Recently the Obama campaign and its surrogates have been putting forth the preposterous proposition that Jesus Christ was a “community organizer”, and that Pontius Pilate was a “governor”. The obvious connection they want us to make is that Barack Obama is like Jesus Christ, and Sarah Palin is like Pontius Pilate. I guess one could possibly draw those conclusions if they knew nothing about Jesus Christ or community organizing. However, when one examines the facts, one could very well come up with the exact opposite conclusion. First let us begin with a working definition of “community organizer” and see if Jesus Christ actually was one. Since Obama is the “community organizer” that is being compared to Jesus, perhaps it is best to use his own words in defining the occupation:
“In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise that (1) the proble ms facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; (2) that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and (3) that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership — and not one or two charismatic leaders — can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions.
This means bringing together churches, block clubs, parent groups and any other institutions in a given community to pay dues, hire organizers, conduct research, develop leadership, hold rallies and education campaigns, and begin drawing up plans on a whole range of issues — jobs, education, crime, etc. Once such a vehicle is formed, it holds the power to make politicians, agencies and corporations more responsive to community needs. Equally important, it enables people to break their crippling isolat i on from each other, to reshape their mutual values and expectations and rediscover the possibilities of acting collaboratively — the prerequisites of any successful self-help initiative.” Barack Obama, After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois (c) 1990 Illinois Issues, University of Illinois at Springfield ISBN: 0-9620873-3-5
Now, the first thing that comes to mind is that Obama specifically states that community organizing cannot be based upon “one or two charismatic leaders”. Ironically Jesus’ entire ministry was based on His uniqueness as a charismatic leader. In fact His ministry was predicated upon His claim to be the “only begotten Son of God” (see. John 3: 18), that He was literally God in the flesh, and that He was the “way, the truth, and the life” (see John 14:6). Hence, the primary focus of Jesus’ ministry was upon Jesus Himself. He did not “bring together churches, block clubs, parent groups, and any other institutions…to pay dues, hire organizers, conduct research, develop leadership, hold rallies and education campaigns, and begin drawing up plans on a whole range of issues – jobs, education, crime, etc .”
Indeed, Jesus focused His message on the Kingdom of Heaven, not on worldly gains, which appears to be the primary role of a “community organizer”, ie. to determine specific physical needs of a community, and then to organize the community to address those needs. Rather Jesus stated plainly: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unt o you.” Mat. 6: 33
Hence Jesus addressed not the physical deficiencies of the community, but rather the spiritual deficiencies of the individual. He correctly surmised that once a person was brought into a right relationship with God, then God would provide the rest. How completely opposite from the Obama’s model of community agitating for redress of grievances. In Obama’s marxist world view based upon Saul Alinsky, the original Chicago “community organizer”, God provides nothing, it is up to the community to provide for itself.
Ironically, the profile of “community organizer” more closely fits that of Barabbas, the insurrectionist that the Jews demanded to be released instead of Jesus. Barabbas had led the insurrection against the Roman “oppressors” and had committed murder during the revolt. In short, Barrabas had identified the needs of the community, ie. that they were oppressed, an d had organized an effective response, an insurrection, which certainly rediscovered “the possibilities of acting collectively”. That would make him the ideal community organizer. Saul Alinsky and Barack Obama would have been proud. No wonder the Jews demanded that he be released instead of Jesus Christ, for Jesus spoke of a heavenly kingdom, not a worldly one.
The first century Jews were looking for a worldly leader who would save them from Roman oppression. They could not comprehend that they needed a spiritual leader to save them from their sins. Hence they wanted Barabbas, not Jesus to lead them. Obama is very much like Barabbas, he is worldly, and he is a leader. But he is no Jesus. I know Jesus, and Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus Christ was no “community organizer”; and you, Obama, are no Jesus Christ!
80% of the people in this country are Christians. I wonder who many Obama turned off with this schlick. I am not so very religious but even I am mortally offended. As you say, Obama is no Jesus. Not even close.
well 80% claim to be Christian. Please feel free to read into this comment.
This whole community organizer crap is getting old. Its like defending yourself as THE protector of your city just because you picked up some litter and put 5 dollars in a homeless mans cup. Congratulations, heres your plastic trophy.
I have to also add, that any comparison against Christ is going to be outrageous and offensive, UNLESS A) you are Christ returned B) You are the anti-Christ or C) You are Obamma. Wait, maybe that one is a repeat. Not sure of which one…
Just what is a community organizer? I’ve never met anyone who knows. What did Hussein O do with the millions of dollars he got from the taxpayers? Where are the people on the South side of Chicago that Hussein O helped with his community organizing? I’ll bet most he worked with, if he ever worked with anyone, are in the graveyard. I saw the $150 Gazebo that cost $100,000. Someone find someone who Hussein O helped, that is someone other than Chicago organized crime figures, terrorists, and himself to millions of dollars. I think Community organizer is code words for welfare ripoff.
His work in this field? gives him ‘0’ minutes of executive experience.
Just read an interesting article on McCain’s war injuries since Hussein O has chosen to slander him because he don’t do Email. He can’t do Email unless someone types it for him. The dhimmi dummies failed to do a simple search of the web to find out his ‘war’ injuries prevent him from typing on a keyboard. I guess if you have never worked at a real job or served in the military you wouldn’t be expected to know about work injuries or actual physical torture. Democrat elitest and just plain old democrats are proving to be real dumb a**es.
These people are going over the top, comparing Obama’s work to the work that Jesus did.
Community organizer indeed. Something Obama has been deeply involved with, but doesn’t mention ACORN on the campaign trail. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. They are certainly miffed by the new found attention the McCain/Palin campaign is giving to community organizers.
http://www.acorn.org/
He has a dubious history with ACORN.
what does obama think a community organiser do? if you take the two words and take the menaing of them it sounds kinda like some people are very disorganised. wow, he put them in order, he is very good i guess at making order in the community. but, really, how does one organise a community? mr. smith, please come over here, and ms. jones would you go over there please? we must organise people, please go to your places. yeah, thats about it in my view.
Troopergate prosecuter Brankflower may have done a no-no by contacting Todd Palin….
Van Flein states….
He also warned that all communications need to go through the lawyers. He said he had recently learned that Branchflower tried to call Todd Palin directly “on a secure and confidential line. This represents a serious security breach that we may be obligated to report to the Secret Service.”
Also…
The legislature’s special counsel Steve Branchflower so far has not been able to depose either Palin or her husband, Todd. Van Flein indicated the governor likely will not agree to a deposition unless lawmakers turn the matter over to the Personnel Board.
“Assuming you agree to submit to proper jurisdictional process, we can check the governor’s schedule to see when she and the first gentleman are available for an interview,” Van Flein wrote.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1116754&srvc=rss
Hi Missy,
Thanks for the acorn link. Here is some more on Obama’s “community organizing” that I put together for another board. We are only just beginning to gain an understanding of Obama’s “community organizer” activities. The seditious ACORN organization was certainly prominent among those organizations he funded and mobilized in order to propel him into public office. Indeed, the more we find out about the focus of Obama’s “community organizing’, the less like Jesus Christ and the more like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Saul Alinsky, he appears. I have no doubt that Obama’s move to Chicago from Hawaii was promoted by his communist mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, who was from Chicago and had been emersed in that Alinsky style marxism which has been more recently cloaked under the guise of “Black Liberation Theology”. The following is an excerpt from an excellent article located at Road Sassy.
Barack Hussein Obama: The Malignant Tenets of the Community Organizer
I can not urge you enough to read Melanie Phillip’s Revolution You Can Believe In, a dissection of what Barack Hussein Obama’s community organizing actually served to do. Far from some benign outreach to the poor and young, it was no more than another chapter in this Marxist’s malignant vision for a broken and castrated America. Below find a few excerpts, but da–, you simply have to read the entire piece. It will chill you to the bone.
…in the world of Barack Obama, community organisers are a key strategy in a different game altogether; and the name of that game is revolutionary Marxism.
The seditious role of the community organiser was developed by an extreme left intellectual called Saul Alinsky. He was a radical Chicago activist who, by the time he died in 1972, had had a profound influence on the highest levels of the Democratic party. Alinsky was a ‘transformational Marxist’ in the mould of Antonio Gramsci, who promoted the strategy of a ‘long march through the institutions’ by capturing the culture and turning it inside out as the most effective means of overturning western society. In similar vein, Alinsky condemned the New Left for alienating the general public by its demonstrations and outlandish appearance. The revolution had to be carried out through stealth and deception. Its proponents had to cultivate an image of centrism and pragmatism. A master of infiltration, Alinsky wooed Chicago mobsters and Wall Street financiers alike. And successive Democratic politicians fell under his spell…
Obama’s connection with Alinsky, whom he never met but whom he reportedly idolised, was through two bodies promoting the Alinsky model of community organisation, ACORN and the Gamaliel Foundation. John Perazzo again:
Obama was trained by the Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Chicago and worked for an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, whose modus operandi for the creation of ‘a more just and democratic society’ is rooted firmly in the Alinsky method. As The Nation magazine puts it, ‘Obama worked in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, who made Chicago the birthplace of modern community organizing…’ In fact, for several years Obama himself taught workshops on the Alinsky method.
http://roadsassy.com/
And what is the “Alinsky method” you might ask? Saul Alinsky lays out his “method” in his book Rules for Radicals which he dedicated to Lucifer
“Lest we forget an over the shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical, from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off, and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he earned his own kingdom – Lucifer” Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (see:
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/hillary-clintons-idol-saul-alinsky-and-satan.
Now that’s change you can disbelieve in! For more on Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals check out Craig Miyomoto’s excellent synopsis at:
http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/8925/alinsky.htm
If you are really interested in who Obama really is, and what his “community organizing” really consisted of, go to the links and read the entire articles, especially Melanie Phillip’s article. I am convinced that Obama did not just happen to end up in Chicago, nor did he just happen to choose to be a “community organizer”. He was actually following a path that had already been laid out and well trod by his marxist mentors, though they certainly did not achieve his degree of success. Of one thing we can be certain; this path of deceipt and deception was not the righteous path the Lord Jesus Christ trod. It looks to be more the one Lucifer and Alinsky trod. Maybe Obama’s slogan should rather be: “Lucifer was a community organizer, and God was a governor!” I do like Mike’s America slogan for us though.
In Christ,
Ariel
Thank you Ariel. I’ve read Melanie Phillips in the past, others in my net haunts have been encouraging us to read some of her work regarding Obama, which I will do. As I’ve mentioned before, he is my senator. Prior to his election to the US Senate, some of the information that is coming out now was circulating then in local outlets. Now there is much more to study, nothing about him surprises me.
He’s made his way to where he is now with a lot of IL Dem party help and luck. He really shouldn’t be where he is today.
Obama may not be THE deceiver, but he certainly is a deceiver and a very good one at that. This brings to light why he is so proud of his community organizer title and why he believes that his position as one makes him the best choice for president. If people want the best deceiver as president, Obama is the choice. If people want the change that Obama wants to bring, a Marxists-Socialist country, then Obama is the choice.
Obama’s goals are clear now as to what his change really means.
Well, it is very interesting that most of you take the button so literally; however, not surprising. Conservative Christians believe themselves superior to all (even among themselves) and love any opportunity to attack and oppress. If you care, which I am sure you don’t, but I just cannot live with myself if I do not say this…The button does not say Obama is Jesus and Palin is Pilate. It merely puts things into perspective – the conservative Christians, sorry, I mean the Republicans who belittled Obama’s career and then have the audacity to say Palin is qualified because she is a governor – need a little wake up call. Conservative Christian Republicans refuse to acknowledge Obama’s accomplishments and instead use scare tactics (like they/you do) to make sure your “Operation Oppression” is still in full force. Get off your pulpits, get educated, and start acting like Christians not bullies.
Like what career? Name one thing that Barack has actually done. As far as belittling Barack’s career, his claim to the Presidency, in his own words, he was a community organizer and he wrote a really great resume. His claim to foreign policy experience is visiting and campaigning outside the US.
Sarah Palin runs a STATE, which the left wing main stream media mistakenly calls one of the US’s smallest states. Obama runs nothing. These aren’t scare tactics, these are truths. You want scare tactics, YOUR side belittles Sarah Palin because she has 5 kids, was a small town mayor, refused to get an abortion, and OH MY GOD, she dares to want to be vice-president while she has family. GOD FORBID!
Would you kindly make a list of those for me?
Me me! Pick me! I know the answer!!!! LOL
Educational reform… NOT…. with the CAC. But he sure blew a wad of money trying, along with his bud, William Ayers.
Now that is something he’s “actually done” that is relevant to his qualifications as a POTUS.
One of my favorite Obama accomplishments…FFAT 2006
Obama’s accomplishment?? Fit, this is beneath you.
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 had 47 Senate sponsors… almost half the dang body… on that bill.
And that includes McCain as a co-sponsor.
An Obama accomplishment??? Just as much as it was a McCain accomplishment. Thank you.
BTW, if I may clarify… the bill was introduced by Sen. Thomas Coburn [R-OK]. Uh… that would be GOP for the English letter challenged….
All Obama did was sign on with the other 21 Dems. On the other hand, in addition to Coburn, there were 26 other GOPers.
Nice leaderships, Obama… NOT! Congrats for bucking so many of your party to add a dang website…
I really have to add this from Fit’s CNN article… OMG, what ineptness. Either Peter Hamby is a total Obama campaign dude, or he’s dumber than dirt.
Quotes from his article, when speaking of Palin
Obama didn’t do sheeeeet. Coburn, a GOP Senator did. 26 other GOP Senators signed on – including McCain – and 21 other DNC Senators did too… including Obama.
That is NOT “…somebody’s already done it. His name is Barack Obama”
And when you read the comments, the sheeple respond in kind.. never searching out the truth about the bill.
Not to mention, Palin didn’t suggest putting the federal checkbook on line, as she did in her state, and the fed Congress did. She suggested adding more of “that kind of transparency” to government. Duh…
Transparency, my ass…. not in the media, anyway.
Well obviously Karen just needed to get her own self righteousness off her chest. If you are in the position to call others out on perceived blanket stereotypes, then it says to me that your view of yourself is above us ‘self righteous conservative republican Christians’… whats the difference right?
Would it be fair to label you a left-wing-nut baby killer with no real concept of reality, but only what the media feeds you? But then again, I would think anyone heartless enough to kill an innocent person would have no real concept of right or wrong. Thus, why would I want your party to run my country?
Logical deduction doesn’t always lead to the truth, Karen. Especially when you are deducing from a ‘false-truth’. Class dismissed.
I am really leaning towards Jonathan Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal”(Dean of St. Patricks in Dublin – 18th Century). It probably had the best answer to resolving issues for unwanted children (from rape, incest, the poor – who’s children starved to death, etc). Gently boil with some veggies and serve up hot.
Can you see Russia from your backyard, too? I mean, I live in Washington DC – so that makes me an expert in all things associated with this country.
Keating Five – look it up.
Libs defend everything with sarcasm, talking points, and protest anthems. Karen, you won’t have to worry about ‘seeing russia from your backyard’. DC is about to turn into Moscow. I will be sure to thank you for it. Should I just submit my order to you for my car? I assume I will need one 10 years from now.
My crystal ball tells me that Karen shares the revised version of the Keating Five scandal that has been floating about lately.
McCain was the only Republican involved in the Keating Five Scandal, he was cleared after a lengthy investigation by the Senate Ethics Panel. Bob Bennett, a democrat who served as special council during the investigation has often publically stated that he argued against the panel’s charge that McCain “exercised poor judgement.” Bennett also said that because McCain was the only Republican named in the Keating Five, the democrats who were then in control of the Senate insisted on issuing the charge because otherwise it would be viewed as a democratic scandal. So you see, there are occasions where dems want to be bi-partisan.
From the NYTimes:
The cloud of scandal did not lift until Nov. 20, 1991, when he was exonerated by the Senate Ethics Committee after an investigation that included weeks of televised hearings. The committee found that Mr. McCain had ”exercised poor judgment” in attending, with four other senators, two meetings with federal banking regulators, but it found no improper action on his part.
”I found nothing in my investigation which caused me to question Senator McCain’s integrity,” said Robert Bennett, the Washington lawyer who was special counsel to the ethics panel during what is called the Keating Five investigation. Mr. Bennett, more recently, has been one of President Clinton’s lawyers.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E7D9123CF932A15752C1A96F958260
Now, on to Rezco, Ayers, CAC.$160 million, etc.
The problem with this statement deriding the idea of Jesus Christ as a community organizer is the same problem that the Republicans use (no I am not a Democrat) use to make weak points, basically grabbing one phrase from an entire book, speech or even philosophy and throwing it out for a dummied down analysis. Also, she is pulling from only one definition of community organizing, and even some of the other defining statements that are cited in the post do make at least me think that yes Jesus was doing that. But before I get to that, let me give you my definition of community organizing. Community organizing is a process that brings together the best parts of a community together under a common vision for good. It does this by organizing resources and people to help bring about that vision. Did Jesus Christ bring together the best aspects of his communities for the common good. Did HE bring people together to believe in a shared vision? Did he organize resources? (water to wine might be one) (bountiful harvest from a loaf of bread?). Did he have a group of organizers that delegated and took on much of the work? (delegation of tasks is a hallmark of successful organizing) Well maybe we start with the 12 disciples? Also community organizing is only successful after the initial leader leaves and the institution that was created continues to exist and thrive. (I think maybe Christianity has stood the test of time.)
On the other hand there is no doubt that Sarah Palin is a governor, and this is not to say that merely being a governor is a bad thing, but governors are politicians that are not held to the one standard that a community organizer is held to, whether people on the ground are coming together, building a shared vision and creating a better community than existed before the movement began.
wow mark, that was half rediculous and mostly inane. A governor is a politician that is not held to one standard that a community organizer is held to? Seriously?! What planet do you live on? Geez people, I would be embarrassed if my only accomplishment was being a ‘community organizer’. Its like trying to polish rust and calling it gold. Get over it. Given the fact that Palin is compared with Obama is friggin hilarious anyway.