Introduction
    In a previous essay on this website, I defined the Arab concept of takfir, where it was conceived (early in the Islamic caliphate (Saudi Arabia), where it gained strength in its modern form (Egypt), and described how it had become a tactic in al-Qaeda's quest for world power (the global Salafist Islamic jihad). I described a striking similarity in the means by which two of the six 'actors' that have been addressed on these pages -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ayman al-Zawahiri -- have defined and used the concept of takfir as a tactic on their road to gaining power, raw naked power in their respective domains. Whereas this tactic is defined in the rise of al-Qaeda and its origins, it is also apparent in the tactic used by Hillary Rodham Clinton during her rise to a position of power in American politics. The only difference in the two tactics is the domains in which they are used. With Zawahiri it was used as a means of eradicating Muslims who were considered to be blocking the rise to power of al-Jihad, an Egyptian precursor to al-Qaeda and its global Salafist Islamic jihad. With Hillary it was developed and used against anyone who would appear to be a threat to her lifelong dream to grasp the reins of power in American politics.

    There is also a strong strain of takfir in Barack Hussein Obama's background - nearly hidden to the public - as he suddenly rose to a position of power in the Democrat Party when he surprisingly won the party's nomination for the presidency in the 2008 election cycle. Whereas Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al-Qaeda, drifted toward takfir in his role as the primary advisor to Osama bin Laden - inspired by the martyr, Sayyid Qutb -- Hillary Clinton found her connection to a version of such a tactic in the Reverend Donald Jones, her youth minister in the United Methodist Church. And Reverend Jones was an acolyte of Paul Tillich - the existentialist guru who invented Systematic Theology while at the ecumenical Union Theological Seminary in New York City (1933-1955). By this connection, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the radical feminist (actually cultural-Marxist) icon of The Looming American Matriarchy - thanks to her 'Qutb,' Paul Tillich.

    So now, we (I) suddenly find that Barack Obama (the middle name, Hussein, becomes irrelevant in the context of what is to follow) has a direct connection to the very same guru, Paul Tillich, via the intermediary James H. Cone - the father of the modern day Black Liberation Theology - at the very same Union Theological Seminary in New York City. What the Reverend Donald Jones did for Hillary (as the intermediary to Tillich) during her youth (1960s-1970s), James H. Cone (the intermediary to Tillich) did for Barack Obama during his young adulthood (1980s). And both Don Jones and James Cone owe their worldview - passed on to their protégés - to Paul Tillich. And Black Liberation Theology is every bit as dangerous to American culture, indeed American civilization (via a disintegration from within due to Hillary's cultural-Marxism), as any threat posed to America by the global Salafist Islamic jihad.

Who Was Paul Tillich?
    Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 - October 22, 1965) was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher [1]. "[He] was one of the four most influential Protestant theologians of the twentieth century…[His works] introduced the issues of theology and modern culture to a general readership. Theologically, he is best known for his major three-volume work, Systematic Theology (1951-63), in which he developed his 'method of correlation:' an approach of exploring the symbols of Christian revelation as answers to the problems of human existence raised by contemporary existential philosophical analysis."
    From the same source, existentialism is defined as a philosophical concept which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to its being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines. It emerged as a movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, although it had forerunners in earlier centuries, notably by…Friedrich Nietzsche…It took explicit form as a philosophical current in Continental philosophy, first…in the 1930s in Germany, and then in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir [the wife of Sartre and the seed of radical feminism in the Looming American Matriarchy] in the 1940s and 1950s in France. "

    "Their work focused on such themes as 'dread, boredom, alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment, and nothingness' as fundamental to human existence. Walter Kaufmann described existentialism as 'The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life." In a word - nihilism!

    "Tillich was born in a small village in eastern Germany…[His] Prussian father was a conservative Lutheran pastor; his mother was from the Rhineland and was more liberal…He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1912. That same year he was ordained as a Lutheran minister…During 1924 - 25 he was a Professor of Theology at the University of Marburg, where he began to develop his systematic theology, teaching a course on it during the last of his three terms. From 1925 until 1929, Tillich was a Professor of Theology at the University of Dresden and the University of Liepzig. He held the same post at the University of Frankfurt during 1929-1933." This is where Tillich's background becomes very interesting.

    The Frankfurt School [2], i.e. the Institute of Social Research, is the (in)famous institution from which the cultural-Marxist revolutionaries Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm and others emigrated to the United States in 1933 and became the gurus of the 1960s counter-culture revolution which erupted on our nation's campuses during the 1960s. The damage they have done to our nation has been summarized in an essay [3], What is the Frankfurt School?, on this website. They introduced a cultural-Marxism (a marriage of Karl Marx's writings on economics translated to culture) and Erich Fromm's psychology (Wilhelm Wundt's Behavioral Psychology) to America. This revolutionary movement was touted by Antonio Gramsci to be so strong that it could not be resisted, even by the use of armed force. It has been introduced into American culture via the power elites of the Boomer generation in their young adult years during the 1960s counter-culture revolution and cemented into place in every institution in the land during the 1990s as the Clintons came to executive-branch power.

The Liepzig University Connection
    Paul Tillich's background, both at the Liepzig University (1925-1929) and at the Frankfurt School (1929-1933) coincided directly with both the influence of Wilhelm Wundt (at Liepzig) and the cultural-Marxist revolutionaries from the Frankfurt School who emigrated to the United States in 1933 (as did Tillich) in order to escape the rise of Hitler to power in January 1933. They all emigrated in the same year and dispersed over the land to carry out their revolutionary agenda - Tillich via the route of theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and Theodor Adorno et. al. at Columbia Teachers College, Brandeis, University of California at Berkeley and other educational 'soft spots' in the United States.

    Wilhelm Wundt, the father of Behavioral Psychology, has an interesting relationship to the 'Sensitivity Training' movement that has become so ubiquitous in America culture. I wrote of this history during research conducted on this subject in the late 1990s - as it pertained to the introduction of an alien New Age 'ethics' program at the U.S. Naval Academy. It is of interest to review that research here, since it bears directly on the background and worldview of Paul Tillich.

    In August 1999, I wrote [4], "If you have absorbed any of the background material presented in this series of essays on 'Cultural Marxism' at the U.S. Naval Academy, you should be quite concerned that our future naval officers are being subjected to psychic intimidation and indoctrination by behavioral psychologists and clinicians whose methods descend from Wilhelm Wundt [5].  The 'facilitators' and civilian professors in the 'Leadership and Ethics' program at the Academy are Wundtians all.  The 'cultural Marxism' that has invaded our military academies and other military institutions is pervasive.  As a result, these future naval officers will not have an understanding of the essence of what they are chosen to protect, that is, American civilization [6] -- the most vital and precious descendent of Western civilization.

    I followed this analysis up with more detailed research on the foundations of the 'Sensitivity Training' movement with a 170 page report [7] on its origins. In that report, entitled, "Sensitivity Training and the 'Socialization' of the U.S. Military," I delved deeply into Wilhelm Wundt's influence on the cultural-Marxist revolutionaries. This research revealed that this movement had a much deeper imprint on American civilization across the board than just the U.S. military. It also applies to Paul Tillich in his field of Theology.

    In that report, I observed that "It all began with a man by the name of Wilhelm Maxmilian Wundt (1832-1920) at the University of Leipzig in Germany in the 1870s. Wundt was the founder of a 'new' science called experimental psychology [8]. He was also the intellectual force behind the dissemination of this science throughout the western world.

    Before Wundt, the field of psychology meant simply the study (ology) of the soul (psyche), or mind. To Wundt, study of the mind was worth pursuing only if it could be measured, quantified, and demonstrated scientifically. He redefined psychology as a physiological rather than a philosophical subject - thus a 'science.' Soon after his arrival at Leipzig in 1875 as a professor, he had established the first psychological laboratory.

    At that time Germany was the center of civilization. Its scientific and technological advances were well known. The Germans excelled in the application of science to previously non-scientific areas. For example, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) had proposed to make history a scientific subject and became Germany's leading philosopher who was emulated by a generation of students, local and foreign. During the mid-1800s, Karl Marx (1818-1883) applied Hegel's theories to economics and sociology, developing a 'philosophy' of 'dialectical materialism.' That is, man had no soul but was merely an economic creature who could be manipulated to control the means of economic production.

    Throughout the revolutions and revolts of 1848 across Europe, the rise of the Socialist Internationals, and the forced unification of the new Germany by Otto von Bismarck, Germany was a flourishing center of culture and the sciences, "each of its universities a magnet for the ambitious intellectual youth of Europe and the United States. Leipzig was no exception and one of its principal attractions was Wundt."

    Wundt's basic approach [9] was to "...gather data concerning physiological responses in order to clarify how the individual experienced feelings and sensations." He was convinced that perceptions and experiences could be understood through measurable physiological reactions. Wundt noticed that reactions began with stimulation of one's senses, followed by (1) perception, in which the experience exists within the individual; (2) 'apperception,' in which the body identifies the stimulus and combines it with other stimuli, and (3) an act of will which results in (4) a reaction to the stimulus. The foundation for this approach had been laid by the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant [10] (1724-1804), the founder of the 'dialectic movement.'"

    What was will? "For Wundt, will was the direct result of the combination of perceived stimuli, not an independent, individual intention as psychology and philosophy had held up to that time. Based on this view, Wundt asserted that man is devoid of spirit and self-determinism. More importantly, he set out to prove that man is the summation of his experiences, that is, the stimuli which intrude upon his consciousness and unconsciousness. In short, man was nothing more than an animal whose behavior could be manipulated through psychological processes."

    "With these views, Wundt became known as the 'father' of modern psychology. As a highly respected physiologist (he held a medical doctor's degree), Wundt established psychology as the study of the brain and the central nervous system. From this work, it was only a short step to the later definition of a new meaning of education - the 'conditioning' of young minds through a process of behavior modification. Experimental psychology would be the mechanism through which one could learn how to modify behavior in ways to produce a 'socialized' human being."

    "According to Wundt's thinking, in a human being there is nothing there to begin with but a body, a brain, and a nervous system. Thus, teachers must try to educate a person by inducing sensations in that nervous system. Through these experiences, the individual will learn to respond to any given stimulus, with the 'correct' response. Consequently, a child's actions are thought to be preconditioned and beyond his control, because he is simply a stimulus-response mechanism. According to this thinking, a person is his reactions [11]."

    Wundt's thesis laid the philosophical basis for the principles of conditioning later developed by Pavlov, who studied under Wundt at Leipzig. It also provided the intellectual basis for future schools (including American schools) which would orient their curricula toward the 'socialization' of the child rather than toward the development of intellect and "... for the emergence of a society more and more blatantly devoted to the gratification [12] of sensory desires at the expense of responsibility and achievement."

    Much of American thought and culture have been influenced by Wilhelm Wundt and the hundreds of his American students who carried his new psychology to the United States. A major part of the groundwork for this transformation of American culture was laid in 1879 at the University of Leipzig where Wundt advanced the then-radical notion of man [13], not accountable for his conduct, which was said to be caused entirely by forces beyond his control.' [14]

    Wundt's students and their students in successive generations have carried his new science to teachers and others in America and have perfected it to the point where critics are wondering whether or not it is a poison which has the potential to destroy American civilization. For example, B.K. Eakman in her detailed analysis [15] of the current American education system laments, "Most Americans have no idea how, or why, the traditional values of this country, held since its beginning, suddenly within the space of 30 years became delegitimized in the eyes of policymakers, the media, the young, and the law - to the point where people who still believe in them are held up to ridicule, heaped with contempt, and are even accused of being un-American. How, in a single generation, did the culture change from a character-directed focus revolving around restraint, industriousness, and self-sacrifice, to a peer-oriented, self-obsessed society preoccupied with eternal youth, sexual gymnastics, and immediate gratification?"

    Eakman minimizes the contemporary conventional wisdom regarding the cause of this demise; rock music, the film industry, the university's 'Progressive Movement' led by a plethora of 'ivory tower eggheads,' including John Dewey, and the drug culture. In Eakman's view, there is an element of truth to all these factors, but the roots of this nightmare, including recreational drug use, were not found in America at all but primarily in Germany and other European countries between 1879 and 1925. Wilhelm Wundt has a unique place at the head of the line of a list of antagonists.

The Path to Today: Through Public Education
    Eakman traces the path of today's cultural pathologies in terms of a list of individuals, most of whom are unknown to the general American public. These individuals were key figures who triggered a cultural revolution in the United states. These include Wilhelm Wundt, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, Kurt Lewin, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, and Theodor Adorno from Germany, Robert Owen, A.S. Neill, and J.R. Rees from Great Britain, Sigmund Freud from Austria, Dr. Brock Chisholm from Canada, Antonio Gramsci of Italy, and Georg Lukacs from Russia. Of these, most people recognize only the names of Engels, Marx, and Freud.

    Eakman [16] points out that "…it was primarily the work and theories of the other individuals in the list that were the source of today's obsession with early sex education, the rejection of the paternal family, the denigration of authority, the eradication of religion, and the overthrow of the character ethic in America."  She might have added that in American culture outside the realm of education, that is, the nation's other civic (including large corporations) and especially military institutions, their work has contributed to a complete breakdown of trust [17]. This has been accomplished through the implementation of behavioral science techniques, including 'sensitivity training,' to change the behavior of those who hold traditional American views. In order to understand this aspect, we must first understand how these people influenced American culture through a complete overhaul of the nation's education system - through a silent and slow-paced revolution that over time has created a situation that may not be reversible even by the use of force. Let's take a look at those who developed the psychological techniques that evolved into today's 'sensitivity training.'

    Robert D. Owen was a predecessor to Wundt in Scotland. He is credited by some today as the 'father of modern socialism.' Owen set up a special school for the offspring of mill workers in Scotland for the purpose of proving that socialism would work, providing that education began at the age of one year. His experiment failed, but according to Eakman [18], "… he nevertheless came to the United States in 1825 to try again, this time at New Harmony, IN [Note: The burial place of Paul Tillich]." He called his second experiment 'the focus of enlightened atheism.' Owen believed that the human personality had been 'deformed by religious brainwashing.' Again his experiment failed, but the lesson learned by him and his followers was that '… youngsters had to first be separated from their parents so that the school would wield the greater influence.'"

    According to Eakman, these complementing theories of Wundt and Owen were built upon by a continuing succession of renegades - drug addicts, pornographers, abortionists, deportees, college rejects, Marxists, and misfits - who found each other via parallel movements [19] on three continents, managed to obtain funding from certain of their rich and gullible sponsors, and used the money to launch various societies, schools, and, eventually, an earnest political coalition to proselytize their peculiar brand of religion. Except they didn't call it religion. They called it 'revolution.'

    A.S. Neill, born in Scotland in 1883, became a schoolmaster and went on to write 'Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Childrearing.' This tract did not get published in America until 1960, because the country wasn't ready for it. But by 1970, it had inexplicably sold over two million copies here, primarily to schools of education in colleges and universities, where it was frequently a required text for student teachers. According to Eakman, "Summerhill redefined the term 'freedom.' When Neill used that term, he didn't mean 'liberty'; he meant 'rebellion against authoritarianism,' and you will find this theme is the glue that holds together the cast of characters in the ensuing education drama. It is the centerpiece of most early psychology and psychiatry, the latter term emanating from Germany in the early 1800s."

    Neill was a profoundly disturbed personality whose views on such matters as parenting and education reflected his own abysmal mental state. He suffered a mental breakdown during his military service in World War I. After receiving treatment at a mental hospital, he required psychotherapy for the rest of his life.

    Neill became a disciple of Homer Lane who ran a school for delinquents based on what he called 'new principles.' These principles rested on the assumption that 'freedom cannot be given. It is to be taken by the children … Freedom demands the privilege of conscious wrongdoing. Lane encouraged the school staff, for example, to join in food fights instead of stopping them. Eakman [20] points out that, "This is the very first view we have of 'decision-making' [by the child] as one sees it today in America's classrooms - whether the material being 'studied' is drug abuse, premarital sex, or conflict resolution. The logic is always the same; if children are to be free, they must have 'the privilege of wrongdoing."

    Sigmund Freud was another antagonist to tradition. His theory of mental health revolved around sexual freedom as the key to social reform and, building on Wundt in Germany and Owen in Scotland, the idea that human behavior was the result of past experiences, and therefore beyond the control of the individual.  Freud wrote that 'free sexual intercourse' was urgently necessary or else society was 'doomed to fall a victim to incurable neuroses which reduce the enjoyment of life.' Freud's career was built on a fraud [21]. Despite the appalling lack of scientific foundation, his theories came to have an enormous impact in America, especially among the educated, an intelligentsia that prided itself on reason. Freud became the bedrock of socialist doctrine.

    According to Eakman, "Havelock Ellis, an Englishman with some training in both medicine and psychology, did much to disseminate Freud's work in Europe. He was the best-known advocate of sexual freedom prior to Freud's arrival on the scene. His book on homosexuality was banned in England but published in Philadelphia. He held the idea that 'sexual abstinence was harmful to individuals and to society. 'Immoral,' said Ellis, 'never means anything but contrary to the mores of the time and place.' This idea became a key element of Marxist literature, and found its way to American classrooms in the form of 'situational ethics.'"

    Our universities train 'ethicists' who teach 'situational ethics' in our secondary schools and universities. These people teach an 'ethics' completely divorced from religious morality. It is an 'ethics' that says, "If it feels good, just do it [22].

    It was Dr. G. Stanley Hall, founder of the American Psychological Association, who invited Freud to speak in the United States. According to Eakman [23], "Like so many who go into the behavioral sciences, Hall was a troubled individual from his youth. Hall studied under Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig. As a consequence he pioneered sex education at Clark University in the U.S. where, in 1909, he invited Freud to lecture in order 'to promote public discussion' on the subject. Hall had no idea how successful this strategy was to be. Freud's trip to the U.S. exposed him to the American media and his name soon became synonymous with sexual freedom."

    "But it was American Wundtians who took education from reason to belief, from knowledge to feelings. Two of them had a profound effect on education in this country: Edward Lee Thorndike and James Earl Russell. Their influence was felt through the Teachers College at Columbia University where they were major figures."

    "An animal psychologist by training, Thorndike prodigiously communicated the man-as-animal view in 507 books and essays. He wrote, "The aim of the teacher is to produce desirable and prevent undesirable changes in human beings by producing and preventing certain responses. Thorndike went on to lead the charge, along with B.F. Skinner, in promulgating a stimulus-response approach to education, with the additional goal of changing and inculcating beliefs rather than of transmitting knowledge in American school children."

    "James Earl Russell, who earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Wundt himself, became head of the Department of Psychology at Teachers' College, Columbia University around the turn of the century. Russell and Thorndike were staples of the college for 30 years. Together with John Dewey ('father' of the Progressive Education Movement in American education and founder of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society), who joined them later from the University of Chicago, they steeped the College in Wundtian educational philosophy - with the aid of a $450,000 gift from oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. The three Wundtians adamantly opposed the use of education to instill information, skills, and discipline.  Instead, they addressed the education problem as one in which they would 'coordinate the psychological and social factors … and take an active part in determining the social order of the future. As well, teachers should align themselves with forces of social change and economic control.'"

    Eakman further points out that, with pronouncements such as these [24], "… the premier teacher training institution in America, Teachers' College at Columbia University, became fertile soil for the Mental Hygiene Movement." Out of this movement eventually came the revolution that would take over schools nationwide, ostensibly to ensure 'social control.'" And, of course, we now know that Columbia University became the haven for the Union Theological Seminary of New York City, where Paul Tillich established his concept of Systematic Theology.

    "By the late 1940s, Teachers' College had become the vehicle for spreading the wisdom of the collective. If one aspired to the teaching profession, that is where one went. Columbia University became to education what Johns Hopkins University is today to medicine. Thousands of latter-day Wundtians were graduated from the Teachers' College to spread their doctrine over the land." And we now know that the Union Theological Seminary of New York City, attached to Columbia University, became the place where Paul Tillich spread his alien gospel of 'liberation theology' across the land. His acolytes (Reverend Donald Jones) spread it to the 14-year-old Hillary Rodham and (James H. Cone) spread it to Barack Obama through the Reverend Jermiah Wright and his Trinity United Church of Christ in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

What is Paul Tillich's 'Systematic Theology?'
    In 1933, the same year that the cultural-Marxist entourage emigrated to America, Paul Tillich (age 47) moved his family to America [25]. "This meant learning  English, the language in which [he] would eventually publish works such as Systematic Theology. From 1933 until 1955 he taught at Union Theological Seminary of New York…During 1933-34 he was also a Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Columbia University. Tillich acquired tenure at Union in 1937, and in 1940 he was promoted to Professor of Philosophical Theology and became an American citizen."

    "At the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Tillich earned his reputation, publishing a series of books that outlined his particular synthesis of Protestant Christian theology and existential philosophy. He published On the Boundary in 1936; The Protestant Era, a collection of essays, in 1948; and The Shaking of the Foundations, the first of three volumes of his sermons, also in 1948. His collections of sermons would give Tillich a broader audience than he had yet experienced. His most heralded achievements though, were the 1951 publication of volume one of Systematic Theology which brought Tillich academic acclaim, and the 1952 publication of The Courage to Be…"

    "These works led to an appointment at the Harvard Divinity School in 1955, where he became one of the University's five University Professors - the five highest ranking professors at Harvard. Tillich's Harvard career lasted until 1962. During this period he published volume 2 of Systematic Theology and also published the popular book, Dynamics of Faith (1957). In 1962, Tillich moved to the University of Chicago, where he was a professor of Theology until his death in Chicago in 1965. Volume 3 of Systematic Theology was published in 1963…A widely quoted critical assessment of his importance was Georgia Harkness' comment, 'What Whitehead was to American philosophy, Tillich was to American theology. Tillich died on October 22, 1965, ten days after experiencing a heart attack. In 1966 his ashes were interred in the Paul Tillich Park in New Harmony, Indiana." His final resting place coincides with the location of the (in)famous early-nineteenth-century experiment of Robert D. Owen who was a predecessor to Wilhelm Wundt in Scotland.  Owen is credited by some today as the 'father of modern socialism,' who believed that the human personality had been 'deformed by religious brainwashing.' Recall that his 'new school' in Harmony, Indiana failed miserably, but the lesson learned by him and his followers was that '… youngsters had to first be separated from their parents so that the school would wield the greater influence.'"

    Wikipedia claims that the "Key to an understanding Tillich's theology is his 'method of correlation,' an approach of correlating insights from Christian revelation with the issues raised by existential philosophical analysis." In reading a summary of it, one becomes aware that his theology is the same porridge of egg-headed opaque mush as that proposed by Immanuel Kant during his reign of popularity in Europe. For example, quoting Wikipedia, "Theology formulates the questions implied in human existence, and theology formulates the answers implied in divine self-manifestation under the guidance of the questions implied in human existence. This is a circle which drives man to a point where question and answer are not separated. This point, however, is not a moment in time."

    According to McKelway, an explainer of Tillich, "…the sources of theology contribute to the formation of the norm, which then becomes the criterion through which the sources and experience are judged. The relationship is circular, as it is the present situation which conditions the norm in the interaction between church and biblical message. The norm is then subject to change [aha! Everything (even interpretation of biblical revelation) is relative, and subject to changing conditions at different times], but Tillich insists that its basic content remains the same: that of the biblical message…" Of course, such a theology could lead to massive destructive interpretations of the Bible based on whatever existential (read, nihilistic) interpretations that one might wish to invent. Up becomes down. Revolutionary change becomes rampant. Those on the bottom reverse the order and leapfrog to the top. The disastrous French Revolution - the re-birth of Balint Vaszonyi's  definition of the 'Franco-German way' - is possible - for America. And James H. Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology, is trying to bring such an existential revolution about - right here in America. And his protégé, Barack Obama, is the instrument through which it is to be carried out in America.

Who is James H. Cone?
    James Hal Cone, born on August 5, 1938, is credited with being the Founding Father of Black Liberation Theology (BLT). This theology is grounded in the experience of African Americans [26]. "In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the black Church. [His] work was influential and political from the time of his first publication, and remains so today. Cone is currently the Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His work has been both utilized and critiqued inside and outside of the African American theological community."

    "Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas and grew up in Bearden, Arkansas…The interpretive lens for his theology starts with the experience of African Americans, and the theological questions he brings from his own life. He incorporates the powerful role of the black Church in his life, as well as racism experienced by African Americans. For Cone, the theologians he studied in graduate school did not provide meaningful answers to his questions. This disparity became more apparent when he was teaching theology at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. Cone writes, 'What could Karl Barth [a Swiss theologian] possibly mean for black students who had come from the cotton fields of Arkansas, and Mississippi, seeking to change the structure of their lives in a society that defined black as non-being?'"

    "Cone's theology also received significant inspiration from a frustration with the Black struggle for civil rights; he felt that Black Christians in North America should not follow the 'white Church,' on the grounds that it was a willing part of the system that had oppressed black people. Accordingly, his theology was heavily influenced by Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement." Of course, Malcolm X was a Black Muslim who became prominent in the Nation of Islam movement for black separatism during the 1970s-1960s when Elijah Muhammad was its leader. More on that subject follows. Louis Farrakhan is the current leader of that Islamic movement in America.

    "Cone's methodology for answering the questions raised by the African American Experience is a return to Scripture, and particularly to the liberative elements such as the Exodus-Sinai tradition and the life of Jesus. However, Scripture is not the only source which shapes his theology. In response to criticism from other black theologians (including his brother, Cecil), Cone began to make greater use of resources native to the African American Christian community for his theological work, including slave spirituals, the blues, and the writings of prominent African American thinkers."

    "Cone's thought, with Tillich [recall, Tillich was the guru who influenced the Reverand Donald Jones, who in turned the 14-year-old Hillary Rodham toward her cultural-Marxist path via the United Methodist Church during the 1960s and 1970s], stresses the idea that theology is not universal, but tied to specific historical contexts; he thus critiques the Western tradition of abstract theologizing by examining its social context. Cone formulates a theology of liberation from within the context of Black experience of oppression [a Marxist concept], interpreting the central kernel of the Gospels as Jesus' identification with the poor and oppressed, the resurrection as the ultimate act of liberation."

    "As part of his theological analysis, Cone argues for god's own identification with 'blackness:' [Note: This is where Cone converges with Malcolm X and his Black Power advocates].
The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing
God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience
Becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism…The blackness of God means that God has made the
Oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite
Slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to
understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering…Liberation is not
an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity". ('Black Theology and Black Power, pp. 63-64)

    "Despite his associations with the Black Power movement, however, Cone was not entirely focused on ethnicity: 'Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are.' ('Black Theology and Black Power,' pp. 151)

    "In 1977, Cone wrote, with a still more universal vision:
I think the time has come for black theologians and church people to move beyond a mere reaction to white racism in America and begin to extend our vision of a new socially constructed humanity in the whole inhabited world…for humanity is whole, and cannot be isolated into racial national groups.
In his 1998 essay, 'White Theology Revisited,' however, he retains his earlier strong critique of the White church for ignoring or failing to address the problem of race."

    Where did James Cone get this idea of black civil rights extending its reach to the whole of humanity? There is a direct tie to Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), the black power advocate in Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam movement. Malcolm X, having converted to traditional Islam, completed his spiritual hajj to Mecca in April, 1964, and returned to the United States…as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz [27]. During the summer of 1964, Malcolm X, after his 'epiphany,' conducted two extended journeys through  Africa and the Middle East [28]. "Malcolm X gained new insights into the problem of racism. In his Autobiography, he later wrote: 'I was no less angry than I had been, but at the same time the true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision.' He now believed that race war was not inevitable, and felt that 'America is the first country…that can actually have a bloodless revolution.'"

    "Malcolm X's new political strategy called for building black community empowerment, through tools such as voter registration and education, economic self-sufficiency, and the development of independent politics. He called upon African Americans to transform the civil rights movement into a struggle for international human rights." Does this not sound familiar? Not only did the theologian, James Cone pick up this quest in formulating the Black Liberation Movement, but Barack Obama himself gives credit to his personal 'mentor,' Malcolm X, for inspiring him to take the path of 'street organizer' in his early-adulthood years (the 1980s, after graduating from Columbia University).

    Bill Sammon, the Senior White House Correspondent for the Washington, D.C. - based Examiner reports on Barack Obama's speech to the Health Action 2007 Conference at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. in January 2007. He writes [29] "Although Obama…was not raised as a Muslim, according to the senator's office, he was not raised as a Christian by his mother, a white American named Ann Dunham who was deeply skeptical of religion. 'Her memories of Christians who populated her youth were not fond ones,' Obama wrote. 'For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness. As a result,' he said, 'I was not raised in a religious household.'"

    Sammon continues. "Later in life, however, he was drawn to the writings of an influential American Muslim [Malcolm X], who served as the spokesman for the militant Nation of Islam. 'Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different,' Obama wrote. 'His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will.' He added, 'Malcolm's discovery toward the end of his life, that some whites might live beside him as brothers in Islam, seemed to offer some hope of eventual reconciliation.'" That's right, if the whites simply turn to Islam, they could be accepted into the black liberation movement.

    Sammon continues to quote Senator Obama on the subject of his turn to religion to find his identity. "Although the overwhelming majority of Americans describe themselves as Christians, Obama does not believe that any one religion should define the United States. 'We are no longer just a Christian nation,' he argues in The Audacity of Hope, which was published last year. 'We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.'" Such is the result of liberation theologies such as those promoted by James H. Cone. Each religion has moral equivalence with Christianity!

    The early influences on James Cone's theology is credited to two mainstream Protestant theologians [30]. "Cone wrote his doctoral thesis on Karl Barth. His early books (Black Theology and Black Power and A Black Theology of Liberation) draw heavily on mainstream Protestant theologians such as Barth and Paul Tillich."

    As recently as the 21 July 2008 issue of Newsweek Magazine, Barack Obama himself provides his own direct connection to Paul Tillich and his influence on Obama's life [31]. That article provides some insight into the years Obama spent at Columbia University in his early 20s. "Obama says his spiritual quest was driven by two main impulses. He was looking for a community that he could call home--a sense of rootedness and belonging he missed from his biracial, peripatetic childhood. The visits to the black churches uptown helped fulfill that desire. 'There's a side very particular to the African-American church tradition that was powerful to me,' he says. The exuberant worship, the family atmosphere and the prophetic preaching at a church such as Abyssinian (AME Baptist Church in Harlem) would have appealed to a young man who lived so in his head. And he became obsessed with the civil-rights movement. He's become convinced, through his reading - Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19^th-century German philosopher and father of existentialsm) - of the transforming power of social activism, especially when paired with religion. [Note here the similarity of this view with Saul Alinsky, the Chicago 'street organizer' who contributed so much to Hillary Rodham's world view and her concept of takfir].

    Newsweek continues. "When Gerald Kellman recruited Obama [out of Columbia University] to go to Chicago as a community organizer, he remembers, the young man as 'very much caught up in the world of ideas.' …In Chicago, Obama found that organizers and activists there (and elsewhere) were employing a progressive theology to motivate faith groups to action. Taking such action by using the writings of Paul Tillich and, especially Reinhold Niebuhr [who was responsible for urging Tillich to leave the Frankfurt School and flee Germany in 1933 and join the Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University] - and also [Martin Luther] King, as well as African-American and Roman Catholic [in Mexico and South America] liberation theologians…"

    Yes, the influence of Paul Tillich, not only on James Cone, but directly on his protégé, Barack Obama is direct, strong, and revealing. Barack Obama has spent most of his adult life swimming in the radical, racist ideology of Black Liberation Theology. It is no coincidence that Barack Obama chose the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ, to baptize him into the Christian faith - a branch of which has become (under the theology of James Cone) an ideology even more dangerous to America than the return to Sharia Law by al-Qaeda under the leadership of Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian henchman, Ayman al-Zawahiri - invoked by the guru of takfir, the Egyptian martyr Sayyid Qutb.

    Aspects of Cone's theology and words have been the subject of controversy in the political context of the 2009 presidential campaign, as Barack Obama's  [now former] pastor Jeremiahs Wright noted that he had been inspired by Cone's theology [32]. "Some scholars of black theology have noted that the controversial quotes do not necessarily represent black theology as it is currently practiced or the views of people like Wright who practice it. Cone has responded to the controversy by noting that he was generally writing about white churches that did nothing to oppose slavery and segregation and not about white people as individuals. Cone defines it as 'complete emancipation of black people from white oppression by whatever means black people deem necessary.' [This, of course, is right out of the black power rhetoric of Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, and the Nation of Islam]. For Cone, the deeply racist structure of American society leaves blacks with no alternative but radical transformation or social withdrawal [i.e. separatism]. So-called Christianity, as commonly practiced in the United States, is actually the racist Antichrist. 'Theologically,' Cone affirms, 'Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man 'the devil.' The false Christianity of the white-devil oppressor must be replaced by an authentic Christianity fully identified with the poor and oppressed." Wow! If that doesn't make one wonder, what is BLT, what does?

Black Liberation Theology
    "James Cone published the seminal work that systemized black liberation theology [33], Black Theology and Black Power, in 1969. In the book, Cone asserted that not only was black power not alien to the Gospel, it was, in fact, the Gospel message for all of 20^th century America. This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage - social, political, economic and religious."

    "In this new formulation, Christian theology is a theology of liberation - 'a rational  study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ,' writes Cone. Black consciousness and the black experience of oppression orient black liberation theology - i.e. one of victimization from white oppression… According to acton.org [34], 'This liberation involves empowerment and seeks the right of self-definition, self-affirmation and self-determination. Trinity United Church of Christ Chicago  is the one church frequently cited by press accounts, and by Cone as the best example of a church formally founded on the vision of Black liberation theology. This theology has recently become a matter of national debate as intense condemnation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the most visible exponent of the theology, by the U.S. mainstream media forced Senator Barack Obama to distance himself from his former pastor."

    "The modern American origins of contemporary black liberation theology can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ad hoc group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full page ad in the New York Times to publish their 'Black Power Statement,' which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the Bible for inspiration."

    "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was introduced to black liberation theology at University of Chicago's Divinity School. Wright would cite the works of James Cone and Dwight Hopkins who are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are many scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. Wright built up Trinity United Church of Christ with a vision statement based on the theology laid out by James Cone. Asked in an interview which church most embodied his message, Cone replied, 'I would point to that church (Trinity) first.' Short clips of Wright's sermons which called for God to condemn America for its actions…became a major topic of presidential debates."

    "Wright claimed that criticism of his theology constituted an attack on the black church, although probably no more than a quarter of black pastors today would describe their theology as liberationist. Trinity United Church of Christ is one of the few that specifically incorporates black liberation theology into its vision statement. The press reported that candidate Obama publicly rejected Wright, decrying his…latest remarks as 'a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth.'"

James Cone and Black Liberation Theology
    Wikipedia explains the black liberationist view. "Christianity was long associated with slavery and segregation in the minds of many African-Americans. This was particularly an issue with the history of the Southern Baptist church, which did not renounce using the Bible as a justification for slavery and white supremacy until June 20, 1995 when they issued a formal 'Declaration of Repentance.' James Cone first questioned this theology after Malcolm X's proclamation in the 1950's against Christianity as 'a white man's religion.' While not agreeing, Cone indicates that Malcolm X was "… 'not wrong' in stating:
           'Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black
           community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had
           better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black
           community…Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction
           of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the
           power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal.
           Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.'"

    This, of course, is simply another rendition of Sayyid Qutb's call for takfir, but in this case a call for black Americans to kill white people instead - as their 'Christian duty' as opposed to Qutb's call for Muslims, wherever they may be, to kill other Muslims who have been declared in a state of apostasy against Islam. Thus, Barack Obama's takfir is not far removed from either Hillary's takfir in the name of absolute power to impose an alien cultural-Marxism upon America or Ayman al-Zawahiri's (and now, al-Qaeda's) takfir in carrying out the global Salafist Islamic jihad.

   According to Wikipedia, "Liberation theology, as it has expressed itself in the African-American community, seeks to find a way to make the gospel relevant to black people who must struggle daily under the alleged burden of white oppression. Black liberation theology deals primarily with the African-American community, to make Christianity real for blacks. It explains Christianity as a matter of liberation here and now, rather than in an afterlife. The goal of black theology is not for special treatment. Instead, 'All Black theologians are asking for is freedom and justice. No more, and no less. In asking for this, the Black theologians turn to scripture as the sanction for their demand.'"

    "Cone based much of his liberationist theology on God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the book of Exodus. He compared the United States to Egypt, predicting that oppressed people will soon be lead to a promised land. For Cone, the theme of Yahweh's concern was for 'the lack of social, economic, and political justice for those who are poor and unwanted in society.' Cone also says that the same God is working for the oppressed blacks of the 20^th century, and that 'God is helping oppressed blacks and has identified with them, God Himself is spoke of as 'black.'"

    "Cone's view is that Jesus was black, which he felt was a very important view of black people to see. 'It's very important because you've got a lot of white images of Christ. In reality, Christ was not white, not European. That's important to the psychic and to the spiritual consciousness of black people who live in a ghetto and in a white society in which their lord and savior looks  just like people who victimize them. God is whatever color God needs to be in order to let people know they're not nobodies.'"

    A notable criticism comes from the theology scholar, Dr. Robert A. Morley, who takes a dim view of black liberation theology. His paper, 'The Goals Of Black Liberal Theology, is one widely quoted paper citing specific criticisms of black theology. "It states that black [liberation] theology turns religion into sociology, and Jesus into a black Marxist rebel. While making statements against whites and Asians, it promotes a poor self-image among blacks, and describes the black man as a helpless victim of forces and people beyond his control. Black [liberation] theology calls for political liberation instead of spiritual salvation." And of course, it is only straight-up common sense that Morley is correct.

    "But that criticism is not acceptable to the dogmatic black liberation theologian. "The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism…The blackness of God means that God had made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering…Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity."

    According to this interpretation of the Scripture, "Black [liberation] theology cannot accept a view of God which does not represent God as being for oppressed blacks and thus against white oppressors. Living in a world of white oppressors, blacks have no time for a neutral God. The brutalities are too great and the pain too severe, and this means we must know where God is and what God is doing in the revolution. There is no use for a God who loves white oppressors the same as oppressed blacks. We have had too much white love, the love that tells blacks to turn the other cheek and go the second mile. What we need is the living love as expressed in black power, which is the power of blacks to destroy their oppressors, here and now, by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject God's love." ('A Black Theology of Liberation,' pp. 70)." And now, of course, that is precisely Senator Barack Obama's takfir.

A Common Sense View of Black Liberation Theology
    For those of us who are a bit over (or is it under) whelmed by all of this 'theology' jibberish, it is refreshing to find someone with a common sense view of all this. And to find her with a keen intellect and a curiosity about things just adds frosting to the cake. One such person is Kyle-Anne Shiver [35]. She is a former part-time artist and full-time mom of two, married, and accomplished. She describes how her life changed on September 11, 2001, 'her generation's 'Day of Infamy.' She reveals that "I had been on the front lines of the culture war every day raising our children, but when I saw those planes hit in NYC and DC, I was driven past grief to know how in the world we ended up in the mess we are in now."

    She continues, "I spent five years book-worming my way through the Koran and many other volumes about Mohammed and Islam. That took me into the political realm to learn all I could about the leaders whose fateful decisions seemed to weaken America's defenses and empower the enemies of our civilization. Finally, I put all else aside and devoted myself to reading and writing, using every ounce of my energy to apply my God-given common sense and forty years of Christian discipleship into the service of my country through the power of the pen. This war will take many and varied soldiers to win; I hope to be one of them." And, indeed, she surely is one of us - a true resister.

    Kyle-Anne Shiver has created a website labeled 'Common Sense Regained,' at http://www.kyleanneshiver.com/. She writes commentary that has been picked up by other well-regarded websites, such as 'American Thinker.' In one such commentary [36], 'Obama, Black Liberation Theology, and Karl Marx: Part One,' Shiver writes, "Not having a theology degree, nor even a Ph.D., and being, too, a bit naïve regarding matters of high-brow philosophical currents throughout the ages, I have to admit that when I first read Karl Marx's essay, The Jewish Question, I was actually stunned by its contents… Evidently Karl Marx was as utterly ignorant of the true tenets of Judaism…as he was of the diabolical possibilities inherent in his own words, once they were in the hands of Adolph Hitler."

    "This atrocious irony might be merely a historical oddity if old Karl's words were not still bouncing around in the heads of those who wish to lead new revolutions based on them. But Marx's words still dominate much of what happens on the world stage today, even in our own republic. The word emphasis has changed a bit. The industrial proletariat is no longer the focus. But as a newly prominent American politician is wont to remind us: words do matter."

    "Yes, of course, words matter, as many leaders of ambitious movements have mightily declared. '…the power which has always started the greatest religious and political avalanches in history rolling has from time to time immemorial been the magic of power of the spoken word, and that alone…Particularly the broad masses of the people can be moved only by the power of speech - Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf."

    "But where do the 'words' come from, and what do they mean in America today? I might never have delved into the subject of the oppressed vs. the oppressors if I had not gone to Chicago in January [2008] seeking answers about a man who would be president. When I visited Obama's church, still under the directorship of Jermiah Wright, I came away with far more questions than answers, and one thing leading to another, have spent the last several months trying to fathom how Marxist political philosophy wound up emblazoned with a cross and a pulpit, and pretending to rely on the Bible for its authority."

    "It is somewhat difficult to imagine a more contorted blasphemy, with the single possible exception of Hitler himself claiming to be acting by divine decree in the interests of Christianity. Which is precisely what Hitler did, while hoodwinking the German people into electing him Chancellor. Hitler sprinkled Mein Kampf with Christian language, most likely to fit with the predominantly Christian German population, and appealed to voters on the strength of his Christian 'calling:' 'I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator; by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord…' As most junior-high Sunday schoolers know, however, a Christian is judged on actions, not words, and Hitler was no Christian. He was a bamboozler of the lowest imaginable order."

    In a section entitled, 'Jeremiah Wright is the tiny tip of Obama's spiritual iceberg,' Shiver  writes, "The phenomenon that raised so many questions for me in January, when I visited Trinity United Church of Christ, was not Jeremiah Wright's sermon, which turned out to be just a call for all good congregants to support Barack Obama for President. It wasn't the sermon that caught me off guard; I was prepared for that. I had watched video of Wright, giving five of his fiery sermons. The thing that really got me to thinking, reading and searching for answers was the church bookstore."

    "Having been a practicing Christian for more than 40 years now, and a practicing Catholic for 26 of those years, I have visited perhaps 100 various Christian bookstores, both Protestant and Catholic. In all of those places, one thing tied together the books on sale: Christianity. Not so in Obaama's church bookstore. I spent more than an hour perusing available books, and found as many claiming to represent Muslim thought as those representing Christian thought. Black Muslim thought, to be specific. And the books claiming to support Christianity were surprisingly of a more political than religious nature. The books by James H. Cone, Wright's mentor, were prominent and numerous."

    "Now that I have read a number of the books that presumably Wright's congregants (including Barack Obama) have also read, I can only conclude that the thing holding these volumes together is not Christianity, nor any real religion, but the philosophy of Karl Marx. 'The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles:'
          'Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word,
           oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted,
           now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society
           at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.  -- Marx and Engels; 'The Communist Manifesto; 1848.

    "If Marxism can be summed up in only a couple of phrases, now familiar to nearly every modern person, they would be 'class struggle' and 'oppressed vs. oppressors.' James H. Cone, the unquestioned modern-day mentor of all the black power preachers, claims to have created a new theology, uniting the Muslim black power tenets of Malcolm X and the Christian foundation of Martin Luther King, Jr. All he has really done, in my opinion, is take original liberation theology from Latin America, developed in the early 1990s by Catholic priests and painted it black."

    "The teaching authorities of the Catholic church, have for more than 20 years now, been attempting to stamp out these heretical liberation theologies, denouncing them as vehemently antithetical to the Catholic Christian faith, and have been strenuously combating this Marxist counterfeit Christianity on many fronts within the Church itself. Of course, the Medieval, iron-fisted clamp of the Catholic Church's authority, even within the Church herself, is routinely overstated, and there are renegade priests all over the place (more on another of Obama's spiritual mentors, a liberation theology Catholic priest in Chicago, in Part Two - see below).  Not to mention the fact that the Catholic Church has no authority whatsoever over those claiming to represent protestant interpretations of the Christian faith, such as Cone and Wright."

    "Understanding that black liberation theology is Marxism dressed up to look like Christianity helps explain why there is no conflict between Cone's 'Christianity' and Farrakhan's 'Nation of Islam.' They are two prophets in the same philosophical (Marxist) pod, merely using different religions as backdrops for their black-power aims. As Cone himself writes in his 1997 preface to a new edition of his 1969 book, Black Theology and Black Power:
           'As in 1969, I still regard Jesus Christ today as the chief focus of my perspectives on God but not to
           the exclusion of other religious perspectives. God's reality is not bound by one manifestation of the
           divine in Jesus but can be found wherever people are being empowered to fight for freedom. Life-
           giving power for the poor and the oppressed is the primary criterion that we must use to judge the
           adequacy of our theology, not abstract concepts. As Malcolm X put it: 'I believe in a religion that
           believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my
           people, I say to hell with that religion.' pp. xii.

    "And to drive his Marxist emphasis even further, Cone again quotes Malcolm X:
           'The point that I would like to impress upon every Afro-American leader is that there is no kind of
           action in this country ever going to bear fruit unless that action is tied in with the overall
           international (class) struggle.' (pp. xiii)

(Ironically, considering the formal Church teaching regarding liberation theologies, this book of Cone's was published by Orbis, owned and managed by The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, a Maryknoll religious entity. So much for the totalitarianism of the Catholic Church)."

    Shiver continues, "It is this subjugation of genuine Christianity to the supremacy of the Marxist class struggle, which marks the true delineation between traditional Christianity and black liberation theology, as Pope Benedict XVI (writing in 1984 as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) sums up thusly: 'For the Marxist, the truth is a truth of class: there is no truth but the truth in the struggle of the revolutionary class.' Which is precisely why Cone and his disciples are able to boldly proclaim that if the Jesus of traditional Christianity is not united with them in the Marxist class struggle, then he is a 'white Jesus,' and they must 'kill him." (Cone; A Black Theology of Liberation; pp. 111)

    "And Cone brings it all the way home with this proclamation of liberation from traditional Christianity itself: 'The appearance of black theology means that the black community is now ready to do something about the white Jesus, so that he cannot get in the way of our revolution.' Move over Jesus and make way for Cone, Wright and Obama. The revolution is at hand. And presto-chango, once we've followed Marx, Cone, Wright and Obama down the yellow brick road to revolution, Christianity as we've known it for millennia ceases to exist."

    Shiver informs us that "Obama was raised by his mother, the agnostic anthropologist, to regard religion as 'an expression of human culture…not its wellspring, just one of the many ways - and not necessarily the best way - that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives.' (Audacity of Hope; pp. 204). However, when Barack Obama met Jeremiah Wright in the mid-eighties, between his years at Columbia and Harvard Law, he found a 'faith' perfectly accommodating to his already well-formed worldview."

    "From The Audacity of Hope: 'In the history of these (African people's) struggles I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world.' (pp. 207). As Obama explains further, it was Wright's (and presumably Cone's, as required of new members at Trinity) peculiar form of Christianity that Obama found palatable:
          'It was because of these newfound understandings (at Trinity under Wright) - that religious
           commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic
           and social justice…that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity…and be baptized.'

Wright's vision of Christianity was perfectly appetizing to Barack Obama; he didn't need to change a thing."

    Shiver then addresses James H. Cone's 'new order of things.' "James Cone devotes many words in all of his books to instructing his disciples to beware of those resistant to the necessary change in the power structure, warning that, '…those who would cast their lot with the victims must not forget that the existing structures are powerful and complex…Oppressors want people to think that change is impossible.' (James H. Cone; Speaking the Truth; pp. 49)."

    "Pope Benedict XVI (writing as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) gives an equally stringent message to Catholics about liberation theology regarding the perversion of the Christian understanding of the 'poor:'
          'In its positive meaning the Church of the poor signifies the preference given to the poor, without
           exclusion, whatever the form of their poverty, because they are preferred by God…But the theologies
           of liberation…go on to a disastrous confusion between the poor of the Scripture and the proletariat of
           Marx. In this way they pervert the Christian meaning of the poor, and they transform the fight for the
           Rights of the poor into a class fight within the ideological perspective of the class struggle.'"

    "According to Pope Benedict's instruction on liberation theology, our understanding of the virtues, faith, hope, and charity are subjugated to the new Marxist order: Faith becomes 'fidelity to history.' We are the ones we've been waiting for, to bring about the final fruition of the class struggle. Hope becomes 'confidence in the future.' Yes, we can change the world; we don't need God. Our collective redemption comes when we engage in the Marxist class struggle. Charity becomes 'option for the poor.' All are not created equal. Special political privilege for the oppressed, socialism, will set us free."

    Shiver uncovers the role that black liberation theology has for white people - those who are not to be outright killed, can be redeemed by joining the movement in full throttle. The current example of that role is embodied in the Catholic priest, Father Michael Pfleger. But first, Shiver provides the background. In Part Two of her discussion of 'Obama, Black Liberation Theology and Karl Marx,' she lays the foundation [37]. "From the outset of his campaign, Barack Obama has declared himself to be a Christian. He has appeared to be the far left's answer to the religious right, the man who would embrace the religion of the majority rather than shy away from it, as Democrat secularists have repeatedly done. For awhile, until Obama's actual 'religion' became clear through the rantings of those who have formed his 'moral compass,' it did appear that Barack Obama would beat the religious right at their own 'game.' But the foibles of faking faith can be quite the undoing of a man who proclaims to be above the low-road politics of deceit."

    Shiver, in a section of her commentary labeled 'Religion and revolutionaries,' quotes Karl Marx. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people." And she juxtaposes that thought with a quotation from Barack Obama, in his book, 'The Audacity of Hope, pp. 216. "We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal."

    "Karl Marx seemed to regard religion as one of the toughest roadblocks to mounting and sustaining a proper revolution by the proletariat. That the masses would continue to stubbornly cling to their religions, placing their hope in God rather than man [the opposite of existentialism], was evidently one of the more prickly thorns in ole Karl's side. Both Lenin and Stalin concurred with Marx, and one of the most stringent and murderous thrusts of Soviet Communism was its campaign against religion, especially Judaism and Christianity. Mao and other eastern communists went this route as well, and never pretended to have any faith whatsoever in anyone or anything but the material world."

    "But Barack Obama, the student of Saul Alinsky [38], sees the necessity of reeling in those of faith, and making them part of the class struggle, while avoiding the harsher approach of demanding that the people give up their faith as a consequence of their commitment to revolutionary change. Americans have proven much more stubborn in the religious realm than the Europeans, who fell hook, line and sinker for Marx, Lenin, and Stalin."

    "America might seem more amenable to the kind of Third Way socialism that Hitler brought to Germany, while cunningly using Christian jargon to wile his way into Aryan minds and hearts. Black liberation theology, I have discovered (Read Part One above), is yet another form of Third Way socialism, developed by Marxists seeking a way around the stubbornness of the ardently faithful, a way to hook folks on the revolution, without putting up a fight to eradicate their religion. And Obama's Chicago experiences seem to give him great hope that his cloak of religiosity will help to catapult him over the religious right and into the White House on the wings of liberation theology."

    In a section entitled, 'It played in Chicago and even in Peoria,' Shiver writes, "One of the first lessons Barack Obama learned in Chicago, doing Alinsky-style political organizing between Columbia and Harvard, was that the religious communities were where the action was. The first real power connection that Saul Alinsky himself made in his own class-struggle efforts in the 1930s was with the Archbishop of Chicago. And it was in the churches and synagogues that Alinsky's initial efforts to organize labor were successful."

    "What Obama found in Chicago churches in the 1980s, however, was not Martin Luther King's ole time religion, the traditional Christianity of most of our ancestors, both black and white. No, what Obama found was a religion perfectly compatible with his own, already well-formed, far-left worldview. The Black Liberation Theology of James H. Cone. Marxism emblazoned with a cross and a pulpit, pretending to use the Bible for authority. Before Obama even left Chicago for Harvard Law school, he had been embraced by the strange cabal of some of Chicago's most radical and activist religious leaders, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan and Michael Pfleger. Liberatonists all. Wright, the black Protestant. Farrakhan, the Black Muslim. And Pfleger, the white Catholic."

    In a section entitled, 'How Pfleger Fits.' Shiver writes, "Just as James Cone is able to perfectly accommodate Black Muslims within his ostensibly Christian theology, so has he made room for certain white folks as fellow travelers. Cone makes room for Pfleger, and other whites like him, just as long as these white folks freely acknowledge who the new masters are. Rejecting King's view of reconciliation with whites (integration) as just another form of oppression, Cone stakes all on the reversal of the order of the things: blacks on top; whites under black control. Cone believes he has discovered a way to make two wrongs into a right. To me, Cone's book paint a vision nearly identical to Marx's 'dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism.' Cone just adds a bit of color to Marx's utterly drab portrait.
          'The coming of Christ means a denial of what we thought we were. It means destroying the white devil in us.
           Reconciliation to God means that white people are prepared to deny themselves (whiteness), take up the cross
           (blackness) and follow Christ (black ghetto).' [parentheses are Cones] - James H. Cone; Black Theology &
           Black Power; pp. 150."

    "If I had listened only to the video of Michael Pfleger, and had not seen his white skin with my own eyes, I would have imagined that he was surely an African-American preacher in the same mold as Jeremiah Wright. Pfleger has taken Cone's word above that of Jesus, it would seem, and has completely entered into the essence of Black Liberation theology, even shedding his own 'despicable' whiteness in the process. As Cone instructs his followers:
          'Whiteness, as revealed in the history of America, is the expression of what is wrong with man. It is a
           symbol of man's depravity. God cannot be white, even though white churches have portrayed him as
           white. When we look at what whiteness has done to the minds of men in this country, we can see clearly
           what the New Testament meant when it spoke of the principalities and powers." (emphasis Shiver's) -
           James H. Cone; Black Theology & Black Power; pp. 150.

    "There are about a half-dozen uses of the words, 'principalities and powers' in the New Testament; in all cases they refer to brazen evil. In a few cases, the words seem to speak of earthly evil; in others, they refer to Satan and his minions. Voters, myself included, are left to wonder now whether Barack Obama's frequent use of the expression, 'principalities and powers,' when he refers to those resistant to 'change,' is in keeping with Cone's definition, restricting collective redemption to the toppling of the  material world of whites, or whether it means something else."

    "Cone isn't making room for any confusion in his books explaining Black Liberation Theology. He ordains that all white people who don't join into the Marxist class struggle along with blacks, will be dealt a crushing blow:
           'The real questions are: Where is your identity? Where is your being? Does it lie with the oppressed
            blacks or with the white oppressors? Let us hope there are enough to answer this question correctly
            so that America will not be compelled to acknowledge a common humanity  only by seeing that blood
            is only one color--James H. Cone; Black Theology & Black Power; pp. 152." Is this not a veiled threat?

    Shiver prefers a different view. "As a Catholic, I prefer to stick with the admonitions of Pope Benedict XVI, protect my own soul, and stand guard against 'the kind of totalitarian society to which this (liberation theology) process slowly leads.' Michael Pfleger appears to have made his choice as well. In order to join the Marxist class struggle, along with Cone, Wright, Farrakhan, and Obama, he has become, for all intents and purposes, part of the black power movement."

    Under a heading entitled, 'Obama's Resignation from Trinity,' Shiver writes, "After 20 years, Obama has resigned his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC). He did so after Rev. Michael Pfleger's rants against Hillary Clinton's white privilege made such a splash on the internet and television news. But Obama's attempts to distance himself from Trinity, Wright, Pfleger, Farrakhan and Cone mean nothing to me. He can, in my mind, no more disown them now, than he could months ago. The Black Liberation Theology of TUCC that he chose as an adult is the only religious foundation, save the Islam he learned as a young child in an Indonesian school, that Barack Obama has ever had in his life."

    "Discovering Black Liberation Theology in Wright's church was the one thing that enabled Obama to see that those believing in a far left political ideology could also have religion. Obama's mother had taught him this wasn't the case. Wright showed him another way, a Third Way. And Obama seized it, has used his Third Way to catapult himself into powerful positions, and now is stunningly within reach of the most powerful political position in the world, the Presidency of the United States of America. And whenever Obama speaks in public, strains of Black Liberation Theology are ingrained in his message."

    In a section entitled, 'Our Collective Salvation,' Shiver takes black liberation theology apart. "When Barack Obama spoke to the graduates of Wesleyan College last week, taking the place of ailing Senator Edward Kennedy, he gave a commencement address not unlike those anywhere. I, like others, read the transcript. And here are the words that gave me a shudder:
           'It's because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective
            salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a
            poverty of ambition.' (emphasis Shiver's).
'Collective salvation' is an idea that comes from Marxism, Liberation Theology in particular, and is absolutely antithetical to traditional Christianity. When it comes to facing God on one's own judgment day, there is no hiding in groups, no 'collective' anything. The idea of 'collective salvation' or 'collective redemption' is pure Marxism; there is nothing whatsoever Christian about it."

    Shivers explains, "As Pope Benedict XVI has warned about Liberation Theology:
           'Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of
           God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic.' - Truth and Tolerance; pp. 116.
Human suffering, and its unfair dissemination among peoples, has been the hallmark of life on earth since the dawn of human history. And history is rife with attempts to recreate the world in a manner that would ostensibly make life fair to all. Black Liberation Theology, and all Liberation Theologies, as well as every type of Marxism - whether Lenin's, Stalin's, Hitler's, Mao's,  Castro's - have all begun with appeals to the people to create a just world, or rather to create a world in keeping with that particular leader's concept of what a just world should look like. A society that would right the wrongs inherent in God's design and those that are manifest from age to age on account of man's own sin."

    "Pope Benedict marked his official reign as Pope of the Catholic Church with a homily on this very thing:
           'How often we wish that God would show Himself stronger, that He would strike decisively, defeating evil
            and creating a better world. All ideologies of power justify themselves in exactly this way; they justify the
            destruction of whatever would stand in the way of progress and the liberation of humanity. We suffer on
            account of God's patience. And yet we need his patience. God, who became a lamb, tells that the world is
            saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified him. The world is redeemed by the patience of God.
            It is destroyed by the impatience of man.'
The essential difference between Obama's liberation theology and traditional Christianity would seem to be not the presence or absence of hope. The difference is where individuals choose to put their hope."

    "Will we continue to hope in God, while each working to achieve individual redemption for our own souls, and in the process make the world a slightly better place? Or will we, in a massive protest of impatience with god's way, choose to put our hope in the people, the movement, the collective salvation offered by Obama and his liberation theologians? That is the question in this election, it would seem. May the best man win."

    [Note: As an introduction to the direct connection between the Black Muslim movement in America and al-Qaeda, please read an excerpt from John Miller's seminal book, 'The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It,' at the hyperlink: The Cell.]
_______________________________________________________
Footnotes:

¹  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, "Paul Tillich," Wikipedia Foundation, Inc., Last Modified, 25 June 2008.
²  Jay, Martin, "The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-1950, " University of California Press, 1973
³ Atkinson, Gerald L., "What is the Frankfurt School," www.newtotalitarians.com/FrankfurtSchool.html, 1 August 1999.
⁴  Ibid, Atkinson, Gerald. L.

⁵  Lionni, Paolo, "Leipzig Connection," Heron Books, 1993. Wundt, in the 1870s, advanced the then-radical notion of man as an 'animal,' not accountable for his conduct, which was said to be caused entirely by forces beyond his control.  According to Wundt's thinking, in a human being there is nothing there to begin with but a body, a brain, and a nervous system.  Therefore, teachers must try to educate a person by inducing sensations in that nervous system.  Through these experiences, the individual will learn to respond to any given stimulus, with the 'correct' response.  Thus, a child's actions are thought to be preconditioned and beyond his control, because he is simply a stimulus-response mechanism.
⁶  Vazsonyi, Balint, "America's 30 Years War: Who is Winning?,' Regnery, 1998.
⁷ Atkinson, Gerald L., "Sensitivity Training and the 'Socialization' of the U.S. Military," Atkinson Associates Press,
October 1, 1999.

⁸  Lionni, Paolo, "Leipzig Connection," pp. 2, Heron Books, 1993.
⁹  Ibid, Lionni, Paolo, pp. 4.
¹⁰  Durant, Will, "The Story of Philosophy," pp, 192-226, Simon & Schuster, 1961.
¹¹  This view is partially supported by current neuroscience research which associates one's neural connections with a representation of the 'outside world,' that is, one's life experiences, in one's brain.  For example, see Pearce, Joseph Chilton, "Evolution's End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence," Harper Collins, 1992; and MacLean, Paul, Reprints of 20-years work at NIH are available from the Laboratory of Brain Evolution and Behavior, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20014.
¹²  Ibid, Lionni, Paolo, pp. 9.
¹³  Eakman, B.K., "Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education," pp. 111, Huntington House, 1998.

¹⁴  This tenet has become the guiding light for the American Psychiatric Association through its Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM) of mental disorders.  This set of guidelines for the diagnosis of mental disorders has grown from only a few major categories and fewer than 100 specific disorders in 1980 (DSM-III) to 15 major categories and 227 specific disorders in 1987 (DSM-IIIR) and to 44 major categories and 414 specific disorders in 1994 (DSM-IV).  According to American psychologists and psychiatrists, we are not personally responsible for our behavior.  We are, instead, 'victims' of an expanding list of disorders that are beyond our control to contain [without a trained therapist, of course].  For DSM-III data, see Sue, David et al, "Understanding Abnormal Behavior," Third Edition. pp. 96-97, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. For DSM-IV data, see DSM-IV, Fourth Edition, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC, 1994.
¹⁵  Ibid, pp. 109.

¹⁶  Ibid, pp. 110.
¹⁷  Atkinson, Gerald L., "From Trust to Terror: Radical Feminism is Destroying the U.S. Navy," Atkinson Associates Press, 1997.
¹⁸  Ibid, Eakman, B.K., pp. 111.

¹⁹  It is worth observing that these 'parallel' efforts by individuals, some who were completely unaware of the others and some who collaborated partially with one or two others and still others who were trained in the 'new techniques' by one or more of those on the list conforms to the author's contention that this represents a chaotic system at work, not a 'dark conspiracy' where all of the 'dots' can be connected between each of the antagonists in the list.  Life and history are much too complex to hold much credence in an explanation that requires an absolute connection between individuals who conspire to the perceived end.  Chaos theory does not require such absolutism.  It requires only interaction of the ideas (memes) of individuals, many acting independently and even along non-parallel paths and in each person's own best interest, which result in the 'connectedness' that produces unintended consequences.  Thus, an evil watchmaker need not exist who orchestrates a sad end to the long story of American civilization.  Chaos theory will do as an 'explanation' for events caused by some evil people and some well-intentioned 'innocents.'

²⁰  Ibid, Eakman, B.K., pp. 112.
²¹  Zepezauer, Frank S. and Kuehl, Scott, "The Feminist Witch Hunt: Radicalism's Assault on Freedom and Family," To have been published, 1999.

²²  Sartwell, Crispin, PhD, Associate Professor of Humanities at Penn State at York, PA, with Brian Lamb, 'Morning Journal,' C-SPAN, 8:00 a.m., 21 May 1999. In the wake of the Columbine High School shooting disaster in Littleton, CO, Dr. Sartwell appeared on national television as an expert on 'ethics,' being a professor at Penn State. He appeared on national television complete with shoulder-length hair, a beard, and ear rings. He teaches 'ethics' at the college level to future school teachers and others in the humanities. Since the Columbine murderers appeared to be filled with rage, according to news reports, because they were 'gothic' characters in dress, entertainment preference, and speech, Sartwell explained that he was, in his youth, also 'filled with rage' against authority. He hated his high school environment and rebelled against it with violence. He told Brian Lamb that, as a 16-year old he slipped out one night and poured gasoline on a backhoe in a wooded area near his home, threw a molotov cocktail at it and watched it catch fire and explode. His motivation was one of pure altruism, he informed us, since the backhoe operators were destroying trees and, as a fanatical environmentalist at the time, he believed he had a duty to destroy the backhoe. After this confession, a caller phoned in and said, 'I came from a religious family and I developed a conscience. I remember stealing a case of coke from a gas station once. But my conscience bothered me so that I later sent the store owner money to cover the cost of the coke. I felt that I had a responsibility to do so. Let me ask you, did you ever repay the owner of the backhoe for the damage you inflicted? Don't you feel that you have a responsibility to do so?' Dr. Sartwell, the 'ethicist,' pondered the question for the longest time before replying, 'You know, I never even thought of doing that. I actually believed at the time that destroying the backhoe was 'the right thing to do.' He then hemmed and hawed by stammering out phrases -- I suppose I should repay it but I never even thought of it.' So much for the 'situational ethics' being taught in our public high schools, universities, and now, even, presumably, in our military academies to future naval officers.

²³  Ibid, Eakman, B.K., pp. 119.

²⁴  Ibid, Eakman, B.K., pp. 121.
²⁵ Ibid, Wikipedia, Paul Tillich.
²⁶ Wikipedia, Hames Hal Cone. Modified 30 June 2008.

²⁷ "The Malcolm X project at Columbia university," 'The Life of Malcolm X: A New Vision? The Epiphany of Mecca,' http://www.Columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/mecca.html.
²⁸ "The Malcolm X project at Columbia university," 'The Life of Malcolm X: African Sojourner, 1964,' http://www.Columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/mecca.html.
²⁹ Sammon, Bill, "Politics: Can a past of Islam change the path to president for Obama?' Examiner.com, 29 January 2007.
³⁰ Ibid, Wikipedia, James Hal Cone.
³¹ Miller, Lisa and Wolffe, Richard, "Finding His Faith," Newsweek Magazine, pp. 27-32, 21 July 2008.
³² Ibid, Wikipedia, James Hall Cone.
³³ Ibid, Wikipedia, Black liberation theology.
³⁴ http://www.acton.org/commentary/443_marxist_roots_of_black_liberation_theology.php
³⁵ See http://www.kyleanneshiver.com/about/ on the Internet.
³⁶ Shiver, Kyle-Anne, "Obama, Black Liberation Theology and Karl Marx: Part One," American Thinker, 28 May 2008, at http://www.americanthinker.com/.
³⁷ Shiver, Kyle-Anne, "Obama, Black Liberation Theology and Karl Marx," www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/obama_black_liberation_theology_1.html, 5 June 2008.
³⁸ Note: There is direct publicly documented evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton was a protégé of Alinsky and even interned with his 'street organizing' via 'power to the people' and a ruthlessness that held power as its hammer. (See Atkinson, Gerald L, "Hillary's Takfir,' essay at http://www.newtotalitarians.com/HillarysTakfir. html for the details.) There is, however, no such evidence that Barack Obama ever had such a 'direct' relationship with Saul Alinsky. But anyone who was active in 'street organizing' during the last half of the twentieth century was aware of Alinsky's organizing principles and methods. Alinsky wrote the practicing 'Bible' for 'street organizing,' and his work was very well known to all 'street organizers' of which Barack Obama was one.

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