I finished Living Witness and have moved on to Jeff Sharlet’s The Family, subtitled: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

If you’ve been watching Rachel Maddow’s show, you’ll recognize the name of the book and its author; she’s had him on several times in the past few weeks to discuss its premise.

The Family is a movement composed of fundamentalist Christian men who believe they are meant to rule America and the world. “Well,” you say, “there’s a lot of crazies out there who think that.” True enough, but some of these crazies are well-placed members of Congress in both the House and Senate. Some names: Senators Inhofe, Coburn, Brownback, Grassley and Nelson; Representatives Pitt, Wamp, and Stupak.

I’m just finishing the foreword and haven’t formed any conclusions yet, but I do want to remark on the clever work the publisher did with the paperback version: the book is a paper representation of an old family Bible, all the way down to the image of the pebbled background often found on those books. As I get further along I’m sure I’ll have more to say.