General

                       “If God does not exist then everything is permitted.” –Dostoevsky

I ran across this famous quote in a booklet that I read this week. David Horowitz’s Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model is very helpful in understanding what is happening in America and what is at the heart of the human struggle. It’s easy in our cultural battles to think we are waging a war between left and right, Democrats and Republicans, socialists and patriots, or other competing views.

But that is not the heart of the matter. There is a mission of destruction in the world today that not only gives meaning to the perils of the present hour, but also explains our own personal temptations and failures.

There is a universal monster that is latent in each of us. And there is a being behind that monster.

Before we divulge the source, let’s take a little tour through Horowitz’s booklet which reminded me of the truth. Horowitz is a great authority on this subject. He was once himself a communist radical.

By now it is a well known fact that Barack Obama is a follower of Saul Alinsky, the political radical who was born in Chicago in 1909 and died in California in 1972. We need to look at Saul Alinsky to comprehend the political problems that we’re facing. We also need a better understanding of our current president, Barack Obama, to make sense of his leadership over the past eighteen months.

Alinsky greatly influenced Obama. Let’s begin with our 44th president.

Barack Obama

Obama never met Alinsky personally, but he studied his political ideas and taught Alinsky’s methods. On Barack Obama’s presidential campaign web-site, according to David Horowitz, “one could see a photo of Obama in a classroom teaching students Alinskyan methods. He stands in front of a blackboard on which he has written, ‘Power Analysis and Relationships Built on Self Interest.'” These concepts were at the heart of Alinsky’s view that power was to be “seized” by appealing to man’s selfish nature. Alinsky’s famous book, Rules for Radicals, describes the many ways that communities must be “organized” to incite revolution and bring change.

Until Barack Obama became a legislator in 1996, he worked with ACORN, the largest radical organization in America which was built on the Alinsky model of organizing. The Wall Street Journal says:

“In 1991 Obama took time off from his law firm to run a voter registration drive for Project Vote…The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Senate primary. Mr. Obama’s success made him a hot commodity on the community organizing circuit. He became a top trainer  at ACORN’s Chicago conferences. In 1995, he became ACORN’s attorney. In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put ACORN first (it was not an alphabetical list).”

After Barack Obama became a US Senator, his wife Michelle, told a reporter, “Barack is not a politician first and foremost. He’s a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make change.” Horowitz notes that her husband commented: “I take that observation as a compliment.” Following her husband’s speech at the Democratic Convention in August, 2008, Michelle Obama summed up her husband’s vision with these words: “When Barack stood up that day, he spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about the ‘world as it is.’ and the ‘world as it should be.’ And he said that all too often we accept the distance between the two and we settle for the world as it is, even when it doesn’t reflect our values and obligations…We have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.”

Where did Obama receive his vision? From Saul Alinsky. Alinsky says in Rules for Radicals: “As an organizer I start from the world as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be–it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working within the system.”

Now you know the origin of the phrase “Change You Can Believe In.” Obama received his vision for change from Saul Alinsky. So what did Saul Alinsky believe?

Saul Alinsky

Horowitz says that Alinsky’s “preferred self-description was ‘rebel’ and his entire life was devoted to organizing a revolution in America to destroy a system he regarded as oppressive and unjust. By profession he was a ‘community organizer,’ the same term employed by his most famous disciple, Barack Obama to describe himself.”

Alinsky came of age in the 1930s and was drawn to the world of Chicago gangsters whom he encountered professionally as a sociologist. He was a social intimate with the Al Capone mob family and though his biographer calls him an “anti-anti communist,” he had a fraternal relationship with many communist organizations. He didn’t join them them because he felt they were inflexible and dogmatic–whereas Alinsky was a political relativist. But they both shared the same goal. Alinsky said it this way: “We are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people.”

Horowitz comments, “Power is to be ‘seized’–the word is revealing. The present system will not  allow justice to be realized, so sooner or later immoral, illegal, even violent means are required to achieve it.” Alinsky wrote Rules for Radicals to show his fellow rebels the way. Here are the salient points that Horowitz notes in his booklet. According to Saul Alinsky:

• There are “Haves” and “Have Nots.” The “Haves” oppress the “Have Nots” and must be overthrown. Alinsky is clearly Marxian in this concept and greatly admired Vladimir Lenin.
• Everything is relative. There is no God or right and wrong. Alinsky says, “the radical organizer does not have a fixed truth – truth to him is relative and changing: everything to him is relative and changing. He is a political relativist.” Thus being a radical in the service of the masses is a license to do anything that is required to achieve that good.
• Deception is the radical’s most important weapon and it has been a prominent one since the sixties.  Even though you are at war with the system, don’t confront it as an opposing army; join it and undermine it from within.
• This is a war for social justice–a heaven on earth–of social and not personal salvation. The unwavering end of the revolution is a communism of results.

But the most revealing part of Horowitz’ booklet and greatest insight into the heart and mind of Saul Alinsky, comes from Alinsky’s dedicatory page of Rules for Radicals where we find the following words: “Lest we forget, an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment 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 at least won his own kingdom– Lucifer.”

Lucifer

My jaw almost dropped when I read those words. Alinsky actually praises Satan as the first rebel/radical!  Horowitz comments: “Thus Alinsky begins his text by telling readers exactly what a radical is. He is not a reformer of the system but its would-be destroyer. In his mind the radical is building his own kingdom, which to him is a kingdom on earth. Since a kingdom of heaven built by human beings is a fantasy–an impossible dream–the only radical real world efforts are those which are aimed at subverting the society he lives in. He is a nihilist.”

Horowitz, a Jew, concludes his analysis of Saul Alinsky’s political philosophy with this sober perspective: “Alinsky’s tribute to Satan as the first radical is further instructive because it reminds us that the radical illusion is an ancient one and has not changed through the millennia. Recall how Satan tempted Adam and Eve to destroy their paradise: ‘If you rebel against God’s command then you shall be as gods.’ This is the radical hubris: We can create a new world. Through our political power we can make a new race of men and women who will live in harmony and peace and according to the principles of social justice. We can be as gods.” (Emphasis is his.)

Lucifer was the first rebel/radical. His mission is to destroy. Saul Alinsky admired Satan’s rebellion and sought to duplicate it on earth. Barack Obama is an Alinsky disciple.

You and I

But they are not alone. The Bible tells us that all of us are fallen–rebels against God. Whenever we seek self-interest above the glory of God and his ways, we join in that cosmic rebellion. Dostoevsky was right. When we turn from God–rebellion, destruction and chaos are the result.

Yes, a revolution is taking place in our nation–provoked by rebel/radicals. But guard your own heart. You and I are only one choice away from the same mission of destruction. 

I learned along time ago that unless you can define your enemies you cannot defeat them.

During my basketball playing years, when I brought the ball up-court it was critical to discern whether the opposing team was playing a zone or a man-to-man defense. If they were playing zone, you you immediately set up your zone offense. If it was man-to-man, then a whole different set of plays needed to be run.

For many years I’ve been trying to understand and properly describe the forces that are trying to tear down both the United States and Western World. In the past few years, that understanding has crystallized. I think I now understand more of the enemy and his tactics.

So does Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his extremely important new book, To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine, Newt gives the clearest read yet on what we face as a people.

Newt Gingrich has it right.

Will we “get it” in time to renew our nation?

First, a little history and personal reflection on Newton Leroy Gingrich, history teacher/historian, seven-term US Congressman from Georgia, leader of the Republican Revolution and TIME Person of the Year (1994) and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995-1999.

Newt is undoubtedly one of the most influential conservative leaders of the past thirty years. He is an expert on US history and has written a number of books  on the subject (fiction and non-fiction). Through his American Solutions organization he has been a prominent idea guy on common sense policies that bring blessing to a free society. He’s probably the brightest and most experienced mind on the Republican side of the ledger.

Newt also has some flaws. He has been married three times. He first married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher. The young couple decided to divorce after Gingrich told her of an extra-marital affair while she was recovering from cancer surgery. In 1981, Newt wed Marianne Ginther until 2000 when they divorced and he married Callista Bisek, with whom he’d had an affair during his second marriage. Ironically, this particular liaison started during the Congressional investigation of Bill Clinton’s perjury relating to his affair with 23-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky–of which Gingrich was highly critical.

This man with strong “family values” hasn’t always walked the walked.

During his time in Congress and as Speaker of the House, he was also prone to some cockiness in his leadership style which got him in trouble with the mainstream media who disliked both his approach and positions. Due to his moral and temperamental outbursts, the press was able to marginalize Newt Gingrich’s influence, which led to his resignation from Congress.

He has been re-habbing his reputation ever since–and possibly undergoing a rebirth of faith and character that is evidenced in his books and documentaries. In Nine Days That Changed the World  he describes how Pope John Paul’s Christian faith was used to ignite a a fire for God in Poland which eventually brought down the Iron Curtain. In his two works called Re-Discovering God in America, Newt makes a strong case for our Christian origins and encourages us to come home.

Maybe Newt Gingrich has personally found his way back to faith and virtue. If so, his story might be similar to Thomas Jefferson’s who was probably a Deist when he was young (and cut out portions of the Bible), but seemed to grow in personal faith toward the end of his life.

At any rate, I believe that Newt Gingrich is a leader to be reckoned with in 2010 and clearly understands the enemies that America faces. They are named in the subtitle of his new book:

“Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine”

1. Stopping

Newt realizes that we are careening in a wrong direction as a nation that must be stopped in its tracks. He offers many valuable suggestions as to how to change direction. The current moral, economic, and diplomatic malaise must be halted by an enlightened and re-energized American electorate.

2. Obama’s

Gingrich understands that Barack Obama is not your normal American or American president. He is a radical progressive–a type of revolutionary–with an internationalist bent. He has a different view of God, the world, and America’s history and destiny than most past presidents and the majority of Americans today. He overly apologizes for American’s weaknesses and doesn’t appreciate our Christian underpinnings, freedoms, and exceptionalism.

3. Secular

Newt Gingrich is is the first prominent political leader to articulate the battle of worldviews currently taking place in America and the Western World. It is first a fight between Christian faith and secular religion–and secondly, with radical Islam.  The Christian-secular tussle has been raging throughout America’s history, but has intensified since the 1960s when secularism became established in the government schools and atheists emboldened their stance against America’s traditional Christian faith.

Newt is prophetically correct when he says that the current administration wants to destroy any last vestiges of Christian mores and influences in our culture. The battle over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” taking place today in Congress and pushed by the Obama Administration is one of many fronts where our current leaders are trying to force secular values down the throats of a majority Christian nation. Newt believes we need to fight back and re-discover God in America. This is a welcome call to historic Christian revival and reformation.

4. Socialist

Newt also understands what most American’s are now seeing: That those currently leading our nation are socialists who want America to become a European-style social democracy. They are expanding the reach of government at a break-neck pace, taking over control of many private industries (car companies, and some banks and financial institutions are the latest acquisitions), and want to tax and spend our nation into a dependent welfare state. It was reported today that the private sector of the American economy now accounts for only 42% of economic activity. That’s a frightening statistic to an historically free people. For socialists, it’s an encouraging sign that they are bringing “change” to America–from free enterprise to socialism.

5. Machine  

Gingrich is also right on in describing the political style of the current administration as being an off-shoot of the notorious Chicago political apparatus. In fact most of its main players–including Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod–are products of the Chicago political establishment. They play hardball (national health care), give out bribes (Rep. Joe Sestak), and don’t tolerate criticism and dissent well (Fox News). They are a well-oiled and financed machine that can be ruthless in achieving their goals.

Newt Gingrich could have added one more word to his profound sub-title–the word:

6. Conspiracy.

No, I don’t mean any type of human conspiracy. The only conspiracy I believe in is the demonic one (Ephesians 6:12) that is operating in the world today, warring against Christ and the advance of His kingdom. It is ultimately the satanic world that is trying to erase Christianity from the public square and exalt the worship of man in the from of humanism, secularism, or world government. It is the powers of darkness who are behind the destruction of free enterprise and expression while trying to impoverish America and the world.

We need to vote out these revolutionaries–but we also need to pray out the forces that empower them.

Newt Gingrich’s new book, To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular Socialist Machine, calls the American people to return to God, faith, freedom and hope.

Now that message has a ring we can certainly believe in.

The first primaries in the United States mid-term elections take place today in many states. They will be an indicator of what might happen in the fall to reverse the course of the current administration and its “plans” for the American nation.

I agree with many that the 2010 elections are the most important mid-term contest of our lifetime. Why? Because our nation has never been closer to a difficult-to-reverse economic meltdown and the tyranny of a what Newt Gingrich calls a “secular-socialist state.”

We need a great reversal. Today we will either move back toward liberty or sink further into tyranny. I hope we choose wisely all across the nation.

Even the Washington Post sees the hand-writing on the wall–though they spin it as “anti-incumbent sentiment.” No, it’s anti-Obama/Reid/Pelosi/radical Democratic Party sentiment. Here’s their take:

“Tuesday’s voters will drop clues on a variety of questions, about anti-incumbent sentiment, “tea party” power and presidential popularity. Most attention remained focused on Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), who made a final appeal to voters in his new party Monday, asking them to extend his 30-year career in Washington. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), Specter’s challenger in the Senate primary, claimed momentum in the closing days of the campaign, and polls showed the race was too close to call.

Specter, who switched parties last year, has the backing of President Obama, Vice President Biden, Gov. Edward G. Rendell and much of the Democratic establishment. But Sestak has run an effective insurgent’s campaign highlighted by a devastating ad that portrayed Specter as a political turncoat motivated to change parties only to save his job.

A Specter loss would be the third defeat for a congressional incumbent in less than two weeks and highlight anti-incumbent sentiment in the country confronting Democrats and Republicans — although switchers often have trouble winning the allegiance of their new party’s rank-and-file. Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) and Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) have already been defeated.

But the Specter-Sestak race is only one part of the political mosaic that will be examined after Tuesday’s vote.

In Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Nb.), who angered her party’s base by flip-flopping on the “public option” during the health-care debate, was seeking to avoid a runoff against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Halter scheduled 20 stops in 25 hours in the hope of forcing that runoff that his supporters believe would give him a better opportunity to defeat the incumbent.

In Kentucky, Republicans waited to see whether Rand Paul — an ophthalmologist, son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and favorite of the tea party movement — could carry his outsider’s campaign against Trey Grayson, the secretary of state.

Paul had a strong lead in polls. On Monday, Grayson showed the frustration of a candidate who might have thought he would have a relatively easy path to victory, with the endorsements of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and much of his state’s GOP leaders. He said that Fox News Channel continually promoted his opponent and indirectly suggested that the network had more power within the party than the establishment itself.

The race that might hold the most clues to November, however, played out in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, where voters will fill the vacancy created by the death of Rep. John P. Murtha (D). Polls showed the race between Democrat Mark Critz, a former aide to Murtha, and Republican businessman Tim Burns to be a tossup.

The culturally conservative district is the only one in the nation that flipped from Democrat to Republican in the 2008 presidential race. And it is exactly the kind of area Republicans must win in November to take control of the House. Each of the national parties has poured more than $1 million into the district.”

As you can tell, the liberal press is a bit nervous.

I’m not. I’m hopeful that a great reversal begins tonight and hits the electoral shores like a giant tsunami on November 2. A significant majority of the American people now understand that the “change” they voted for in 2008 was a terrible mistake. They see clearly that the Obama administration is consistently anti-God, anti-business, anti-freedom, and don’t care what the people think. Newt Gingrich labels this type of governance as “government of the bureaucrats, by the special interests, for the politicians.”

I think he’s right and America is rising up to challenge them. Here’s how we need to proceed with wisdom:

P – We need to pray and fast for God’s mercy and deliverance in our land. We are not ultimately facing a human enemy in this fight, but supernatural powers with powerful strongholds and a desire to enslave and destroy the peoples of the earth. I have set aside every Tuesday this year to intercede for the 2010 elections. We need to bind and confuse the demonic forces, to repent of our sins and apathy, and pray for righteous men and women to arise to positions of leadership. I ask you to join with millions of others that are praying for God’s mercy and favor in the 2010 United States mid-term elections.

R – We must read extensively and keep up on the issues and people involved in them. Knowledge is power, and we live in a time period in which we should be the most educated and enlightened people of all time. Besides a vast array of visual media sources, we have numerous books that can educate us on the changes we must make for our future. It’s interesting to me that many godly and conservative leaders are producing great books to guide us at this moment in history. They include:

• Liberty and Tyrannyby Mark Levin. This is one of the most important reads of the past five years. Mark’s fiery passion and constitutional understanding is unparalleled in current academic circles. The great struggle of the 21st century boils down a fight to the death between the forces of liberty (God and his people) and the forces of tyranny (Satan and his man-centered lies).
• Going Rogue by Sarah Palin. The former governor of Alaska and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate’s personal biography was the number one best-seller in America for 2009. That’s for a good reason: it was well-crafted story of a common American who’s now a well-known political celebrity who champions common sense values of faith, family and freedom. Her soon-to-be-released new book, America at Heart,will also top the charts and place her high on the list of presidential candidates for 2012. Don’t believe the nonsense about her lack of experience and intellect. Look at the current White House and longfor the values and wisdom of Gov. Sarah Palin.
• Conservative Victory by Sean Hannity, host of America’s 2nd most-listened-to radio show. Sean gives a balanced read on how the Republicans failed the nation during their years in power and what is the way home to limited government, energy independence, strong defense, free market solutions, and faith and freedom in American life.
• To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine by Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Newt is as sound as they come on what ails America and the common sense solutions that can lead us back into greatness as a nation. He understands the spiritual side (notice the word “secular” in the book title), and the economic pitfalls of socialism. He’s our idea guy–and his web-site of American Solutions is worth a look.
• No Apology: The Case for American Greatness by Mitt Romney is also a valuable contribution to the debate about America’s future. The former governor of Massachusetts would make a worthy presidential contender in 2010 because of his strong background in free-market economics and job creation.

A – Actively get involved in your local Tea Party events, issues, and races for public office. I’m attending the launch of a state representative friend tonight in Port Orchard and serving a number of other candidates. Some people have asked me why I’m not running for office this year as it appears that I could win a seat in the WA state legislature. After much prayer I felt that instead of “fishing for myself” I could better use my time to “teach many others how to fish” all over the state of Washington. I’m leading a thrust to raise up godly leadership in all forty-nine legislative districts of our very needy state between now and 2012. What are you doing in this year’s elections? There are myriads of ways to serve,  and every God-loving person needs to report for duty.

Y – You hold the keys to America’s future or that of your own nation. Are you living a passionate and godly life? Do you care about the great issues of our day, or have you given up and decided to lead a life of entertainment and denial?

Now is the time to P.R.A.Y. for a great reversal of spiritual, moral, and economic direction in these United States of America. In another generation, famed evangelist and revivalist Charles Grandison Finney admonished his countrymen with these probing words:

“The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them…Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when we must act differently…God will bless or curse this nation, according to the course Christians take.”

Between now and November 2, 2010 let’s P.R.A.Y. for a great reversal and revival in our land. God wants each one of us to be an answer to our own prayers.