Behind the scandal-tainted C Street house is an organization big on protecting its own and small on church ties and theology | Emily Belz, Edward Lee Pitts
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT/Newscom
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The national press for the past two months has roasted "hypocritical" Christians who live in or meet in a ministry-owned house on C Street two blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, both talked about this spring as potential GOP presidential candidates in 2012, have acknowledged adulterous relationships. Last month a lawsuit in Jackson, Miss., served notice that former Rep. Chip Pickering, also a Republican, may have carried on in the C Street house an illicit affair with a former college love interest (see "Alienation of affection").
Sustained media attention has focused on whether the C Street house conclaves had contributed to or condoned the breaking of marital vows: Just what was in the water at C Street to prompt the three—all GOP political and social conservatives who a decade ago called for former President Bill Clinton's resignation—to fall into similar scandals of their own?
Following the money
| Emily Belz
The Fellowship reported a $2.5 million surplus on $19 million in revenues, according to its most recent tax filing in 2007. The organization operates as a grant-making entity, sending checks annually to more than 50 nonprofits in the United States and around the world. It is best known for its Washington, D.C., activities like the annual National Prayer Breakfast, on which the Fellowship spends about $1 million. It also funds a variety of properties, events, and traveling abroad.
It draws its fundraising revenue mainly as missionary-type support; individuals in the organization raise money for, say, a trip to Brazil, and donors make their checks out to the Fellowship or its alternate name, the International Foundation. Nonprofit 501(c)3s like the Fellowship aren't supposed to funnel donations to non-501(c)3s, but in 2007 the Fellowship granted $1.2 million to a Ugandan charity called Cornerstone Development. Granting funds to foreign charities is legal, though the IRS has imposed more restrictions on those transactions since 9/11. Cornerstone on its website directs its donors to give to the International Foundation, with a note that it is for Cornerstone. "This is a US registered nonprofit that passes on to us 100% of the donation. And you will receive a tax-deductible receipt from them," the site explains.
The Cedars (Arlington, VA)
The $7.8 million mansion, formerly property of George Mason, offers a meeting place and retreat for public figures. On the same street sit two group homes, one for young women, Potomac Point, and one for young men, Ivanwald.
The Wilberforce Foundation (Annapolis, MD)
This is the listed address for the foundation, though David Coe, a Fellowship employee and son of Doug Coe, is the owner. Several Fellowship employees and associates have homes on the same street.
The Wilberforce Foundation (Annapolis, MD)
Tim Coe, a Fellowship employee, Wilberforce board member, and son of Doug Coe, sold this house to the Wilberforce Foundation in 2007, though documents say that he abstained from any involvement in the decision to buy the house or determine the price.
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