Speaking of weird church affiliations, what about Hillary?

What's up with this? Her secret prayer group certainly contains some pretty interesting people. And why is it segregated by gender? I never realzed Clinton was such a Christian zealot.
Article published Aug 23, 2007

Inside the Beltway


August 23, 2007

John McCaslin - Prayer 'cell'

We always look forward to opening the latest issue of Mother Jones magazine, and the September/October features don't disappoint. Among the stories listed on the cover: "Straight Today, Gay Tomorrow," "W's Loyal Losers," "Senator Al Franken?" and finally an eye-opening exclusive on a 2008 presidential candidate's "Secret Prayer Pals."

"For 15 years," we go on to read, the presidential aspirant "has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill." A U.S. senator, the White House hopeful "has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship."

The senator's "collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, and former Senator Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, grow in part from that connection," reveals the report, recalling regular meetings over one eight-year period beginning in 1993 "with a Christian 'cell' whose members included Susan Baker, wife of Bush consigliere James Baker; Joanne Kemp, wife of conservative icon Jack Kemp; Eileen Bakke, wife of Dennis Bakke, a leader in the anti-union Christian management movement; and Grace Nelson, the wife of Senator Bill Nelson, a conservative Florida Democrat."

As Mother Jones describes it, the presidential candidate's almost "invisible" group "was part of a Fellowship (or 'the Family'), a network of sex-segregated cells of political, business, and military leaders dedicated to 'spiritual war' on behalf of Christ."

The 2008 candidate: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat.