Photo by David Katz/Obama forIllinois)
(David Katz/Obama forIllinois)
Posted on 07/27/2004 8:26:00 AM PDT by mrustow
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| Barack Obama with Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and other leaders at a 1,500 person rally for the Senator at Liberty Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side on Tuesday, March 9th.
Photo by David Katz/Obama forIllinois) |
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| Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at Liberty Baptist Church.
(David Katz/Obama forIllinois) |
"That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.”
Thus, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama in a campaign contribution by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani. (Obama’s supporters include not only constituents giving him monetary contributions, but alleged journalists who see their job as doing everything in their power to get him elected.)
In the next breath, Falsani would appear to contradict herself, by claiming that “Obama's theological point of view was shaped by his uniquely multicultural upbringing.”
Since his mother was a secular humanist (and between the lines, sounds like an atheist) and his stepfather was a Moslem, how would that shape the faith of someone who, according to Falsani, “is unapologetic in saying he has a ‘personal relationship with Jesus Christ’”?
I say, appears to contradict herself, since Falsani’s column makes an “all-things-to-all men” gruel of Christianity. But on one point, she is clear:
"Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion," he says. "I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I'm a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law.
"I am a great admirer of our founding charter and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root in this country.
"I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate. I don't think it's healthy for public figures to wear religion on their sleeve as a means to insulate themselves from criticism, or dialogue with people who disagree with them."
Falsani quotes lefty activist, Roman Catholic Fr. Michael Pfleger, of St. Sabina Church on Chicago’s South Side, "I always have felt in [Obama] this consciousness that, at the end of the day, with all of us, you've got to face God. Faith is key to his life, no question about it. [It is] central to who he is, and not just in his work in the political field, but as a man, as a black man, as a husband, as a father.... I don't think he could easily divorce his faith from who he is."
(Martin Luther King Jr. would appear to have been the greatest spiritual influence on Fr. Pfleger, who is obsessed with what he perceives to be white racism, but blind to the very real black variety. Logic is also not Fr. Pfleger’s strong suit, witness the following statement on whites and MLK: “Their anger came from the fact that he would not react to their anger and hatred.”)
So, Obama’s religious faith is and is not transcendent. Thank you, Cathleen Falsani.
Obama the Christian is a devout believer in unlimited abortion rights. He denies the existence of Hell. He came to Christianity through social organizing with activist religious. His devout Christianity derives from the secular humanist “values” his atheist mother imbued him with. He believes, with all his heart, in the separation of church and state - except when he reportedly campaigns in black churches, in violation of that separation, and of the tax code. (According to U.S. tax law, any house of worship that permits politicians to campaign within its walls, loses its tax-exempt status. But then, as another Chicago politician, Cong. Jesse Jackson Jr., announced on a radio show in October, 2000, the separation of church and state and the tax code simply don’t apply to blacks.) Obama wears his religion on his sleeve in black churches, but in dealing with the mainstream media, criticizes such behavior. Regarding Obama’s religiosity, which appeared out nowhere following his graduation from law school during his social organizing work, a line from Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass comes to mind, when he explained why Mike Ditka was not prepared for political life. “Ditka doesn't need a political life. And he hasn't spent decades planning for the scrutiny.”
Obama’s closest religious advisers -- Fr. Pfleger, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, and Illinois State Sen. James Meeks, who moonlights as the pastor of Chicago's Salem Baptist Church - may have quotes from Scripture handy, but are theologically closer to Karl Marx and black nationalism, than to Christianity. (Union Theological Seminary theologian James H. Cone, who is credited with founding liberation theology, is a black nationalist who speaks the lingo of Marxian dialectic. And as white Marxists have over the past 30 years adopted the language of race war, socialism and black supremacy have come to resemble each other. I call the common movement, which is more typically referred to as “multiculturalism,” racial socialism.)
The transcendent-non-transcendent motto the Rev. Wright has given Trinity is, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.”
According to State Sen./Rev. James Meeks’ humble, personal church Web page, “Meeks’ practical and charismatic style of instruction motivates the hearer to take action and has resulted in accomplishments of miraculous proportions.” When the good Senator/Reverend is not accomplishing miracles and other feats “never before documented in history,” he serves as the executive vice president of Jesse Jackson Sr.’s National Rainbow-Push Coalition. (Why a man of God would want to be identified with Jackson’s personal den of iniquity is a question only the Rev. Meeks can answer.)
Keep in mind the parallels between Obama, his black constituency, and the Democrat Party. As black Chicagoans have suffered less and less under racism, they have become increasingly racist. Conversely, once the Democrat Party gave up its role as a pillar of Jim Crow, it increasingly has come to trade in race hoaxes. And as leading black preacher-politicians (witness Jesse Jackson Sr.’s former opposition to abortion) and white Democrat pols alike have made “Christianity” indistinguishable from the program of the left wing of the Democrat Party, so too have millions of black Christians “revised” their Bibles. And so, just as “rights” have become merely a euphemism for whatever black, “progressive,” and homosexual Democrats desire, so too has Christianity.
Apparently, the only thing that the “Christianity” of Barack Obama, Fr. Pfleger, the Rev. Wright and the Rev. Meeks forbids is voting Republican.
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[Nicholas Stix has written for the New York Post, Daily News, Insight on the News, Weekly Standard and American Enterprise. His weekly column appears at www.therant.us and other fine Web sites.]
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What are your thoughts concerning the issues raised in this commentary? Write a letter to the editor at letters@illinoisleader.com, and include your name and town.
Yeah, he FReepmailed me a couple of hours ago as Norrin, telling me how disappointed in me he was. Inconsolable in the face of his criticism, I ripped my eyes out of my head.
LOL good grief
Obama just threw his support for Arab Americans. They all cheered for freedom from being questioned for likely sleeper cell members.
Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
-- III John 9-11
Thanks for the ping!
.
Thanks for the passage.
Sure thing.
Bumpbackatcha!
This is a good encapsulation of the left's idea of the First Amendment. They believe it is a tool not only to prevent theocracy but to prevent "strains" of religion which they disapprove of from "taking root" in America.
They are waging a Holy War against fundamentalist Christians and distorting and subverting the Constitution to do it.
I was going to say that it sounds like his view of Christianity is that of the mainstream at Garrett Evangelical Seminary up at Northwestern University in Evanston: liberal to the point of denying the exclusivity of the claims of Jesus.* And, behold, Cathleen Falsani is a graduate of Garrett.
*I am intimately familiar with the goings-on at this school. You should have seen the "art work" that recently graced the halls of Garrett that was a celebration of something or other, combining religious symbolism from around the world with stylized female pudenda, complete with pubic hair and labia. I'll see if I can find the copies I have of it and post it.
Wow. That's the most informative post I've read in a while. After reading it the first time, I googled under "Cathleen Falsani," and then focused on "Garrett," and determined that you weren't kidding -- the ties really do bind. Of course, I didn't come up with any of the naughty bits contained in your pudenda addenda. I look forward to more enlightening back stories, and possibly graphics, from you.
I know someone who's doing a D. Min. there. We call it the demon. I know faculty also. I'll look back through my old mail. Somewhere I have a couple of the tamer shots. When I find them, I'll let you know. If you give me an email via Freepmail, I'll send them to you.
Thanks for the ping.
One thing good I can say for him. He does represent the Democratic party.
Yeah, that's it. I can't think of anything else.
This site has links to many recent Keyes speeches!
http://www.renewamerica.us/archives/
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