baldilocks

Pope and POTUS

President Obama paid his respects to the Russian versions of Bergen and McCarthy and caused a small stir at the G8 by appearing to ogle the backside of a young Brazilian girl (he didn’t but French President Nicholas Sarkozy definitely did; ah, the French). Now the POTUS is on his way to Ghana after having taken a trip to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. The two allegedly discussed abortion and embryonic stem cell research—obviously from opposing viewpoints. As an opening salvo, the pope gave the president a book on bioethics.  

One wonders whether the pontiff also slipped a copy of Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation-–authored by one Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger--to Black Liberation Theology’s most famous adherent. 

An excerpt therefrom: 

...it would be illusory and dangerous to ignore the intimate bond which radically unites them (liberation theologies), and to accept elements of the marxist analysis without recognizing its connections with the (Marxist) ideology, or to enter into the practice of the class-struggle and of its marxist interpretation while failing to see the kind of totalitarian society to which this process slowly leads. 

 (Emphasis mine.)

I wouldn’t doubt that this pope just happened to slip his 1984 repudiation of Liberation Theologies in with the gifts.

Speaking of Defenders of the Faith, my dad—the American one--is on a mission. One might call it a Crusade. Dad—a Methodist pastor—has made it his business to confront other black Christian pastors on their generalized failure to instruct their flocks regarding the evil of abortion and its role in the physical, moral and spiritual destruction of Americans who happen to be black.  Please pray for him.

Idolatry (UPDATED)

Sometimes when you're surfing, you find things that just need posting--a "coincidence," if you like.

Beware of manufacturing a god of your own: a god who is all mercy but not just, a god who is all love but not holy, a god who has a heaven for everybody but a hell for none, a god who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a god is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible, there is no God at all.

Beware of making selections from your Bible to suit your taste. Dare not to say, ‘I believe this verse, for I like it. I refuse that, for I cannot reconcile it with my views’. Nay! But O man, who art thou that repliest against God? By what right do you talk in this way? Surely it were better to say over EVERY chapter in the word, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth”. Ah! If men would do this, they would never deny the unquenchable fire.

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), Fire, Fire!

(Thanks to Conservative Black Woman)

UPDATE: The "Jesus" described by Liberation Theologies is most certainly an idol, as is the little-g god worshiped by Liberation theologians such as James Cone, prophet of Black Liberation Theology.  Of course we remember Cone's god: the one who will get revenge on the "white enemy."  And of course we remember who BLT's most famous adherent is.

The Tactic of Smear

Obama may have left Black Liberation Theology’s Trinity United Church of “Christ,” but it certainly hasn’t left him.

Obama continued: "And so the only way they [sic] figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they’re saying is, ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s... doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name.'

The candidate belonged to a church that subscribed to an ideology of racial vengeance and victory. He may have left the church, but he hasn’t left the racial combat notions behind, not by a long shot. So he must keep Sowing the racial Discord. Fortunately, for him, that isn’t difficult, since the idea that Republicans were the party of racists was planted long before Obama came on the scene.

So no matter how much McCain demonstrates that he is the very opposite of racist, he is at a disadvantage. It’s tough to fight forty years of indoctrination.

Obama’s purpose in keeping up this tactic of racist smearing is twofold: 1) to keep the troops stoked, and 2) to help the nation to forget that he allied himself with a set of racists for twenty years, the truth be damned.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

UPDATE: Ace:

These guys are so horny for someone to call Obama a shiftless darkie they're thisclose to saying it themselves.

I'm trying to be offended. Maybe after I stop laughing.

Did Obama Give Permission to Publish Prayer?

Well how about this? The Israeli newspaper which published Obama's Wailing Wall prayer claims to have done it on his directon.

Ma'ariv issued a response Sunday, saying that "Obama's note was published in Ma'ariv and other international publications following Obama's authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem.

Ma'ariv added further:

Moreover, since Obama is not Jewish, there is no violation of privacy as there would be for a Jewish person who places a note in the Western Wall.

Is this true? That doesn't sound right.

SIDE NOTE: I tried to get a quote directly from Ma'ariv, but it's published in Hebrew only as far as I can tell.

PREVIOUSLY:

Israeli Newspaper Publishes Obama Wailing Wall Prayer

UPDATE: Allahpundit calls shenanigans with solid reasoning.

(a) I can’t find any English language version of the story at the Ynet website, (b) if they did have it, they might very well have gotten it from the same kid as Ma’ariv, and (c) if [Ma'ariv] had gotten it from the campaign, respecting Obama’s privacy wouldn’t have been a concern.

All true, but none if this excludes the possibility that Obama may have set this up. He has made such calculated moves before.

Israeli Newspaper Publishes Obama Wailing Wall Prayer

While in Israel, Barack Obama, visited The Wailing Wall, which

is thought by Jews to be the most sacred of places, because the temple itself was thought to be the place where God resides on earth. Praying at the Wailing Wall signifies being in the presence of the Divine. Jews from all countries, and as well as tourists of other religious backgrounds, come to pray at the wall, where it is said one immediately has the “ear of god.” [snip]

[Written p]rayers sent in are placed into the cracks of the walls and are called tzetzels.

Obama did so while on his visit, but now an Israeli newspaper is coming under fire for publishing the specifics of the prayer, as well it should.

AP:

The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded in Obama’s relationship with God.

“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them,” he told Army Radio. The publication “damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves,” he said.

A conversation between God and one of His creations is a place I wouldn't want to intrude--especially this particular creation.

Maariv published a photograph of the note, which it said had been removed from the wall by a student at a Jewish seminary immediately after Obama left.

As much as I stand against Obama as president, this is shameful behavior.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing provides more history and tells of his trip to the Wailing Wall.

The Anchoress is aghast at the behavior of the newspaper in question, the student and at that of some faith-based entities regarding the topic.

Donald also provides this comment from the Jerusalem Post's Caroline Glick:

This was supposed to be a private benediction, and it was extraordinarily improper for someone to take this prayer and sell it to the media. On the other hand, in the world of paparazzi, the exposure of the prayer was predictable, and Obama apparently constructed the prayer for public consumption. Like everything else about his visit, this was a carefully crafted statement, designed not to ruffle very many feathers. And like this prayer, there was nothing extraordinary about Obama’s visit. As you would expect from a politician, he tried to be all things to all people. And he probably succeeded.

Glick is probably one of the few people brave enough to say what many are thinking. Still it's unseemly to judge the quality of communication between another and God. Let's just hope (and pray) that his prayers are answered in the affirmative.

Black Liberation Theology and White Guilt

No one should feel guilty about any crime they didn't personally commit, but whenever I read a post and a thread like this one regarding white guilt, I wonder whether such people are equally as fervent about distancing themselves from the laudable actions and legacies of our Founding Fathers--or that of the World War Two Generation--as they are about disassociating themselves from the country's distant slave-holding past and not-so-distant oppressive past (45 years ago).

If our good history is relevant to who we, as Americans, are today, then so is our bad history and there's nothing wrong with thinking about and acknowledging the truth about both. Our foundation is composed of both. However, it does not, or rather, it need not follow that blame be cast or guilt be felt as a result of admitting the truth. Think first; feel second, if at all.

Just saying.

Not being perfect, America and Americans have not and do not always reach the bar which we had set for us in the late eighteenth century. However, we should feel proud--not guilty--that our Founding Fathers gave us such a high bar to reach for in the first place. When we fall short we get up and try again. That's our heritage and to have the country wallow in both guilt and blame gives all of us an excuse not to get up.

PRETEND AS THOUGH THERE'S A SEGUE HERE: Christian doctrine maintains that we're all guilty of sin and deserve death and that Jesus Christ died for our crimes. But the doctrine of Black Liberation Theology changes the essential nature of Jesus Christ, holds white persons still culpable for their perceived sins and those of their fathers and--the most important part--ignores Jesus's purpose for being born, being crucified and being resurrected.

The founder of BLT and those who have been taking in by him want to hold onto the power of guilt over white Americans, but can't be brave enough to repudiate Jesus Christ as he actually is. His mercy is inconvenient. So they change him into someone else, a victim who requires earthly vengeance. It's a change--a lie--they can believe in.

Even though the Obamas have left TUCC, they have not refuted their belief in this religion of guilt and blame, this Black Liberation Theology. As a matter of fact Michelle is still selling guilt, white and otherwise, while her mate offers the sufferers of white-guilt the promise of redemption if only they would believe in him.

Do not forget that this is who these folks are.

Sheep

Leah Daughtry, the CEO of the Democrat National Convention is a Black Liberation Theology pastor.

In her positions as [Howard] Dean’s top aid and the convention’s top official, Daughtry, who is 44 years old, is leading the Democratic Party’s new mission to make religious believers — particularly ardent Christian believers — view the party and its candidates as receptive to, and often impelled by, the dictates of faith. She sparked this crusade, both to transfigure the party’s image as predominantly secular and to take enough votes from the Republicans to win this year’s presidential election, in the aftermath of George W. Bush’s 2004 defeat of John Kerry. And in her vocation as a Pentecostal pastor she stands for faith in an extreme form. There is nothing equivocal about her belief. Hers is a religion not only of divine healing but of talking in tongues.

Behind her as she preached, a simple wooden cross hung on a brick wall in the vaulted and sizable sanctuary of the church, which is headed by her father, Herbert Daughtry. A prison convert who served time in his early 20s for armed robbery and passing bad checks, Herbert Daughtry — whose father founded the church and whose grandfather and great-grandfather were also ministers — became the church’s pastor 50 years ago, and today Leah was delivering the sermon as part of an anniversary celebration. Below the sanctuary, in the fellowship hall, a banner for slavery reparations proclaimed, “They Owe Us.” Fliers recounted Herbert Daughtry’s arrest, a few weeks earlier, as he led marchers protesting the not-guilty verdict in the police killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man. His ministry has always [sic] combined consuming spirituality with black liberation theology — the theology Jeremiah Wright invoked this spring to defend his controversial sermons — and zealous political activism. Leah holds these forces within her.

Four things:

• Daughtry’s church could not have been a BLT stronghold for 50 years, since BLT’s founder, James Cone, didn’t write the first BLT manual until 1969. The elder Daughtry simply led his flock astray.

• We certainly have religious freedom in this country, but I can’t help but wonder what the response would be if the Republican National Convention hired a pastor from the Christian Identity Movement; that is, another church which uses Christ-coating to (thinly) veil its racial superiority ideology.

• White Liberals must have a Debasement Wish.

• If an apostate church exists, this is it. Everyone seems to be intent on taking Christ’s place on the Cross. What they forget is that he’s not even there anymore.

(Thanks to Hot Air and Conservative Punk)

Over the Side

In the wake of the recent buffoonery displayed and insults hurled at Hillary Clinton by nominally Catholic priest Reverend Michael Pfleger in the pulpit of Trinity United Church of "Christ," CNN reports that Michelle and Barack Obama have formally quit TUCC.

Says Ed Morrissey:

[This] shows Obama’s willingness to throw anyone over the side when the boat starts sinking. That won’t go over very well with his core supporters who have admired his loyalty to TUCC, who excused Wright by pointing out that he had retired, and who bought Obama’s explanation of the “wonderful community” and great works of TUCC. Is that now nothing more than a convenient lie?

Soon the two will behave almost as if they never belonged to the showcase church of Black Liberation Theology--as if the twenty year association never existed. And his apostles will buy it.

Watch and see.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit watched the press conference and claims that Obama said this:

I will not denounce the church. It is not a church worthy of denouncing.

Now that's what I call a divorce!

INEVITABLE: Not Barack Obama sez:

I did not have spiritual relations with that church......Trinity United.

UPDATE: Always nice to come home to an Instalanche.

High and Low Taste

We Are America: Cassandra counters yet another slanderous statement of those who volunteer to serve--a statement which comes from Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA).

Left in Church: The longterm relationship between Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama by Stanley Kurtz. (Thanks to Iron Mike)

What The Mullahs Are Up To: A mini version of The Persian Puzzle by Roger L. Simon (one that even Obama could understand...maybe).

Is It Just Me? by Mark Philip Alger (no, Mark it's not just you).

Crazy Raspberry Ants coming to get your computer? by Scott Solomon.

Gary Kasparov dodges flying phallus by Ace of Spades (in case you want to practice listening to your Russian language).

The Tehran-Berlin Axis: Iran's Vice Foreign Minister visits the new Germany--with no mention in Germany's media by Matthias Küntzel (Thanks to Davids Medienkritik)

President Bush's Makes Oath to defend Masada and Totalitarianism Screams by Richard Fernandez

LIBRARY FARE:

Still reading: The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell
Black Theology and Black Power by James Cone

Checked out: Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg

Pins and Crosses (UPDATED: A Counter to the Muslim Rumors?)

Barack Obama has picked up a couple of previously disdained (non-human) tools to wield in the home stretch of the Democrat primaries: flag pins and crosses. (At first, I wondered why he's even bothering. Then I realized that this Christian- and patriot-pandering is for the general election.)

The flag pins came first--in spite of Obama’s affirmatively-expressed decision not to wear one.

The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security. I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.

Was the reversal cynically made with the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries in mind? Many observers think so, including this one. And it appears that the senator isn’t even trying to hide this.

Nonetheless, in WV, Hillary Clinton beat Obama like…

(A red-headed stepchild?
A runaway slave?

Feel free to suggest any other inflammatory metaphors I can use here.)

Anyway, Clinton beat Obama in the WV primary by 41 percentage points. So Obama brings out the big “gun.”

No subliminal seduction here, as was alleged about that silly Mike Huckabee ad; Obama is overt in his product placement. But will his Leftist constituency cry out in protest at this blatant “Christianism?”

We’ll see.

Look, if Obama wants to use Jesus as a campaign tool, that’s between him and Jesus but could we not pretend that this usage isn't a mere ploy to garner the votes of those in Kentucky who haven’t been paying attention to the senator’s Wright/Black Liberation Theology connections?

The caption reads: “My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.”

Well I guess that depends on who your lord is.

(Thanks to Ed Morrissey and to Memeorandum)

UPDATE: Obama used the Cross tactic in South Carolina. Was it a counter to the Muslim Whisper campaign?

(Thanks to Protein Wisdom)