Their success in this long-term endeavor can hardly be denied.  Dictators, plutocrats, and authoritarian politicians took to Vereide’s “vision” like ducks to water, not unexpectedly, and the relentless transfer of power and wealth upward that has resulted in the years since can only be considered a triumph of the powerful, and the Family, over the people.  Every regressive tax, coup de etat, and repressive law thus redounds to the greater glory of Jesus plus Nothing, which seems plausible to a bunch of egotistical dimwits who get George Orwell and Orson Welles, neither of whom would have approved of their rank hypocrisy, mixed up.  Listening to Family members embarrassingly asinine attempts to quote history, the Bible, and the Founders, I found it difficult to believe they were smart enough to wipe their own asses, yet politicians from Sam Brownback to Hillary Clinton kneel before their altar at the Family’s “National Prayer Breakfasts,” where fascism is served up with a side of Freedom Toast.

Sharlet gained access to the Family’s inner circle surprisingly easily, for a Brooklyn Jew reporting for Harper’s, which is not that surprising when you  consider that the only requirements for Family membership are a hunger for power and a gullibility that would make Elmer Fudd blush; they welcome Sharlet to their Virginia estate (tax free, of course, like their infamous C Street house) with open arms, and more unfortunately, open mouths.  The narcissistic poppycock they spew becomes even more infuriating when you realize why they can afford to be so frank; their battle has largely been won, and not just at home, but in Uganda, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Like Family member Ted Haggard, who when he wasn’t chomping on hooker wienie and snorting meth, had achieved all the wealth and power that Jesus plus Nothing has to offer, and hypocrisy and stupidity have turned from bug into feature for the intellectual midgets of this alarmingly large brood.  They don’t fear exposure anymore, and why would they?  Brother Bart Stupak was able to insert anti-abortion language into the health care reform bill, John Ensign still serves proudly in the US Senate, and the Family’s tax exempt status stands as holy writ from sea to shining sea.

What makes The Family so unsatisfying, though, is that even after witnessing the malevolence, vacuity, and dangerous proximity to power this ragtag band of bloodthirsty nincompoops enjoy, nay, revel in, Sharlet maintains his almost Village-like inability to pass judgement on people who deserve nothing but condemnation.  In the end, The Family feels like another mindless repetition of, “We Report, You Decide,” utterly devoid of the sort of horrified condemnation the subject matter would necessarily elicit from any reporter with an ounce of humanity.  From Uganda to Detroit to Iraq, the shattered lives and mutilated bodies left behind (pun intended) by a deadly cabal of amoral charlatans cynically wrapped in the thorny crown of Jesus fail to arouse Sharlet to forthrightly denounce these despicable creatures, even as their power grows, mutates, and looks for fresh victims.

Sharlet does an excellent job of exposing the intrinsic ties between despotism, hate movements, the systematic crushing of the weak by the powerful, and the bland and corporate calculations that make these atrocities pencil out in the eyes of their proponents as, well, Jesus plus Nothing, and lets it go at that.  Thus, in The Family, journalism at its finest becomes Journalism plus Nothing.

Maybe Sharlet will write a sequel.