Read this book, then get back to us. I can vouch for some of the stuff in it personally -- some of it was unknown to me until the book came out.
Posted on 12/17/2006 10:27:48 AM PST by WayneLusvardi
Jimmy Carter's Seductive Crypto-Marxist Story of Palestine versus the Christmas Story
"And you will be hated by all nations because of me...and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." Matthew 24: 9-11
Former President Jimmy Carter recently came to Pasadena (California) to sign copies of his new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." Let's forget for a moment the detailed content of Carter's vitriolic and intentionally provocative book or Carter's tragic record as a President. I think all of us recognize he is a decent and intelligent man. But since it is Christmas time let's look at the underlying rhetorical devices he uses in his book to attract throngs of followers vis-à-vis the Christmas story as contained in the Christian Gospels.
Carter's mythic storyline in his book is one that resonates with many people: the oppressed Palestinians are subjugated by apartheid policies of the Israeli state supported by the evil imperialism of the United States. The peculiar appeal of this underlying story is characteristic of nearly all popular journalism: cast whatever story is at hand in terms of the little guy versus the giant system, David versus Goliath, the proletariat versus the bourgeoisie, the poor versus the rich. This is what sociologists call the deprivation hypothesis, which states that most people are drawn to religion, or to substitute secular political movements and leaders, due to some sense of deprivation in their own lives.
In clinical terms, we might say that such a message and myth attracts "damaged" people or misfits. It is also often appealing to those in the knowledge class (intellectuals, media, teachers, scientists, engineers, etc.) who often feel alienated by the impersonality of modern society or who are outsiders to the commercial sector of society and seek a missing sense of community and social solidarity with the downtrodden. The seductiveness of this popular myth is that it appeals to the baser side of human nature - envy, group hatred, and scapegoating -- while at the same time offering a sense of comfort and community.
This story-line casts a social class-bound vision over all of society. There is no transcendence over one's social class position except that gained by terrorism and revolution or activism over the powers that be. God, if he exists at all, is a bystander in this world class struggle. We should not forget that the intellectual popularizer of this story-line was newspaper journalist Karl Marx. To many people on the Left side of the political-religious spectrum they see no difference between this crypto-Marxist story of Palestine and the historic message of Christianity which includes the Christmas story. To them it is one and the same. It is the Christmas story. But is it?
The Christmas story is not merely the story of a child born out of wedlock into the proletariat class of society oppressed by King Herod and the Roman Empire who leads a revolutionary movement. It is the story of a person who transcends class, tribe, race, gender, even religion as God's suffering agent in the world. It is the story of someone who rejected the message of terrorism or revolution today on the promise of some humane or utopian world order or blissful personal existence tomorrow. The Christmas story rejects and transcends pain, suffering, death and loss of meaning. It says that God is not a bystander but is present in a child's and mother's agony and their flight to safety. It says that God suffers with all tortured and oppressed children. It says that a mother and child will be infinitely comforted beyond this life. It says there will be a judgment beyond this life of those who perpetrate horrors, especially in the name of social justice, jihad, pacifism, isolationism, democracy, paleo-conservatism, neo-conservartism, libertarianism, nirvana, cosmic-oneness, environmentalism, therapy, feminism or any other human cause. There is even a Libertarian-Leftist version of this crypto-Marxist myth applied to the Iraq War as we found in the recent Congressional election. Carter's version of the Palestinian
story is even entrenched in many of the mainline churches in Pasadena. The genuine Christmas story transcends all political and social boundaries and agendas.
One need not even be a Christian to embrace the genuine Christmas story and reject the crypto (secret, hidden, subtle) Marxist story of Palestine conveyed in Carter's new book as well as his previous writings. Carter's book is a story written by a political demagogue (a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the common populace - Webster's). It is a pseudo-Christmas story which should not be believed even by the non-religious. Carter's Pied Piper socialist tune which leads throngs to bookstores is no substitute for Handel's Messiah or even the commercialized song "Jingle Bells" which celebrates giving in a capitalist society at Christmas. Believing in a Capitalist Santa Claus is at worst benign and at best compassionate compared to the horrors of totalitarian Communism, anarchic-libertarian revolution, or the current Islamo-Fascist Jihadism led by a similar class of beady-eyed Leftist intellectuals as the Russian Revolution. History is replete with stories of the disastrous suffering of those who have followed the pseudo-Christmas story of Palestine underlying Carter's book. It is no substitute for the transcendent Christmas message: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
What?
Uh-uh. He lost me RIGHT there. I used to give him the benefit of the doubt, but not any more.
Jimmuh is mean, morally blind, and not very bright, despite his attempts to raise his public stock by claiming that he's decent and intelligent.
LOL! Decent maybe.....intelligent heck no! :)
Sheesh, talk about a particular phrase standing out like a red flag . . . didn't take either one of us long to notice it, did it?
Read this book, then get back to us. I can vouch for some of the stuff in it personally -- some of it was unknown to me until the book came out.
I think all of us recognize he is a decent and intelligent man.Whoa, there Nellie.
Here are the possibilities:
1. Carter is DECENT and INTELLIGENT.
2. Carter is DECENT and NOT-INTELLIGENT.
3. Carter is NOT-DECENT and INTELLIGENT.
4. Carter is NOT-DECENT and NOT-INTELLIGENT.
Given what he wrote --- and how he's conducted himself for at least the past several decades --- you can make a case for #'s 2, 3, & 4. But it's a LOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY that #1 is a correct description of Carter.
(My personal belief: #4)
Wonderful. Thank you for your insight. Really Good News.
Carter, truly on the few HORRID Presidents of our time. And one of the most ANTI-AMERICAN. Bottom line: a stupid hard left-winger that should be retired to Cuba...
Some people today think Mary & Joseph took a donkey because they couldn't afford a car and couldn't get in to a hotel because their poor credit rating precluded them from carrying an American Express Card.
Joseph Married Mary before the birth of Christ - Non?
A double what!! Decent man? Intelligent? Pure crook who is not only delusional today but the cause of all our terrorist challenges today. Yes, ALL of them.
Had he not unseated the Shah of Iran - for personal reasons - such as rejecting his advances on behalf of Georgia friends and blackmail (or is it extortion?) we would never have had the Mullahs - nor the imbalance of power Carter created.
For details on his Illegal Demands on the Shah, go to:
http://www.antimullah.com and check the article of that name in the left hand column.
Alan Peters is also putting together the affidavits and statements of both military Americans and Iranian air force pilots on scene or in the region at the time.
"Soldiers Died, so Carter Lied".
This deals with whether the Hostage Rescue farce was really a hostage rescue or in reality another mission gone bad and Carter had the choice of declaring war on the Soviets or finding an explanation for what happened.
Facts seem to point strongly to there having been no rescue mission executed - though one was cluster-f***ed together by various agencies but never implemented.
A totally different mission in the area, gone bad, used the rescue as cover.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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I think that's a fair statement, though Jimmy is working on changing that.
No, certainly not born out of wedlock. The Annunciation and Conception took place while Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married. She told Joseph what the Archangel had said, and he agreed to marry her. They were married well before they traveled to Bethlehem, according to the biblical account.
Nor were they "homeless people" when there was no room for them in the inn, as some preachers have suggested in recent years, although they certainly understood exile and hardship.
Well, we all recognize that intelligence and wisdom are two different things. IQ doesn't necessarily go with common sense or wisdom. Professors in academia illustrate that every day.
At first I accepted what the media said about Carter being a smart guy--a nucular engineer or something like that. But the more I saw him and action and listened to him, the more I doubted that his IQ was really all that high. Concerning his lack of wisdom there was never any question.
The next question is, whether Carter is a decent Christian gentleman, as the press also depicts him. There, too, my early reaction was, sure. He may be dumb a rock, but at least he tries.
Here, too, I have changed my mind. No one could rack up such an unbroken record of kissing up to dictators and tyrants, coming down on the wrong side of everything, and undermining his country without having a streak of evil in him as well as stupidity. This latest business of partying with the Holocaust deniers is only the clearest evidence that Carter is not just dumb, but evil.
Sorry, you might not think it to look at him. He just looks like an ignorant peanut farmer who was promoted beyond his competence. But he's proven himself to be a lot worse than that. He never saw a Communist, a terrorist, or a tyrant he didn't instantly love, or a decent American he didn't hate.
Speak for yourself Wayne. Don't include me in "all".
FMCDH(BITS)
Standard Litany of Georgia's Apologies...
Normally reserved for the lunacy and incessant babbling of one Jimmah Cahtah...
Jimmy Carter lost me when in a speech he referred to Kim Il Sung as "Great Leader", the same term used in Nork propaganda.
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