Here’s What The Fellowship From Netflix’s ‘The Family’ is Doing in 2019

The Family on Netflix, a new five-part documentary series about a secretive Christian organization with deep political connections, outlines many issues to be concerned about. There’s the fact that The Family—officially known as The Fellowship Foundation, a nonprofit evangelical Christian organization dedicated to the teachings of Jesus—has ties in Washington D.C. dating back to Eisenhower. (Eisenhower was the first president to attend the National Prayer Breakfast, an event held by The Family, which every president has attended since.) There’s the fact that longtime Fellowship leader Douglas Coe, who died in 2017, is on tape speaking about his admiration for the mafia and Nazi Germany. (Organizations he felt successfully used secrecy to expand their influence.) There’s the fact that, according to narrator Jeff Sharlet—a journalist whose book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, inspired the series—The Family embraces a highly unorthodox reading of the Bible that forgives evil men as long as they’re powerful, because they’ve been “chosen” by God. (Like, for instance, Donald Trump.)

But perhaps the most alarming part of the series is the final episode. The Family, directed by Jesse Moss and produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Films, traces the history of religious organization and reveals many U.S. politicians who were members or associates of the group. In Episode 5, titled “Wolf King,” we get a glimpse as to what The Family has been up to in recent years.

Where is The Family now? What is The Fellowship Foundation up to?

In Episode 5, Moss visits a local men’s prayer group in Portland, Oregon in May 2018. It’s not clear whether these men consider themselves officially part of The Fellowship, but they were invited to the National Prayer Breakfast, so a connection is implied. They allow Moss to film, but only on the condition that he participate in the conversation, where they pepper him with tough, pointed questions about, among other things, his white privilege. The vibe of the meeting is anything but positive; it’s angry, aggressive, and shame-driven. According to one member interviewed, small Fellowship gatherings like this are happening in nearly every U.S. city big and small.

The Family is still very much active in 2019, and slightly less secretive than it once was. The group now has a website for “The Fellowship Foundation,” which describes it as “a network of friends from all walks of life and all ages joined together by our interest in the specific person, wisdom and reconciling power of Jesus.” Of the many politicians who are Fellowship members or associates highlighted in The Family, ones who are still currently working for Congress include Senator James Inhofe, R-OK; Senator James Lankford, R-OK; Rep. Robert Aderholt, and R-AL; and Rep. Mike Doyle, D-PA.

Who lives at Ivanwald now?

In the first episode, Sharlet describes a cult-like experience: His time at Ivanwald, a communal-living space where he lived with members of the Fellowship, where they studied a modified version of the Bible and were discouraged from communicating with the outside world. As stated in the Fellowship, the current residents of the mansion in Arlington, Virginia are not known.

Where is Douglas Coe now? Who is Doug Burleigh?

Doug Coe died at the age of 88 in 2017, after being briefly hospitalized following a heart attack and a stroke. Doug Burleigh took over as the National Prayer Breakfast organizer and one of the Fellowship’s key leaders. According to a 2010 New Yorker article, Burleigh is Coe’s son-in-law. According to an article Sharlet himself penned for the New York Post last year, Burleigh is also a “lifelong Russia hand.” In a video from The Young Turks editor Jonathan Larsen, Burleigh can be seen talking about the National Prayer Breakfast, and his focus on “the former Soviet Union.”

What’s going on with the National Prayer Breakfast these days?

The most recent U.S. National Prayer Breakfast took place last February, and President Trump gave the opening remarks, where spoke out against abortion, and was met with roaring applause, according to an NPR report. In 2018, the Prayer breakfast made headlines for having a large number of Russians in attendance, including Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who soon after pled guilty to conspiring against the U.S. government. As outlined in The Family, there are National Prayer Breakfasts happening all over the world, including in the U.K. and Kenya.

The Fellowship was founded in 1935, and its influence has grown exponentially since then. It shows no sign of slowing any time soon.

Watch The Family on Netflix