Posted on 08/16/2004 5:30:12 PM PDT by JustPiper
Friends of Alan Keyes,
This week's RenewAmerica Forum asks WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?
The star of the recent Democratic National Convention has come under increasing scrutiny, now that he has a Republican opponent--Alan Keyes--drafted last week by the Illinois Republican Party to replace Jack Ryan, who dropped out a couple months ago.
Unlike Ambassador Keyes, a national figure, Obama is little known outside Illinois, beyond his DNC speech. Take a look at the background links we've provided, and let us know what you think of this media-idealized political figure.
We'd like your thoughts on our . . .
Question of the Week
August 15, 2004
WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?
"In his unexpected U.S. Senate race in Illinois, Alan Keyes faces state Sen. Barack Obama--whom the media have labeled a 'rising star' of the Democratic Party, due to Obama's spellbinding keynote address at the Democratic National Convention two and a half weeks ago.
"How much do you know about Obama? What do you make of Keyes' contention that Obama is an 'extremist'--especially on matters like abortion and gay rights? What is your assessment of Obama's background, qualifications, and views--and how do they compare with Keyes'? What do you consider Obama's greatest weaknesses and vulnerabilities? What do you consider Keyes'? By the same token, what are each candidates' greatest strengths? How important is this race to the future of our country--as well as to immediate concerns about government? Who do you predict will win--and why?
"Finally, what do you make of Obama's refusal to debate Keyes more than two or three times--half of what he promised Keyes' predecessor, Jack Ryan, who dropped out over a personal scandal? How important are Keyes-Obama debates to the outcome of the election? Would a Keyes keynote address at the Republican National Convention level the playing field?"
You can post your response at http://www.renewamerica.us/forum
Keep faith, Stefani Stone National Grassroots Director, RenewAmerica stefani@renewamerica.us
P.S. Alan Keyes will be on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" Monday night at 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Do you know a friend who would like to participate in our weekly RenewAmerica Forum? Please forward this message on, with an invitation to join us. ===================================
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He was not born in Hawaii, he immigrated there when a child
You can just pick one article from the times that you like and use that and Obama's book as "Gospel". Do your research and read what you don't like:
Spent time in both Muslim and Catholic schools In Indonesia
His mother always said that he got his brains from his father, and he was raised on tales of his father’s brilliance
http://therant.us/staff/stix/barack_obama_man_of_faith.htm
In an earlier article in TheRant.us [2], I showed how Obama, an Illinois state senator representing the South Side of Chicago, is a far-left politician who seeks to force ever more socialist and racist laws and programs on the American people.
After emphasizing the transcendence of Obama's Christianity, Cathleen 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 (the late Barack Obama Sr., a Moslem-raised but non-religious Kenyan economist, deserted his family when his son was only two years old), how would that shape the faith of someone who, according to Falsani, "is unapologetic in saying he has a 'personal relationship with Jesus Christ'"?
So, Obama's religious faith is and is not transcendent. Thank you, Cathleen Falsani.
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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 radio talk show Nashville This Morning 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.
The only recognizably Christian position Obama takes is in his opposition to same-sex marriage [4], due to the "religious connotations" of marriage.
("Religious connotations"? What about "civic religion"; the "separation of church and state"; the "enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God's mandate"? Don't ask.)
This is surely due to the fact that blacks are the group most adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, and Obama does not want to rile the one voter bloc on which his candidacy is most dependent. However, I would expect his
position on same-sex marriage to begin "evolving" around, say, . November 3.
Once Obama is safely ensconced in the U.S. Senate, he knows that his black base will stick by him, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse.
Then he will begin the sort of "education" of the Christian black electorate in matters of same-sex marriage, that black leaders earlier conducted in the
matter of abortion.
Regarding Obama's religiosity, which appeared out of nowhere during his social activist work, following his graduation from law school, a line from Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass [5] comes to mind, when the latter
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 [6] 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 always 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 having founded liberation theology, is a black nationalist who speaks the lingo of Marxian dialectic. And as white Marxists have over the past 40 years adopted the language of race war, socialism and black supremacy have increasingly come to resemble each other. I call the common movement, which is more typically referred to as "multiculturalism," racial socialism.)
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" [9] 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," or 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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[1]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1183929/posts
[2]
http://therant.us/staff/stix/barack_obama_bob_herbert_and_race_politics.htm
[3] http://www.catholicnewworld.com/archive/cnw2000/0409> /inter_0409.htm
[4] http://www.cabn.org/archives/2004/030704barackobama.html>
[5]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0407150288jul15,1,6875475.column>
[6] http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Iraq-IQ-Test-Wright23feb03.htm
[7] http://www.sbcoc.org/pastor.asp
[8]
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200406%5CSPE20040630a.html>
[9] <http://gargaro.com/lifequotes.html
[10] http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=17784
______________________________________________________
So if you both have the same argument quoting one liberal article, I have more when you are ready because guess what?
I began researching Obama long before Alan Keyes was gracious enough to accept the invite to save our state!
what a GREAT christian.
says Jesus is his savior... but not sure that Mr. Jesus is actually "Lord" enough to guarantee that salvation thingie after obami dies.
says Jesus was wrong about there being a hell.
or the only way to the Father, the truth and the life uniquely so...
and Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he's not sure if he'll be going to heaven, either.
so obami what the hell DO you believe?
Whatever you have to tell afroamericans, in order to pander to their votes.
Christian my arse.
LOL!
"I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place"
Roots can be shallow. Roots can be grafted to very different branches bearing strange fruit. Many religions are "rooted in the Christian tradition." When the Lord Jesus Christ said "I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life," He meant it.
"all people of faith -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone -- know the same God"
Christians know Christ is God, and He said, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:22-23).
I sometimes wonder whether that "all worship the same God" stuff is the lie. Lots of people seem to either fall for it or figure it does no harm.
LOL. Your post reminds me of "What part of I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" do you not understand?
I come from the generation that helped blacks fight for their rights, I come from the generation that saw Dr. King as a 'saviour' and I know Keyes represents that for me and Obama never could
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