[man speaking in Norwegian]
- Okay. - Good. Okay.
Great. We'll see you.
[man] See you.
[birds chirping]
[Sharlet] For the Family, it's all about relationships.
The personal, brother-to-brother relationship.
When I was in my 20s, I lived with those guys.
- [laughter] - [Jeff grunts]
I stumbled my way in.
[brothers praying]
And what I found was a secretive Christian organization,
and one of the most influential religious groups in Washington.
[camera shutter clicks]
[laughs]
[Sharlet] And I thought, "There's so much going on here.
And their commitment to keeping a secret is scary."
This was a story that needed to be told.
So, how do you escape Pharaoh?
You walk.
[footsteps approaching]
Please.
So, why are we here, Jeff?
I-- I don't know.
I thought you were doing so well.
I was. I-- I am.
Jesus brought you here for a reason, Jeff.
Jesus wants you here.
Yeah, well, maybe Jesus wants me to leave.
[man laughs]
[exhales]
[sighs]
You know who we are.
Of course.
Discretion...
is very important to us.
[sighs]
We were documented, of course, by...
an undercover-- a journalist.
Uh, you know, for lack of a better word, a fox in a hen-house.
He was definitely looking for a story,
and he wanted the story to say what he wanted the story to say.
This "shadow elite in the halls of power" sort of thing.
Uh, you know, which,
from the vantage point of some guys living together,
learning how to work out their disagreements, it just--
It seemed a bit far-fetched.
[crickets chirping]
[producer] When you left Ivanwald and you wrote the book,
had you thought to yourself,
"Maybe, like, I-- I got it wrong, or--
I mean, I'm sure people have accused you of being a conspiracy theorist.
- Yeah. - Do you ever think, like--
Like, did you ever question yourself?
Um, you know, it's funny, 'cause I wrote two books about them,
and I tried to give them both happy endings.
Uh, they weren't happy experiences, reporting these books.
You know, to encounter the darkest expression of religious life
that I'd found in 20 years.
People who believe that they are chosen by God for leadership.
[camera shutter clicking]
And that success in politics or business is evidence
of God's blessing.
So if God has chosen you to be in power,
who am I to refute that?
I'm to serve God by helping you stay in power,
pretty much by any means necessary.
[intro music plays]
[man 1] Hark! All worry will be left behind.
All disappointment, too, will be gone forever.
[man 2] We adopted a program for a worldwide spiritual offensive.
[man 3] I know, as never before,
that we are all God's children.
[man 1] There's only one thing we can take with us through that door:
those whom we have led to the Savior.
[man] Fear him.
Love him.
Submit yourself, completely.
Then you will be his disciple.
[George W. Bush] What we have begun, we will finish.
[birds chirping]
[church choir singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"]
♪ Glory, glory, hallelujah ♪
♪ Glory ♪
♪ Glory, hallelujah ♪
♪ His truth is marching on ♪
I had been an investigative reporter for a long time for the Miami Herald.
Florida Governor Lawton Childs died.
At the memorial service for him,
there was a man who I had never seen before.
Everyone seemed to know this guy.
And I noticed an old source of mine,
and he said, "He's the most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of."
And I said, "What's his name?" And he said, "Doug Coe."
He said, "He's like the Wizard of Oz."
I'd like to single out Doug Coe,
who's been such a guiding light.
Doug Coe and all of his associates-- I'm grateful.
[applause]
[Getter] I knew from my source that Doug Coe
frequently traveled around the world,
and met with heads of state.
He had close ties with presidents,
foreign leaders,
and enormous behind-the-scenes influence with members of Congress.
[camera shutter clickling]
[Sharlet] Doug Coe is the longtime leader of the Family,
who took over in 1969.
He was this awkward guy out of Oregon, and he wasn't well-known in Washington.
But he's the one who decided that the Family
should be an off-the-record group,
hidden and invisible.
He said, "The more invisible you can make your organization,
the more influence it will have."
This event brings us together for fellowship,
and it's a good chance to see who gets up early in Washington.
The National Prayer Breakfast: their annual event held in Washington,
first Thursday of every February since 1953.
Every president attends.
[shutter clicking]
And no one asks who's putting on this event,
but in fact, it's produced by Doug Coe.
And when Time magazine did a list of 25 most powerful Evangelicals,
Doug Coe's heading was "The Stealth Persuader."
Doug Coe was a fine Christian,
and his role within the Washington political community, you might say,
was to find those who shared his Christian faith
and to offer guidance for us.
[newscaster] President Anwar Sadat
and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
were brought together by President Carter at an isolated retreat, Camp David.
When I was president,
Doug Coe was the one that got his prayer group
to draft a common prayer for peace between Israel and Egypt,
and that we would have success at Camp David.
The first thing upon which we agreed was...
to ask the people of the world...
to pray that our negotiations would be successful.
[Carter] I think that prayer bound us together immediately.
[applause]
And of course, in many ways we had success.
[male reporter] It'll be the first time in history
that an Arab nation has agreed to a peace treaty with Israel.
[applause]
What Doug Doe helped me realize is that people of all faiths, um...
uh, can relate to Jesus. He died for everyone.
He said, "Wherever you go, whoever you meet,
lift up the name of Jesus. There's power in the name of Jesus.
And if you have time, if you're in relationship,
uh, you can go deeper."
When people would come and say to me,
"Doug, it's so great, these people following you,"
then I'd say, "I don't want them to follow me.
That isn't the work. The work is them following Jesus.
And as quick as you can, get out of the way."
[applause]
[man] Doug was brought into my life
back in the late 1990s, 2000, at a golf tournament.
Doug loved to golf. His youngest son...
uh, died of cancer, and loved playing golf,
and he carried on a memorial in his name.
And it was just a way for Doug to connect with people.
Have a few moments after a dinner or something
where he would talk to the group.
He would leave them with a thought, challenge them with a thought.
He was very kind,
very knowledgeable.
A man filled with the spirit, without a doubt.
I was there with John Ensign.
He was a senator out of Nevada.
Charismatic, carried himself well.
Had a big name in the state. Everyone knew where he came from.
In 1906, my great-grandparents settled here in northern Nevada.
I was raised here, played basketball for Whittell High.
[Hampton] His father was in the casino business,
an executive at the time for Circus Circus.
So, he just had a lot of the right ingredients, I think,
that the public liked.
We were best friends. I mean, we were inseparable.
And when he was elected to his Senate seat,
I became John's right-hand guy.
We both wanted to be Promise Keepers...
good husbands...
and followers of the teachings of Jesus.
And that's what was really compelling about meeting Doug Coe.
Doug broke Christianity and the teachings of Jesus down simplistically.
He said Jesus was a leader.
So we had these leadership characteristics and traits.
And he used congressmen,
presidents, world leaders,
to bring good in the world.
And that's why we're supposed to minister to our leadership,
to help that happen.
It's easy to see why Doug had the influence that he did.
It was very captivating,
and I watched powerful people, wealthy people,
listen, uh, really listen, um, and want to hear more.
[cameras whirring, indistinct chatter]
[woman] Members of Congress,
- it's a pretty exclusive club. - [man] Few more for me, right here.
You're revered, in a-- in an odd sort of way.
Um, members of-- of the military salute you.
Uh, you have Capitol police that are there to protect you,
and you're entrusted with this incredible responsibility.
You're governing the country.
Yet you are human being,
with fears and anxiety...
and hurts and disappointments.
And you also need to be, um, ministered to.
Doug really understood that.
One of the reasons I wanted this gentleman here
is that he's part of the reason
why the two of you were praying together, right?
- Right. - How did Doug Coe...
encourage the two of you to-- 'Cause you're a D, right?
- Right. Right. - And he was an R.
How did that all happen?
[Sharlet] From the very beginning, the Family had conservative Republicans
and Democrats.
The idea was, "Let us find the key men
put in positions of power by God,
and let us speak to them."
When I had interviewed Doug,
he had said to me the real power was in the little groups that met...
whether they were at Cedars or whether they were at the CIA or the Pentagon
or were the core group of members of Congress.
If you were willing to sit and discuss Jesus with Doug Coe,
you became part of it.
[man] There are a lot of, uh, informal and formal conversations about faith,
uh, here in Washington, D.C.
Every Wednesday morning, about 25 senators get together.
It's a bipartisan group. Uh...
We don't talk about politics there. We just pray together.
We'll sing a hymn together,
and one of the senators will stand up and talk about their spiritual journey.
You know, we call it the best hour of the week.
The Senate meets for an hour on Wednesday morning, bipartisan.
The House meets on Thursday morning, bipartisan.
And in no way as kind of an agenda, or some kind of a conspiracy move--
It's just more...
"How can we walk through this, uh, difficult job,
and stay grounded, doing the Lord's work in the devil's playground?"
[indistinct chatter]
[Lankford] Member-to-member, we get each other.
You know, if you open up to me, that's a trust factor,
and there's some value to that.
Because the old joke in D.C. is, "If you want a friend, get a dog,
because you can't trust anybody else here."
[Ross] It's happening in state governments.
It's happening in the military.
In the Cabinet. Uh, you know, throughout Washington.
It's just remarkable what happens, when people come together,
um, in a spirit of fellowship and prayer.
[applause]
[Reagan] Some wonderful things have come out of this Fellowship.
A number of public figures have changed as human beings;
changed in ways I'd like to talk about, but it might reveal too much.
Our founding fathers knew that their hope was in prayer.
And that's why our Declaration of Independence begins
with an affirmation of faith;
because they knew that no man, no nation,
could grow in freedom without divine guidance.
And as Benjamin Franklin said,
"I have lived a long time, and the longer I live,
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth:
that God governs in the affairs of men."
[birds chirping]
[Coe] Temporarily we're not going to work visibly together on visible projects,
but I believe you are a Family member.
We don't think you do everything right,
but we don't think you do everything wrong.
But we are brothers, and we will learn to grow, and we love you.
- Okay. - [Coe] Because the Bible says,
"Even if the gospel is preached in strife or contention,
- I rejoice." - [man chuckles]
[Coe] So, if you fight everybody and do everything wrong,
according to the way I think,
I'm not going to run you down.
I'm not going to say anything negative.
You say, "I am committed.
I am looking forward to the day
one day, one month, one year, five years,
when we will absolutely be one in Jesus Christ."
[man] Hmm.
[Coe] And if there's anything I can specifically do as you carry on the work,
- I will do it... - Hmm.
...because we want our Family to stay together.
- Right? - [men] Amen. Yes.
[Coe] "Understanding how we are proceeding,"
by Doug Coe.
We should not draw conclusions about what is right or wrong
before we have all the factors in and are discussing them together.
We are at a crossroads.
The right man at the right place at the right time can change history.
[Sharlet] When I was a member of the Family,
always we were talking about strength.
Jesus says, "You must go to those who are in positions of power."
And I remember one of the senior brothers
talking to me about the metaphor of the sheep and the wolf.
He says, "You think Christ came for the sheep, right?"
And I said, "Yes, yes, of course."
He said, "You know, it's good to love the sheep,
but who's going to love the wolf?
And you know what?
If you can get the wolf alongside you,
wolf'll get everyone else in line pretty quick."
And so we don't worry about the sheep.
We must go out and reach the wolf king.
How do you get the wolf king? You show him that you have a great power.
[Hampton] It was pretty well-known on Capitol Hill that...
Doug's influence was great.
Presidencies change.
Offices change hands, and organizations will change.
But Doug, he's been around for 50 years.
So he became this...
conduit of relationships in Washington that transcended political parties,
that transcended time, so to speak.
And I think the senators and the congressman in the House
were a little enamored with that.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, the honorable John Ensign from Nevada.
[Hampton] John liked the fact that Doug was very influential,
because John wanted the White House.
Are you as fired up as I am?
[loud cheering]
[Hampton] And he believed, with all of his heart,
he could get there.
Doug saw John as a dynamic leader,
and someone who was going to be
deeply entrenched in Washington for a long time.
So he made it a point too, to be more involved in John.
His sons, Tim Coe and David Coe,
that really kind of oversaw C Street,
reached out to John personally.
This just bolstered their resume.
You know, "We landed the-- the number one draft choice," so to speak.
So John moved into C Street.
[Sharlet] The house on C Street is a three-story red brick townhouse
on a very lovely street, right on Capitol Hill.
And it's for congressmen who want to live in brotherhood,
the way the Ivanwald brothers did.
That idea goes back to the founder, Abraham Vereide,
who had a vision of a place called Tregaron,
where politicians could live in fellowship with Christ.
My first two years, we lived on D Street.
It was me and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Steve Largent, the football player.
And we started meeting in a small group weekly with two Democrats,
Mike Doyle and Bart Stupak.
And then the notion was floated, "What if we live together?
In a bipartisan way, Democrats and Republicans,
where we could actually experience this walk through Congress together,
across party lines,
and kind of set an example of what can come out of this."
[Getter] C Street is 8,000 square feet.
It has 12 bedrooms,
nine bathrooms,
five living rooms, four dining rooms,
three offices, a kitchen, and a small chapel.
And it was like a private club, you know,
except that it was designated a church.
[Sharlet] C Street is one of the many ways that the Family exercises their influence
with the more public Christian right organizations,
those kind of Southern Bible-Belt conservatives
railing against homosexuality.
Louis Sheldon, for instance,
was the leader of something called the Traditional Values Coalition.
He's spoken of using C Street as a place for both reaching out to congressmen,
and also for talking to foreign leaders.
[indistinct chatter]
[Sharlet] And so the Family is maybe in some ways
best understood as an incubator.
They say the groups as themselves don't take action.
They seek common ground.
And out of that, action grows.
[Getter] Clearly they had a vision...
[Coe] Organizing the invisible...
[Getter] ...but it was really hard to get people to talk about it.
[Coe] No membership. No organization.
No publicity...
[Getter] They all kept this secrecy.
I remember spending a long time
trying to track down this list of everyone who lived there.
You know, you'd ask about members of Congress who lived at C Street--
"I'm not allowed to talk about that."
And that made me wonder.
What was going on behind the scenes that needed to be a big secret?
[Wamp] Senator John Ensign was one of our brothers, one of our friends.
Met in a small group, lived with us at C Street.
We would break bread together. We would pray together.
And he's a good man. He just made a big mistake.
[Hampton] It was the last week in November of 2007.
My home got burglarized.
As a result, we ended up staying with the Ensigns.
[inhales]
And somehow John and Cindy found themselves in a relationship.
I think some things may have happened prior to that,
but I wasn't listening.
Um, initially we came together as a family,
and-- and really, genuinely, all of us sat down and-- and addressed...
what were we going to let this do?
I was an emotional wreck.
I was just coming undone.
I'm watching my family come undone.
But John had promised me
that this was the biggest mistake he'd ever made in his life.
Um, wanted desperately to-- to not let this ruin all of our lives.
So we tried to handle it internally for a little bit.
[Hampton] In early February, we went back to work...
...a couple of takeaways that I have...
[Hampton] ...and I discovered that some things were still going on.
[inaudible]
So I called up Tim...
[producer] Tim Coe?
...Tim Coe, and I said, "I need to see you right now."
Um...
This might be a day, I think, before the... Valentine's Day.
I wanted to try to go to Doug,
but Doug was out of the country at that time.
So we called Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma,
and I shared what I had found,
the text, all of it.
I'll never forget the night that we found out that, uh...
that he had, uh, fallen, so to speak.
Um... [clicks tongue]
Steve Largent put his foot down and said, "We've got to go confront him."
And Tom Coburn said, "You're right."
And within minutes, we were sitting in front of him saying,
"You don't have any choice here.
You gotta confess, you gotta repent,
you gotta tell 100% of the truth. You gotta go to your wife.
You gotta reconcile, you gotta keep your family together.
That's what this Fellowship, this accountability, is all about.
Ensign exploded.
He was so angry
that I had exposed this.
He was more upset that I had shared the information
than what was really going on.
But Tom and Tim Coe said, "We're gonna fix this.
You're gonna have to tell her right now.
You're going to stop seeing her.
You know, we're gonna nip this in the bud."
So John writes out this letter.
"I've made the biggest mistake of my life. I'm wrong.
I've dishonored God, I've dishonored the Lord."
And they FedEx it to Cindy, to Las Vegas, that afternoon.
I literally left that house,
went straight to Dulles, got on a plane, and flew home.
And that weekend, John and Cindy went to a hotel,
and I caught them at that hotel.
You know, I was just beside myself in the parking lot, looking at their cars.
And so I called Tim and said I had found them.
The letter thing didn't work at all.
[indistinct chatter]
I think Tim really genuinely believed I was going to go in and kill him.
And he asked me, he begged me, to leave.
You know, don't wait around for John to come out.
I believed that because I had solicited the help of the Coes and Tom,
that there was just no way on Earth that this was just going to be ignored.
We were supposed to be Promise Keepers.
Good husbands.
And this does not line up with that.
Then I started learning, you know,
about the things that they had been involved with,
with regards to other, you know, relationships.
And now these things start to make more sense.
Gentlemen, this is Charles Colson.
- Congressman. - Chuck.
Shall we, gentlemen?
Colson, I'm not much for small talk.
Let's get to why we're here.
Doug Coe tells me you've had some sort of an experience with Jesus Christ.
That's right, Senator.
Tell us what happened.
Charles Colson was special counsel to President Nixon.
That was his official title,
but most people in government
thought of Chuck Colson as Nixon's hatchet man,
the guy who took on the dirty jobs and got them done.
In 1974, Colson pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice.
He served seven months in federal prison.
At 44, he is, in his own words, devoting his life to Christ,
working for a Christian non-denominational organization called Fellowship.
I have committed my life to Jesus Christ.
I can work for the Lord
in prison or out of prison.
That's how I want to spend my life.
- [shutters clickling] - [man] Good morning.
[Ross] Chuck Colson was very involved in the Fellowship,
and Doug Coe was instrumental in leading him to Jesus,
introducing him to Jesus in prison after the Watergate scandal.
I love you, brother.
[Sharlet] He becomes a major figure of the Christian Right,
with a best-selling book and movie called Born Again.
- God bless you. - Thank you.
[Sharlet] And for the Family,
Colson was one of these powerful figures changed by Jesus.
[Wamp] I believe Doug Coe had the courage to do what Jesus did,
which is to meet with the people who need him the most.
You know, the-- the sinners.
He said to me one time that the world cares what you do,
but the Lord knows what your motives are.
And so we're not here to judge.
We're just here to say, "Brother, we love you.
Is there anything we can do for you?
Because we're blood family."
So, the highs, the lows-- we're together. We're together.
[applause]
[man] Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
[Sharlet] Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina
seemed like what John Ensign only looked like.
While on the subject of thank yous, I want to thank my maker.
I believe that God brought us to this moment,
and I'm humbled at simply being here.
[Sharlet] Mark Sanford was considered a friend of the Family,
and he had gotten spiritual counseling with C Street,
back when he was a young congressman.
He also had the presidential look,
that kind of tall, commanding white man of authority.
And his conservative bona fides were perfect.
[male reporter] Sanford, a Conservative Republican,
got national attention earlier this year
when he refused to accept
some of South Carolina's share of the stimulus spending.
[Sharlet] He hewed closely to that Family idea that says
poverty is the result of the God-ordained economic system.
Uh, you're poor because God chose you to be poor.
And so he refused $700 million in federal aid to South Carolina,
money the state's poor desperately needed,
because he feared it was a road to slavery.
[applause]
[male reporter] South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford
is a rising star in the Republican party,
and widely considered to be
a potential candidate for president in 2012.
[Sharlet] As a family values man,
he was spoken of as...
This guy is in the top tier of presidential contenders.
This is, you know-- showing up on the cover of magazines.
And then suddenly, he disappears.
A political mystery in South Carolina.
The Republican governor in that state has disappeared.
[reporter] His last public appearance was Wednesday on Fox News,
when he refused to rule out running for president in 2012.
What I've learned in life: you should never say never.
And a lot of strange doors open or close in life.
[reporter 2] The governor's wife told the Associated Press
that she had not seen him since Thursday.
She added that she wasn't concerned
because he told her he wanted to get away and do some writing.
[Sharlet] A few days after,
what was a local story-- "Where's the governor?" --
becomes a national story the longer he's gone.
Governor alert: the search for Mark Sanford.
[Sharlet] And this continues until his staff says
he's hiking the Appalachian Trail.
The governor is said to be, quote, "clearing his head,"
somewhere along the Appalachian Trail that stretches...
[Sharlet] And then there's this moment in which people imagine,
"This man is going off into the wilderness.
[roars]
[Sharlet] This is not a man cut from ordinary cloth.
He seeks solitude.
This is only proving his president timber."
But it was all an act.
[shutters clicking, indistinct chatter]
Okay. You all ready?
Everybody ready?
Let me lay out that larger story that has attracted so many of y'all here.
Because as much as I did talk about doing the Appalachian Trail,
that isn't where I ended up.
And so the bottom line is this:
I, um-- I've been unfaithful to my wife.
I developed, um, a relationship with a...
uh...
what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.
But recently over this last year,
it developed into something much more than that,
[male reporter] Did your wife and your family know about the affair
- before the trip to Argentina? - Yes.
- [reporter] Are you-- - [stammering] We-- We've been--
We've been working through this thing for about the last five months. Um...
I've been to...
a lot of different--
I was part of a group called C Street, uh, when I was in Washington.
It was a-- uh...
Believe it or not, a Christian Bible study.
Some folks that asked if-- members of Congress hard questions that...
um, I think were very, very important,
and, uh, I've been working with them to try and get my heart right,
because I disappointed them and others.
- [reporter] Why did you... - [indistinct clamoring]
[reporter] Will you resign as governor?
Joel, is the governor going to resign?
[Joel] Thank you.
[Sharlet] I remember watching this
and-- and being just sort of astonished
that he had just violated the first rule of C Street.
[Sharlet] The one that says we don't talk about this.
...asking for forgiveness.
[Sharlet] Mark talked about it.
And for an organization that wants to be invisible,
suddenly there's a case study that has become very sharply visible.
Governor Sanford reports having consulted with
this group, the C Street group.
It's some sort of support group in Washington for men in trouble.
So what's the deal with C Street?
[man] Uh, deeply religious, sort of slants toward the right wing...
[female newscaster] The house is home to a number of members of Congress.
It has been reported to be run
by the secretive religious group known as the Family.
I remember just happening to catch a-- a news conference
that Mark Sanford provided
when he got off the plane from his, uh, hike on the Appalachian Trail.
[Sanford sighing]
[Kern] He mentioned getting counseling from this group of colleagues at C Street,
and I thought,
"Uh-oh. [laughs] This is going to go-- This is going to have legs."
At that point in time, people were not aware
there was any connection between C Street and the Fellowship Foundation.
And there was really no wide understanding even of its existence,
but it just seemed like a breathtaking enmeshment
of church and state.
[Williams] Folks just don't trust the church as much anymore.
And I think there's good reason, because there's been lines crossed,
red lines crossed in terms of the role of Church,
inappropriate activities of the role of Church in-- in public life.
And I think politicking is one of the ways
that has really degraded, uh, the trust that people have in Church.
[Kern] Churches are the most opaque organizations within tax law.
[Williams] You don't have to reveal anything about money coming in
or money going out, or how it's used or anything.
So with C Street,
my concern was it wasn't what it purported itself to be.
What church doesn't have a website?
What church doesn't open its door?
I mean, it-- it just didn't behave in any way that a church would.
It wasn't inviting people in at all.
It was a closed environment. It was-- It was a club.
And as a pastor of a church, as a leader of a faith community,
this whole idea of secrecy, of a kind of shadow ministry,
it angered me.
And I thought, "Someone needs to be looking at them, shedding some light."
[man] I'm Marc Owens,
and I practice in the area of, uh, tax-exempt organizations.
And so I was asked by Reverend Williams and Clergy VOICE
to see what I could discern from the public record
about the C Street Center.
The research process involved looking at property records, tax records,
annual filings, all the form 990s,
but also contracts entered into by the charities with fundraisers
and certified financial statements.
It gives you a slightly different... um, window onto the structure.
And that, of course, led to the Fellowship Foundation,
and with a little more digging,
something called the Wilberforce Foundation.
[Sharlet] The Wilberforce Foundation was named for William Wilberforce,
a looming figure from the 19th century,
the man who led the abolition of slavery in England.
And later we learned Oliver North, the current president of the NRA,
runs an annual fundraiser for it.
It's called "Godly Guys with Guns." It's a duck shoot.
[gunshot]
- [wings flutter] - [dog barks]
And it's just one of the many nonprofits and sort of shell nonprofits
funneling the money for the Family
and allowing the Fellowship to stay invisible.
[Owens] Upon further investigation, it turns out the C Street Center
was basically appearing to subsidize, to a fairly significant degree,
the living costs of members of Congress.
The individuals who lived at C Street were paying $600 a month,
and there isn't any place in Washington one can find even a bed for $600 a month.
So that kind of activity seems to clearly violate
the Congressional rules on taking gifts.
That's thousands of dollars a year,
amounts that people have gone to jail for receiving.
We begin tonight with a developing story, uh, concerning C Street.
Earlier this month, a group of pastors asked the IRS
to strip C Street of its federal tax-exempt status,
because although it does claim to be a church,
in the view of these pastors,
there isn't a whole lot that's very churchy about it.
Are you concerned about access,
influence, uh, other forms of quid pro quo?
[man] I think that goes right to the heart of it,
because it wasn't a gift just to help them, um, meet-- meet ends.
So I have to-- have to think that they were receiving a favor
with some kind of expectation,
Uh, and of course, the whole Family, uh, code of secrecy,
uh, really suggests that there was a lot of conversation,
private conversation, private influence, going on well below the radar.
All we can do is ask the questions,
and ask the IRS to look into it, if it-- if it merited...
We'd like to know. We would like to know.
[calm instrumental music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Wamp] Mark Sanford decided to have a press conference in front of C Street,
even though he never lived there.
You know, he rarely ever was there,
but that's where he came,
and he came frankly, basically, sorta to repent to people.
So, okay, that frankly-- [chuckles]
There's a role for that.
Just remember that God always uses imperfect vessels to do his perfect work.
Too many questions floating around about Sanford's extramarital affair.
- [reporter] Samford writes... - [Sharlet] After that press conference,
more and more details emerged.
[newscaster] Investigation revealed
inappropriate use of public money for various trips.
[Sharlet] And there's a lot of pressure on him to resign.
That is why I must now call upon Governor Sanford,
in the interest of our state, to resign.
But the Family looks at that and says, "No, no, no, no."
They believe that Mark Sanford is placed there by God.
This is a valuable asset, and we don't want to just sacrifice that.
So the Family swooped in. It was damage control time.
[female newscaster] Mark Sanford says he's turning to a higher power.
[Sharlet] In come the fixers, and they say,
"Let's talk, Mark, about King David."
[sweeping orchestral music]
[Sharlet] It's the very same story that I had been told at Ivanwald,
focusing not on the David that we know from "David and Goliath,"
but the David who is now king,
a powerful man who is chosen.
And he spots this beautiful woman, Bathsheba, and he longs for her.
The only problem is, she's the wife of one of his chief captains
in this war that he's fighting.
But he doesn't let that get in his way.
Now you understand why I sent for you.
My understanding is not necessary, sire.
- Why not? - You are the king.
He seduces Bathsheba, and he gets her pregnant.
And now he's got a problem.
He's got to cover this up, so he arranges for her husband,
this man who is his friend--
He says, "When they go back to battle, Let him be right at the front line.
Let him be in harm's way."
And sure enough, he is killed.
[woman screaming]
Jonathan!
[Sharlet] There's all sorts of ways to read this story.
The way the Family reads it is,
"Well, it sounds like David did a bad thing there, but look,
God fixed it.
That's a sign, and-- and King David stayed, remained king,
and Mark, maybe you should remain governor."
[newscaster] Embattled South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford
says he's not stepping down.
I've been doing a lot of soul searching on that front,
and, um, what I find interesting is the story of David,
and the way in which, uh, he fell mightily,
fell in very, very significant ways,
but then picked up the pieces and built from there.
[Sharlet] Suddenly, here's Mark Sanford on TV,
invoking that very same, deeply unorthodox reading of King David
as his justification for remaining in power.
...well-expressed in the Book of Psalms.
And that's the problem with the Family, right there.
There's no sense of challenging that power,
because it's just...
"I'm chosen. Doesn't matter what I do."
[Hampton] We know in life when you get away with things,
very seldom does it cause a person to go,
"Wow, I just dodged a bullet, I'm going to change my life."
It's not until consequences, something radical happens,
that we typically do that.
So since John had gotten away with this several times, he'd been emboldened.
You know, he kind of thought, "None of you are going to tell me what to do.
Therefore, I'm going to do what I want."
[muffled implosions]
[Hampton] As the days and the weeks rolled on,
it became extremely apparently to me that no one was going to step up.
He was still seeing her,
they were back in Nevada seeing each other,
and I was just left holding the bag.
I was just left with the fact
that C Street was going to protect Ensign,
and, uh, I think the real hurt and anger grew at that time.
You know, this just cannot be right. It is not right.
And so I just decided to go public with it.
[female newscaster] In June, Hampton did try to go public,
writing to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, revealing the affair.
Though Fox didn't go with the story,
Ensign hastily called his press conference.
Last year, I had an affair.
I violated the vows of my marriage.
I will not mention any names,
but the woman who was-- I was involved with, and her husband,
were both close friends.
And they both worked for me.
Now it was finally out.
[reporter] Excuse me, Senator Ensign?
[Hampton] And John moved out of C Street.
[male reporter] Nevada's senator has dropped a bombshell...
[Hampton] But because we'd tried to cover it up for a year...
[female reporter] C Street secrets.
...the press was worse.
You get the sense all sides want this scandal to go away. It isn't.
The swirl of admissions and accusations has increased pressure on Ensign,
and made it likely he'll face a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.
I didn't break any ethics rules. I didn't break any of the laws.
I didn't do any of those things.
[reporter] We wanted to know why the senator pushed so hard
to get jobs for Doug Hampton, the husband of Ensign's mistress,
to make up for leaving the senator's office.
[female reporter] Hampton claims none other than Senator Tom Coburn
personally initiated and took charge of the negotiations.
Tom Coburn said, "What I would do, Doug, if I was you,
is I would have them buy your home,
give you a million bucks so you could get started over,
and that's what I'm willing to help you negotiate.
[reporter] A family spokesman denying a payoff called it part of, quote,
"A pattern of generosity,
made out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends
during a difficult time."
[Hampton] I was the only one that was indicted.
Seven felony counts of lobbying violations.
So I was facing 35 years in prison.
I ended up pleading, and I did one year of probation.
I lost my job,
my wife, everything.
And the Coes, they just cut me off.
Our job is to do what we can to let that promise grow...
[indistinct]
[Hampton] John went on to keep his position.
Hi, I'm Senator John Ensign.
[Hampton] He chose to stay in office, stepped down when he wanted to,
and he's never talked about it since.
Lord, thank you for all that you've done in my life.
My colleagues, I bid you farewell.
Know that you will all be in my prayers.
While it was ugly and it was painful and it caused a lot of scrutiny
and a lot of people's claims of hypocrisy and everything else,
John Ensign, our friend, handled that.
He and Darlene are together today, their family is whole.
Their family is-- is--
He-- He did it.
That's what's supposed to happen when you err.
That's what this Fellowship, this accountability, brought about, was--
They reconciled.
So I have no regrets about that.
To be honest with you, I think we responded properly,
and so did John Ensign,
and thank the Lord that we were there and that he did the right thing.
I love Doug Coe, and I appreciate him tremendously for what he introduced me to.
Doug and his teachings changed me.
Are changing me.
I think Jesus is the answer,
but Jesus and Capitol Hill don't mix.
Jesus never went to Rome.
Jesus never changed out the leadership while he was on this earth,
and he told us not to concern yourself with it.
He went outside the city walls. He went to the poor,
the people that really, genuinely wanted to hear.
Because that's Jesus.
That's the real answer.
[outro song playing]