'The Family' Defies Pocan Request for Info
Congressman slams Christian group behind the National Prayer Breakfast for refusal to condemn Uganda's LGBTQ+ death penalty
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, sharply criticized the Fellowship Foundation today for refusing to release information about its activities or to condemn Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ death penalty.
After the organization, also known as The Family, sponsored Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-MI) trip there last year, when he urged Uganda’s to “stand firm” against international pressure, Pocan wrote to The Family asking for its position on Uganda’s law and details about its international activities.
In the Family’s Feb. 28 response, released Friday by Pocan, Family board Chair Katherine Crane complied with none of Pocan’s six requests. Using The Family’s d/b/a, Crane addressed their activities only obliquely, writing “At no time has there been any authorization or interest by the International Foundation to fund, influence, or instigate any hurt or hate for anyone.”
In an apparent reference to Walberg’s October 2023 keynote speech at the Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast, Crane wrote to Pocan, “ Just like you in Congress, we don't control any member of congress, or even our own friends' thoughts and words.”
She added, “ We certainly understand political agendas in Washington and around the world, yet work to sincerely love people and pray for the work of leaders.”
In a statement Friday night, Pocan said, “When you’re given the opportunity to publicly oppose a law that permits the government to execute LGBTQI+ people just because of who they are, why wouldn’t you take it?”
Pocan also said that Crane’s response raises questions about her group. “The Fellowship Foundation’s four-sentence response to my letter—where they refuse to explicitly condemn Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act or discuss their connections to the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation—begs the question: what else are they trying to hide?” Pocan wrote.
As I reported last year, the National Prayer Breakfast spun off into an ostensibly new group, the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation, dominated by Family insiders, that has yet to make good on its initial pledges of transparency.
One of the NPB Foundation leaders is a longtime anti-LGBTQ+ activist.
“The anti-LGBTQI+ activities of the Family and their associates directly threatens the safety of LGBTQI+ people around the world,” Pocan also said.
As I’ve reported, Uganda isn’t the only nation where Family involvement has boosted right-wing political networks opposed to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. And author Jeff Sharlet earlier exposed The Family’s support for multiple right-wing dictators in two books and a Netflix series.
Family insiders were instrumental in protecting evangelical power in Guatemala, for instance. Walberg and other Family insiders worked closely with a Ukrainian anti-LGBTQ+ crusader who heads that nation’s prayer breakfast. Walberg explicitly cited the power of prayer breakfasts to advance right-wing Christian causes, and European LGBTQ+ advocates have warned that participation facilitates that work.
Pocan’s letter asked Crane to release information about the countries where it sends funds and has National Prayer Breakfasts.
He also asked for clarification on The Family’s ties to the new NPB Foundation. (An internal email inadvertently sent to me by a Family leader last year revealed The Family’s interest in preventing division with the new foundation.
At the time, the new foundation’s then-leader, former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR), told me they would be transparent about their donors, vowing not to take checks from past extremist supporters such as Franklin Graham. The internal email that was sent to me was directed to Pryor from another Family insider, former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), advising Pryor not to speak with me (and calling me a snake).
Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-SD) took over the NPB Foundation board toward the end of last year and told me in January that she has “not had any affiliation with the International Foundation.”
After telling me she would speak with me in depth after the February prayer breakfast, Heitkamp without explanation reversed course and said she would not speak with me after all. Now on its third leader in two years, the new board has yet to make good on Pryor’s pledges of transparency.
With Democrats in the minority, however, Pocan has limited official leverage to pry information from either the “new” breakfast foundation, or from The Family.
But Crane’s refusal to condemn Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ law comes as a handful of Democrats are showing new willingness to defend secular values in Congress. That’s been especially true in light of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) taking a stand with radical Christian groups and individuals.
Johnson, for instance, signed off on Pastor Jack Hibbs serving as a guest chaplain in the House. Pocan and leaders of the Congressional Freethought Caucus responded with a detailed critique of Hibbs’ rhetoric and hate speech, and also of how chaplaincy guidelines were violated in bringing Hibbs to the floor.
Last month Johnson for the first time since the National Prayer Breakfast’s 1953 founding allowed it to take place inside the Capitol, on the House side just outside the Capitol Rotunda.
Jonathan Larsen is a veteran reporter and TV news producer, having worked at MSNBC, CNN, and TYT. You can support his independent reporting by becoming a paid subscriber.
“At no time has there been any authorization or interest by the International Foundation to fund, influence, or instigate any hurt or hate for anyone.”
This screams "love the sinner, hate the sin".