By Andrea Mitchell and Jim Popkin, NBC News
For more than 50 years, the National Prayer
Breakfast has been a Washington institution. Every president has
attended the breakfast since Eisenhower, elbow-to-elbow with Democrats
and Republicans alike. "I am really proud to carry on that tradition,"
President Bush said at this year's breakfast. "The people in this room
come from many different walks of faith. Yet we share one clear
conviction: We believe that the Almighty hears our prayers -- and
answers those who seek Him."
Besides the presidents and first ladies--Bill and
Hillary Clinton attended in 1997--the one constant presence at the
National Prayer Breakfast has been Douglas Coe. Although he's not an
ordained minister, the 79-year-old Coe is the most important religious
leader you've never seen or heard.
But Doug Coe is well known to scores of senators
in both parties--and many faiths--including Sam Brownback, Mike Enzi,
Mark Pryor and Bill Nelson. They go to small weekly Senate prayer groups
that Coe attends. Participants tell NBC News that so have senators John
McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, which those campaigns
confirm.
Senator Clinton's participation is surprising to
observers who have investigated Coe's group, called The Fellowship
Foundation, which critics have described as a secretive organization
populated mostly by conservative Republicans. "I think in part through
her involvement with the Fellowship's prayer group she was able to meet
with some of these Republican senators and get to know them on a
one-on-one basis," said Joshua Green, a Senior Editor at The Atlantic
magazine.
In her autobiography, "Living History," Senator
Clinton describes Coe as "a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide
to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her
relationship with God." She writes that "Doug became a source of
strength and friendship" during her often-troubled White House years.
Their relationship began in February 1993 with a
prayer lunch at The Cedars, the Fellowship's Virginia estate on the
Potomac River. NBC News reviewed the First Lady's official daily
calendar, recently made public by the National Archives, and found other
gatherings including a "Private Meeting" with Coe in her West Wing
office on December 19, 1997, and a "Meet & Greet with Business
Leaders" on Feb. 4, 1998. "Doug Coe introduces business leaders to the
First Lady," the calendar states.
So who is Doug Coe? He shuns almost all interview
requests, including ours. But in hours of audiotape and videotape
recordings obtained exclusively by NBC News, he frequently preaches the
gospel of Jesus to followers and supporters. In one videotaped sermon
from 1989, Coe provides this account of the atrocities committed under
Chairman Mao in Communist China: "I've seen pictures of the young men in
the Red Guard...they would bring in this young man's mother...he would take
an axe and cut her head off. They have to put the purposes of the Red
Guard ahead of father, mother, brother sister and their own life. That
was a covenant, a pledge. That's what Jesus said."
In his preaching, Coe repeatedly urges a personal
commitment to Jesus Christ. It's a commitment Coe compares to the blind
devotion that Adolph Hitler demanded from his followers -- a rhetorical
technique that now is drawing sharp criticism.
"Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men.
Think of the immense power these three men had, these nobodies from
nowhere," Coe said.
Later in the sermon, Coe said: "Jesus said, 'You
have to put me before other people. And you have to put me before
yourself.' Hitler, that was the demand to be in the Nazi party. You have
to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of your own life and
ahead of other people."
Coe also quoted Jesus and said: "One of the
things [Jesus] said is 'If any man comes to me and does not hate his
father, mother, brother, sister, his own life, he can't be a disciple.'
So I don't care what other qualifications you have, if you don't do that
you can't be a disciple of Christ."
The sermons are little surprise to writer Jeff
Sharlet. He lived among Coe's followers six years ago, and came out
troubled by their secrecy and rhetoric.
"We were being taught the leadership lessons of
Hitler, Lenin and Mao. And I would say, 'Isn't there a problem with
that?' And they seemed perplexed by the question. Hitler's genocide
wasn't really an issue for them. It was the strength that he emulated,"
said Sharlet, who is a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone and is an
Associate Research Scholar at the NYU Center for Religion and Media in
New York.
Sharlet has now written about The Fellowship,
also known to insiders as The Family, in a soon-to-be published book
called "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American
Power."
"They're notoriously secretive," Sharlet said.
"In fact, they jokingly call themselves the Christian Mafia. Which
becomes less of a joke when you realize that they really are dedicated
to being what they call an invisible organization."
Federal tax records for Coe's non-profit group
shows it funds charitable programs around the world -- but that it is
also a family business.
The 990 tax forms for 2005, the last tax year
available, show that both of Coe's sons were on the payroll, at $110,000
a year each. The organization also paid his wife, his daughter
and his daughters-in-law.
So how do Coe's admirers explain his unusual
sermons? David Kuo, a former Bush Administration aide and
religious-outreach official at the White House, says The Fellowship is a
peaceful, faith-based group that does good works internationally. Kuo
says Doug Coe wasn't lauding Hitler's actions.
"What Doug is saying, it's a metaphor. He is
using Hitler as a metaphor. Jesus used that," Kuo said. A metaphor for
what? "Commitment," Kuo answered.
Asked about Coe's
influence on Hillary Clinton, people close to her told NBC News that she
does not consider him one of her leading spiritual advisors. They added
that Senator Clinton has never contributed to Coe's group, is not a
member of The Fellowship and has never heard the sermons obtained by NBC
News. And, they said, Doug Coe is not Hillary Clinton's minister.
Coe declined repeated requests for an interview.
But a close friend told NBC News that Doug Coe invokes Hitler only to
show the power of small groups -- for good and bad. And, the friend
said, Coe spends "99 percent" of his time during the sermons talking
about the leadership model set by Jesus Christ.
Supporters also point to Coe's charitable works
around the world. Still, critics question his influence -- and secrecy
-- in a year when the candidates' religious beliefs are part of the
political debate.
--With editorial help from EJ Johnson, John Holland, Michelle Perry, Luke Mayo and Linda Fecteau
