Does Hillary Have Pastor Issues Too?

Everyone loves symmetry. For every Bonnie, there's a Clyde, for every Tom, a Jerry, for every New York Jets, a winning team. In politics, when one candidate is under fire, the temptation to find an equivalent issue with which to flog the opponent is irresistible, and often desirable for the beleaguered one. The Atlantic's Joshua Green thinks he has found the Sonny to Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Cher:

Since Hillary Clinton has launched a frontal attack on her opponent's church and pastor, it's worth noting that she has some odd religious ties of her own. When I was profiling her two years ago, I learned about her involvement with a secretive Christian organization called The Fellowship that has operated in the Washington shadows since the 1930s. I found the story of Clinton and The Fellowship so bizarre that I made it the lede to my piece. In light of recent events, it's worth revisiting.

Yes, what about that gripping expose´? Go ahead and read it, all 27 letter-sized pages. It's OK, I can wait. After the jump, we can take a closer look at The Fellowship!!! (Play Ominous Movie Score in Your Head Now)

It was a pretty thorough piece, I'll give it that, but I would have appreciated knowing that the "Illuminati" stuff was confined to the first several pages. Beyond that, I thought there were a lot of coded sexist messages in there, like the comparison of her hairdo to her new image. OK, actually, not-so-coded.

As far as sounding a warning bell about Clinton's involvement in prayer breakfasts? That's about as sinister as her indebtedness to the Girl Scout Cookie lobby. The article actually makes it sound like a typically smart move by Hillary. Witness this passage, describing one of The Fellowship's meetings:

(Sam Brownback) confessed to having hated Clinton and having said derogatory things about her. Through God, he now recognized his sin. Then he turned to her and asked, "Mrs. Clinton, will you forgive me?" Clinton replied that she would, and that she appreciated the apology.

"It was an extraordinary moment," the member told me. This repentance fostered an unlikely relationship that has yielded political bounty. Clinton and Brownback went on to cosponsor one measure protecting refugees fleeing sexual abuse, and another to study the effects on children of violent video games and television shows. "That morning helped make our working relationship," Brownback told me recently. "It brought me close to someone I did not ever imagine I would become close to."

Since then, Clinton has teamed up on legislation with many members of the prayer group.

Hardly the stuff of DaVinci codes or Lonelygirl15 offings. I dug a teensy bit deeper and found this interview with a journalist who had infiltrated The Family. I file it under, "Grab the tin-foil."

All of these pieces seem to have in common a fundamental mistrust of religion. I have no problem with that, but you've got to have more than inferences.

Of course, in my view, this does make it on a par with Obama's Reverend Wright affair, since neither is really remarkable in any way. I thought that JFK had disabused us of the notion that religious leaders exercise some sort of Manchurian control over their subjects.

Will this story have any traction? Even this election season's story-hungry press might have to pass this morsel up.