The Family: Unmasking the “Christian Mafia”

This week on Inspired:

Don’t Talk About The Family

Award-winning religion reporter Kimberly Winston interviews Jeff Sharlett, author of two books on a conservative Christian organization known as The Family, the secretive sponsor of the politician-studded National Prayer Breakfast. Sharlett’s work is the basis of a new Netflix documentary that explores the connection between the group, high-powered U.S. politicians and brutal dictators abroad. The film also reveals Sharlett’s personal association with The Family as young man, when he lived among them as “a brother.”
Jeff Sharlett, investigative reporter, Dartmouth College professor and author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power and C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, among other titles

Kimberly Winston, freelance religion and culture reporter and journalist fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California

Family Movies

Kimberly Winston interviews director Jesse Moss about how he managed to make a documentary about a powerful and secretive organization known as The Family that turned down virtually all his requests for interviews. He explains his decision to come out from behind the camera to participate in a meeting of one of The Family’s prayer cells — a charged scene that he includes in the film. And he responds to criticism from The Family that the film mischaracterizes its work.

Jesse Moss, director of The Family and The Overnighters, among other films

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