THE HI-JACKING OF EVANGELICALISM - International Christian Leadership and "The Family"

The Hi-Jacking of Evangelicalism, Part VI

“Christian Fundamentalism” or “New World Religion”?

Last week the annual Prayer Breakfast was held.  The Dalai Lama was there as one of their honored guests.  Was it truly about Jesus or even "evangelizing"?  I submit it was much closer to the agenda of "New World Religion."  I further submit that this network was a substantial part of what New Ager Barbara Marx Hubbard said back in 1988 a few months after coming from the secretive Gold Lake Conference "Bridging Through Christ" was "Now all of the resonating core groups with OUTWARDLY DIFFERENT PURPOSES are merging and blending and coming together to do THE ONE WORK."   Her alliance with long time core group, inner circle Family activist Paul Temple is more than a small factor in my personal determination about these links.

 Writer Jeffrey Sharlet has said much about the alleged “secret fundamentalism” of the Washington headquartered International Christian Leadership operation called by him as “The Family.”  Writer Wayne Madsen has said even more.   Although I might have serious disagreements with the worldviews of both men, I believe Wayne Madsen hit more of the nails accurately on the head as to the true character of the group.  The Washington, D. C. allegedly Christian operation might be fundamentalist something or other, but fundamentalist Christianity as in rigorously adhering to the classic and fundamental tenets of the faith “once delivered to the fathers” it is not.   Perhaps it never was.  There were several in the circle that clearly represented "illuminated interests," including but not limited to Glenn Clark, Rufus Jones, E. Stanley Jones, Frank Laubach, and Roland Gammon.

To understand “the Family” it is necessary to understand its beginnings and collaborations.  As accurately reported by others, these are a few of the preliminary events.

• ·         Abraham (Abram) Vereide comes to USA as a young man, marries, becomes a minister, and eventually goes to work managing Goodwill Industries in Seattle, Washington.  While in Seattle he organizes a religious network to seek peace between labor and management interests there.
• ·         Vereide makes numerous cross country trips, including trips to Ottawa, Canada, and at least one return trip to Norway (sponsored by a sympathetic friend).
• ·         Vereide makes the acquaintance of Frank Buchman and Sam Shoemaker.
• ·         Vereide employs assistants over the years, including Harald Bredesen.
• ·         Vereide is taken into the circle of “The Twelve” meeting annually on New Years Day retreats at the Embassy Row mansion home of Mrs. Aymar (Marian) Johnson (nee Marian K. Hoffman) , a wealthy Washington, D. C. benefactor who was initially mentored first by Sam Shoemaker and then by Glenn Clark.

Understanding Frank Buchman and Glenn Clark are essential to understanding more.  To understand Glenn Clark, one must also understand Dr. Alexis Carrel.  Another close friend of all was Norman Grubb.  Norman Grubb’s theology was plainly closer to Gnosticism than orthodox Christian creeds and “Statements of Faith.”.  Glenn Clark’s theology was definitely more akin to New Thought religion (i.e. Unity School of Christianity) than to traditional biblical and evangelical Christianity.  He proudly wrote about the “New Age” (Capital N, Capital A) and the intent that the world should accept it willingly starting in 1946, 35 years before I discovered this network in 1981!

Dr. Alexis Carrel

Dr. Alexis Carrel, was to put it mildly, a “complex individual.”   Intellectually speaking, he was clearly a genius.  He won the Nobel Prize in 1912 for pioneering complicated suture surgery.  Together with close friend aviator Charles Lindbergh, he invented the perfusion pump necessary for decades of heart surgeries.  He was also and unfortunately, a dedicated eugenicist. 

Marian Johnson and her  “checked guidance”

Marian Johnson was an extremely wealthy socialite who had lived well on both sides of the Atlantic.  She was associated with royal circles in England.  Her mother Mrs. Charles Frederick Hoffman was prominent in New York, Newport, and English society.  She married Aymar Johnson and they enjoyed a socialite life which included sailing in their yacht, “The Enchantress.”  Per Norman Grubb, “life had no real meaning for her until she met Sam Shoemaker.”  She probably had legitimate access to New York Episcopalian Circles.  Her father, Charles Frederick Hoffman, was active in New York City Episcopalian circles.  He may have even pastored himself.  He was the treasurer of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.  Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopalian clergyman there who was a literal acolyte to Frank Buchman for many years, pastored  another Episcopal Church in New York.

Marian Johnson was told of  Abraham Vereide in New York by Sam Shoemaker.  In January 1944, approximately 1 ½ to 2 months before I entered the world on Leap Year Day, 1944, Abraham Vereide rang her doorbell saying that Sam Shoemaker asked him to call on her. [1](Grubb, 1961, p. 79; Grubb, 1961)

Mrs. Marian Johnson, the former Miss Marian Hoffman, became Abram’s chief financial backer.  Per Norman Grubb, “he took over from her the idea of a vital center in Washington for international fellowship and dispensing hospitality for God to government leaders.” (Grubb, 1961, p. 80)

This was the start of “International Christian Leadership.”   Was there more?  The presence on the board of ICL of men such as Roland Gammon clearly suggests there was.   It is not presumptuous to say that the New Year’s Day retreats were closer to intentional meetings of what could even be called “Illuminati.”  For more on this we shall carefully in the next article examine Dr. Glenn Clark’s book, THE MAN WHO TAPPED THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE as well as “The Twelve” who gathered at Marian Johnson’s home every New Year’s Day.

---

[1] There are many sources I have collected and researched on this.  A most important reference is MODERN VIKING:  THE STORY OF ABRAHAM VEREIDE, PIONEER IN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP by Norman Grubb.  Extensive references to Mrs. Aymar Johnson are included  in his chapter, “God-Guided Contacts.”  I have accumulated a library on several of “The Twelve” and their obvious high-level mysticism, including but not limited to Rufus Jones, E. Stanley Jones, Frank Laubach, and Glenn Clark.  Roland Gammon was proudly affiliated in a leadership position with International Christian Leadership.  His book NIRVANA NOW is one of the most gossipy accounts of New Age activism, including Lucis Trust, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and the Temple of Understanding, I have found anywhere.  That book was one of my original acquisitions on the New Age Movement shortly after I learned of its existence in 1981.  If there was an innocent individual in this crowd, it may have been Sam Shoemaker.  My jury is still out on him.  I have read his wife's biography and from that reading, it appears that he had honest Christian motivation and had broken with Buchman and his Moral Rearmament Movement during the war years.  However, another organization that Sam Shoemaker was instrumental in finding, Faith at Work, has been clearly compromised over the years which will be the subject of another posting.