Is Obama a wolf in sheep's clothing ?

[sandybanks]

In Dreams From My Father Obama describes the point where he decided to join Trinity. This comes toward the end of his pre-law school days of community organizing. Crack has just begun to appear on the south side of Chicago, the projects are getting dangerous, the working class neighborhoods are deteriorating, people are fencing their yards and installing steel security grates over their front doors. One night, he gets up in the middle of the night to confront some teens who are making noise in front of his apartment, goes out in his shorts, and realizes these aren't friendly boys partying a little too hard, but thugs who are messed up on crack and have guns. He talks about the breakdown of family and community. He talks about his organizing work, when just looked at as a means of accomplishing community goals, seems impotent and empty of meaning.

He describes how he was trying to organize ministers, and had been sitting in on Sunday services, and how he'd had to meet with Rev. Wright many times. How he'd told Rev. Wright he was Christian but not interested in organized religion, and Wright had backed off on inviting him to come worship. He was meeting with Wright when he saw a group of girls lined up waiting to go into a contemporary dance class, all in little matching dance outfits and with dance shoes. He remarked to the little girls that their costumes looked nice, and the girls told him that they had just gotten them from the church for advancing to level two. Obama asked Rev. Wright about why the church was offering dance classes and providing the costumes, and Wright explained that their are many children who couldn't afford the classes, but had interest and talent, so the church began to offer the classes so that they could have a sliding tuition scale. He said the church felt children born into poverty should be given an opportunity to develop whatever talents God had given them to help them get themselves out of the poverty cycle. After a while, the church noticed that some of these girls, no matter how talented or interested they were, would drop out right around the age where dance might help them most -- 13, 14. After looking into the reasons, they found that some of the girls at this age became ashamed that they didn't have the proper clothes or shoes, felt they weren't worthy to take classes from great dancers (they had many prominent African-American dancers guest teach). The church decided to reward the attendance and participation that ws required to move to the next level by providing uniforms. They didn't want to give some girls handouts and make them feel more different or ashamed, but they wanted them to have the opportunities, and it was the role of a church to serve all children as their own. Obama describes how this encounter started him thinking about what he was doing in community organizing, and how it fit.

Weeks later, Obama describes how he was attending Sunday services at Trinity as part of his Ministers Alliance work, and how it all came together for him...how without the meaning of Christianity, his work was without meaning, without a sense of community and shared responsibility, it could never work anyway. How the ideas of Jesus were the ideas of freedom and justice and equality. That we can't have freedom and justice for all if we aren't our brothers' and our sisters' keepers. He realized God was what was missing from his life, and why his work had begun to feel as if it lacked meaning. He said it came to him in a crystal clear moment, and he was moved to walk up the aisle and accept Christ.

He left Chicago not long after to attend Harvard Law. He wrote of the experience in 1993, when liberals weren't really talking about conversion experiences and people running for president didn't describe adolescent drug use and rebellion. I tend to think he was sincere, and that what attracted him to Trinity was not his pastor (who has lectured at Harvard School of Divinity and is considered important and mainstream enough to have been one of the ministers invited to the White House to counsel Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal), but the ministries of the church, the community outreach, the youth programs, the homeless outreach, the mix of people of all income levels. Also, I imagine the fact that the professionals and alumni of prestigious universities who attend services alongside working class and poor and mentor disadvantaged children, and help working class children with talent and promise through the process of admissions with help and encouragement so that they can join the ranks of professionals -- as they did for a young Michelle Obama -- probably attracted him as well.

So, is trying to give a hand up to the least among us Marxist? Were those sliding tuition scales and free costumes for those little girls socialist? I think it's Christian, but I guess you can call it Marxist. You can call the reasons behind giving alms to the poor and tithing Marxist, too. Liberation Theology is about giving a hand up to the oppressed. It's a belief that just as the Hebrew people had to go through the time in Egypt in order to make them stronger, god sometimes subjects his children to periods of repression in order to bring them closer to God in their liberation. What better way to encourage a child to turn away from the streets and crack, toward God, than to link the struggle of slavery and civil rights and racism as a struggle his people have and are overcoming, that his forefathers suffered to lift him up, and if he chooses thuggery, he loses his place at the right hand of the Father?

Further, you can keep throwing around the terms Marxist and Liberation Theology and sow the seeds of fear about something -- reverse racism? I don't know...if Obama wasn't a patriot, why would he have given up opportunities to make millions on Wall Street and instead have returned to a low-paying organizing job after Harvard? What is a patriot if it's not someone who loves his community and his country enough to devote his life to making it better? Why would someone whose family resembles a rainbow harbor the racial animosity you suspect of him? That sort of smear shows more about the sort of person you are than the sort Sen. Obama is.

I read about a study the other day that said in 7 of the last 8 national elections, more people had said they were voting against one candidate than voting for the candidate they'd supported. Meaning, more people had voted for George Bush to keep John Kerry from becoming president, or vice versa. More people voted out of fear than out of hope. How sad is that? And doesn't it explain so much about the gridlock and why our government is dysfunctional. People vote to keep something bad from happening, not to help make something good happen. The campaigns have been so negative, that the half those elected hate the other half. They go to Washington not with a mandate for change, but with a mandate to keep the other side from accomplishing any of it's goals. Our elected representatives get to Washington, and instead of joining together to address the needs of the American people, and once they agree on what's needed, engaging in lively debate about how to get there as they once did in the House and Senate, they retreat to their corners, and work in red camps and blue camps seeking to thwart each other.

So, Further...if you and Thomas Sowell via CCK want to talk about negative things about the candidate you don't support instead of positive things about the candidate you do support, you are perpetuating the fear that leads to negative voting and broken government. You are spreading the fear and the cynicism that anathema to the ideals of our country. I read your negative post, and I do not think Barack Obama is not a patriot, I think Further is not a Patriot!

:roll::shock::scratch:

 

[wrobert]

:roll::shock::scratch:

Sandy,

Do you live in Walton County?

 

[sandybanks]

I have a friend that I stay with when I am in the area. It is beautiful in SoWal and I hope to build a house down there one day.

I have a few properties that I visit but as for now the answer would be no.

 

[seacrestgirl]

Rapunzel,

Thank you for consistently straightening out the facts regarding Obama.

It is imperative that we all step back and consider the motivation before talking about a candidate that we don't support. It has been said many times on many other threads----------if you find yourself doubting Obama, read his books. They are amazing and inspiring. He is honest about his past and how he came to be the man that he is. The world would be a better place if each of us would spend the time and effort that Obama has to learn what's on the other side of the coin.

 

[wrobert]

I have a friend that I stay with when I am in the area. It is beautiful in SoWal and I hope to build a house down there one day.

I have a few properties that I visit but as for now the answer would be no.

Oh well, close enough. Thanks.

 

[Furthur]

Whoa Rapunzel, Your last post attacking me as racist and unpatriotic is way off. Unfounded and if I must say so myself totally untrue as anyone who knows me would attest.
You need to back up and read my post slowly. I never said that Obama was a racist.In fact I said just the opposite. See # 29 where I wrote "I'm not insinuating that Obama is a racist" And I have never questioned his patriotism. Your attempt to slander me and stifle this conversation is really beneath you. I can only assume the heat of this campaign has gotten you down.
I don't doubt that Obama is a Patriot and is trying to do what he thinks is best for our country.
I just disagree with the radical way he wants to try to go about it.

Socialism has been a failure because Government spending is an inherently inferior way to promote growth. Growth being what ultimately produces progress.
Giving the Federal Government a larger piece of the economic pie will only slow things down and retard human progress.
Socialism sounds good on the surface but it doesn't work as the people in any number of countries crippled by it will tell you

As an engine for growth nothing beats good old Capitalism and low taxes, especially in a recession.

My argument with the Left has nothing to do with Patriotism.
It is all about economics. What has proved to work and has made America accountable for 40% of the worlds total yearly economic activity. VS. Utopian hopes and dreams.

 

[ItzKatzTime]

I'm going to throw myself into this....just for some excitement in my life!:roll:

I don't think Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing, BUT I do wonder if Obama was sleeping while "the Man of the Cloth" was preaching!

I wasn't really bothered until I heard Obama's statement that if Rev.Wright hadn't resigned he (Obama) would have quit the chuch. To me that statement really says a lot. And one other thing that really baffled me was when his wife got up and said this was the first time in her life she was proud of America. I think that statement really jives with sitting in a church for 20 years listening to what Rev. Wright has been teaching.

I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg. And this means all of them!!!! McCain, Obama and Hillary. Only the months ahead will tell.

Okay, I'm totally covered in bubble wrap if anyone wants to throw something at me. Kat

 

[dawg1029]

Funny thing I agree, Obama, doesn't telle veryone his middle name HUSSEIN, is it me or does that strike anyone else funny

 

[ShallowsNole]

Funny thing I agree, Obama, doesn't telle veryone his middle name HUSSEIN, is it me or does that strike anyone else funny

There is a local family with the same last name. Their daughters have grown up here and are excellent students and athletes at SWHS. I have heard people (usually opposing fans) snicker about their last name. Is that proper?

 

[iqueequeg]

Funny thing I agree, Obama, doesn't telle veryone his middle name HUSSEIN, is it me or does that strike anyone else funny

I've found a startling clip with revelations about many of the candidates, including Obama's TRUE full name (you have to watch a 30 second commercial)

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?mea=229117