Every Wednesday, some of the world’s most powerful people meet in a conference room in Washington DC to learn about God.
The location can’t be revealed – the Secret Service won’t allow it – but the members can.
Vice-President Mike Pence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The list goes on.
In total, 10 cabinet members are “sponsors” of the group. Not everyone attends every meeting – they are busy people – but they go if they can.
Meetings last between 60 and 90 minutes, and members are free to contact the teacher after-hours. So who is the man leading the United States’ most-influential bible study?
Step forward Ralph Drollinger, a seven-foot tall basketball pro turned pastor. Or, as the 63-year-old describes himself: “Just a jock with some bad knees.”
Each class is led by a local pastor, but none is led by a woman. Why not?
“There’s no [Biblical] prohibition of female leadership in commerce, there’s no prohibition of female leadership in the state, and there’s no prohibition of female leadership over children,” says Drollinger.
“But there is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church. And those are clear in scripture… it doesn’t mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. It’s just that they have different roles.”
In 2010, Capitol Ministries arrived in Washington. There was already a ministry called The Fellowship, which runs the National Prayer Breakfast, but Drollinger felt it had “lost its marbles, Biblically”.
It was, he says, candy floss Christianity – big, sweet, unsubstantial. By contrast, he wants to offer a “high-protein diet”, teaching the bible book-by-book, one verse at a time. In Drollinger’s studies, it can take a year to finish one book.
“If you don’t have a spiritual coach that’s really driving you in the word of God – and driving you toward holiness rather than your own sinful, latent nature, and your own depravity – then you’re not going to grow into Christ’s likeness,” he says.
The Fellowship, he says, believes legislators can do bible study among themselves.
Read the full story at the BBC
