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Is a Religious Test Being Applied to One Supreme Court Contender?

While the involvement can be as simple as participating in prayer sessions, others started groups that emphasized a more holistic kind of intentional community living: not necessarily living under the same roof but committing to share one another’s lives.

Craig Lent, the group’s current leader, said in an interview, “We’re not just praying together, we’re putting our lives in common.” Lent is a professor of physics and engineering at Notre Dame, where Barrett taught at the law school until last year.

Thomas Csordas, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego, has written about People of Praise and similar groups.

He told Slate that People of Praise is theologically conservative, with a hierarchical leadership structure. After about six years of participation, members can opt to commit to living in the community permanently, a ceremony that consists of pledging to attend weekly meetings and, as Lent paraphrased it, “to care for each other physically, financially, materially and spiritually.”

Lent said the group was deeply inspired by the communitarian ethos of the 1960s counterculture. Group members often make an effort to live near each other in certain neighborhoods. Single people sometimes live with families, and there are some households of single men or single women living together. Members pledge to donate 5 percent of their gross income, and many give more, with the idea of supporting fellow members.

The group keeps its membership list private, but Csordas told Slate, “I would definitely not use the term cult (referring to People of Praise) in its popular sense.”

The Times story highlighted a more provocative facet of the group. People of Praise members are said to be accountable to a same-sex adviser, called a “head” for men and a “handmaiden” for women (recently changed to “woman leader”), who gives input on a wide variety of personal decisions. They swear “a lifelong oath of loyalty” to the group.

French points out that the media portrayal of People of Praise, and Barrett for belonging, “betrays fundamental ignorance about the way millions of American Christians live their lives. You see, for many of us (myself included), what happens at church is just the beginning of our efforts to build and sustain Christian community.”

He points out that evangelical community begins with small groups, known as Bible studies, where members form “deep friendships and they seek advice for living their lives, including, yes, advice on dating, marriage, careers and child-rearing.”

French said the portrayals make its members look “nefarious” and “dastardly.” When he reads such characterizations, he hopes “they’re the product of ignorance, not malice” and thinks about his own affiliations.

“Many years ago, before I was married,” French wrote in National Review, “I belonged to a parachurch organization that enriched my life immeasurably. We prayed together, worshipped together, ate meals together and even lived together. My two roommates were members of the same group. We often engaged in the same kinds of community outreach (e.g., many members volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters). We held each other accountable, and when one member of the group strayed from biblical teaching, the leaders confronted him or her. We spoke the language of “covenant,” and we’ve maintained deep relationships to this very day. What was the name of this radical, scary group? The Harvard Law School Christian Fellowship.”

Both Barrett and Kavanaugh appear on President Donald Trump’s list of 25 possible nominees and he’s said he plans to interview about half a dozen potential candidates before announcing his selection.