode did not become an issue in the 2002 gubernatorial campaign.
Perhaps revealingly, congressman Doyle, in defending himself to his local newspaper, called the colleagues with whom he was partying and with whom he lived in the C Street Center his "surrogate family."
"IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE JOHN"
Although Baldacci refused to go into detail on his tenure at C Street, his chief public-relations man, Lee Umphrey, did. When interviewed, he had several neat responses to explain his boss's relationship to religion:
Has Baldacci ever been a member of the Family? "The only family he's a member of is the Baldacci family."
Does he feel chosen by God? "He feels chosen by the people of Maine."
Did he take a vow of silence? "The only vow he took there was to pay his rent."
When Baldacci was invited by his colleagues to stay at C Street, Umphrey said, he was living in "not-so-great a neighborhood" some distance from the Capitol. He moved to C Street for convenience and cost. "There was never any requirement for religious actions on his part." He never participated in a religious event, Umphrey said. Baldacci didn't attend weekly prayer or Bible-study meetings — "although maybe they've changed," he added, suggesting that the Center's practices may have altered since Baldacci was there.
The governor has been a consistent Catholic who does not wear his religion on his sleeve and who is not a "born-again" Christian, Umphrey said. He was "not sure" Baldacci knew he was living in an official church. Unlike some congressmen, Baldacci never took Family-financed trips abroad and never went to the Cedars, he said.
"It doesn't sound like John," mused Jonathan Carter, Baldacci's Green challenger last fall, when told of the Family's activities and the C Street Center. Carter spent a lot of time debating Baldacci. "John doesn't mix religion into his speeches and comments."
True, Baldacci is not known for religious speech. A news database search produced a story on a talk he gave from a Bangor pulpit in 1995 in which he referred to how actions can have effects in the afterlife. But he was discussing the need to oppose a Maine Christian Civic League referendum proposal to restrict gay-rights laws. He has been the subject of anti-abortion protests outside his Catholic church, St. John's, in Bangor.
Yet many commentators have observed how much politics in Washington in recent years, especially under the Bush administration, has become insidiously imbued with conservative Christianity. "A lot of religious and quasi-religious stuff is going on," admitted a prominent Republican Washingtonian who did not want his name used in this article. "It's a growth phenomenon."
In one way or another, the phenomenon caught up Baldacci. For some, this religious trend is a source of joy. Their viewpoint tends to disparage concerns about the Family/Fellowship on the part of those cynical, atheist Easterners.
"We have no power at all. All we do is allow the spirit of Christ," said Richard Carver, the former Air Force subcabinet officer (and former Republican mayor of Peoria, Illinois) who is the Fellowship Foundation's president. "And we're not a secretive organization. We're anonymous. We don't seek publicity."
Carver, who confirmed that the AP and L. A. Times stories were substantially correct (but he didn't like the more aggressive conclusions of the Harper's piece), also dismissed the idea that the group is elitist:
"We have hundreds of people working all around the world. We see ourselves as a Family. This is a group that believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ and that believes in the spirit of Christ." He even maintained you could be a Muslim or a Jew and be part of the Family. You just have to believe, he said, that the New Testament's I Corinthians: 13 has a message for everyone: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." In more modern translations, the word charity is rendered as love.
But the Family is worrisome for other people, especially because its central mission is to capture the politically powerful within a governmental system supposedly based on the separation of church and state — and this government now has, both supporters and critics agree, imperial power over the world.
"You're combining, on some level, religion and politics," Chuck Lewis, director of Washington's Center for Public Integrity, told the L. A. Times' Lisa Getter, about the Fellowship.
A similar reaction to the group came from the Reverend Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, as expressed to the AP: "What concerns people is when you mix religion, political power, and secrecy."
On the Fellowship Foundation's annual Form 990 tax-exempt-organization report to the Internal Revenue Service, under "Relationship of Activities to Accomplishment of Exempt Purposes," the foundation declares that its aim is "to identify laymen who have an understanding of what it means to work towards a leadership led by God and introduce them to others with similar goals and interests." Theocracy literally means government by God, and it could be defined as "a leadership led by God."
What does it mean for Maine that John Baldacci lived in the C Street Center, a strange church? If Baldacci was living there only for the rent and location and he had nothing to do with the religious goings-on, then, if he is guilty of anything, it may be only of hypocrisy, not a cardinal and certainly not an uncommon sin for politicians — although perhaps still a concern for his term or terms as governor.
Jeffrey Sharlet, the Harper's writer, scoffed at the idea that Baldacci wasn't connected to the religiosity at the C Street Center: "It's absurd to say that. Everything there began with a prayer. It's an opportunity for men to live close in Christ."
If Baldacci lived in a Family devoted to a kind of theocracy, that may be quite troubling. His turn to the right would bear close watching.
Lance Tapley can be reached at ltapley@prexar.com
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