Forget about the Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission, I give you The Family:

Its core motive, as reflected in its activities over more than 70 years, is the intermingling of a shallow, unquestioning Christian fundamentalism with radical free trade, anti-New Deal, anti-trade unionist and anti-liberal passions. It has worked overseas to prop up dictators and mass murderers in support of big oil and other American multi-national corporate enterprises, as Sharlet documents in his book.

The defectors occupying the Falls Church are a regional microcosm of The Family’s conspiratorial approach, worldwide, mingling powerful political figures with fundamentalist religion and a passion for wresting control of religious, as well as political, institutions from the control of moderates or liberals by questionable means.

This became evident, in the case of the Falls Church Anglicans, only recently with information provided about [Rev. John] Yates’ close personal ties to The Family, with its headquarters at unmarked locations in North Arlington known as Ivanwald and The Cedars, and names of top Family members who are active among their ranks.

Barnes’ Weekly Standard magazine is well-known in Washington, D.C. circles as the mother of the so-called neo-conservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) crowd, whose promotion of aggressive global unilateralism, exemplified in its push for the invasion of Iraq, parallels The Family’s so-called “worldwide spiritual offensive, whereby Jesus must rule every nation through the vessel of American power,” as Sharlet documents. PNAC operatives currently hold key advisory positions with the McCain/Palin campaign.

Gerson, known for inventing the term, “axis of evil,” as a Bush speechwriter, assailed Sen. Barack Obama relentlessly in his Post columns as Obama moved from an idealistic message to one of economic justice last spring, paralleling The Family’s insistence that the world’s problems are moral, not economic.

Other high-profile members of the church involved prominently in matters of the U.S. government include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Secretary of the Army Peter Geren, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Porter Goss, and former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

Another is Dennis Bakke, former CEO of Advanced Energy Systems (AES), who resigned after allegations he’d funneled AES revenues to The Family, according to Madsen. He founded the Mustard Seed Foundation that funnels millions to select evangelical causes annually, and resides near The Cedars in Arlington.

Like almost 90 percent of the members of the Falls Church Anglican, he does not live in Falls Church.

Key operational heads of The Family, which at its core is a small cadre organization that wields uncomely influence over a wider membership of mostly right-wing elected officials and others in Washington and key international capitals, are also members of the Falls Church Anglican group.

What’s interesting is that this article really differs only in degree, not in substance, from some of the 815 talking points I’ve heard served up from time to time at RFEC.  I just have this hilarious vision of Martyn Minns saying, “Tonight Kate Jefferts-Schori sleeps wit’ da fishes!”

A glass of wine with Baby Blue!