Dr. Ben Carson raised some eyebrows last week at the Republican National Convention when he mentioned Hillary Clinton and Lucifer. At first blush, it may have sounded over the top. The press went to town on this remark, castigating Carson for it.
Here is what Carson said, “Now one of the things that I have learned about Hillary Clinton is that one of her heroes, her mentors, was Saul Alinsky and her senior thesis was about Saul Alinsky. This was someone that she greatly admired and that affected all of her philosophies subsequently.”
He added, “This is a nation where every coin in our pocket and every bill in our wallet says, ‘In God we trust.’ So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?”
I would add that the key verb there isn’t just “acknowledges” but “approves of.”
Saul Alinsky, who lived from 1909-1972, was a community organizer from Chicago long before Barack Obama was. In fact, his 1971 book, Rules for Radicals, is like the Bible for community organizers.
A committed Marxist, Alinsky grew up in a rough part of Chicago and worked hard to implement social justice, as he understood it---which included applying his philosophy that whatever it takes to bring about change is good, even if that involves questionable means.
In Rules for Radicals, Alinsky writes, “THAT PERENNIAL QUESTION, ‘Does the end justify the means?’ is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?’" [Emphasis in the original]
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Author and speaker Bill Federer once told me that Alinsky’s philosophy was that, in pursuit of an agenda he deemed good, “any means necessary to get there is okay---lying, voter fraud, intimidation, bribery, threats---anything.”
In a community meeting, Alinsky told his followers: “First rule of change is controversy. Change means movement and movement means friction and friction means heat and heat means controversy.”
I reached out to my friend, Dr. Paul Kengor of Grove City College, to ask for a comment for this piece since he wrote a book called God and Hillary Clinton.
Coincidentally, it turns out Kengor was in the midst of posting a piece on the exact same subject---Hillary, Saul Alinsky, and Lucifer.
He emailed me: “It’s good that we’re both writing on it. The more the better.” His American Spectator article includes this:
“It was 2007, and I was finishing a book on the faith of Hillary Clinton. One morning I heard a local radio talk-show host make an amazing claim: that Alinsky’s 1971 classic Rules for Radicals began with a dedication to Satan. Oh, I can’t believe that, I said. I was angry at the host. This kind of hyperbole gives conservative talk-radio a bad name!....
“I quickly emailed one of the staffers at our library at Grove City College. Did we have a copy of Rules for Radicals on our shelves? We sure did. Please pull it, I said. I’ll be right there.
“I opened the book and couldn’t believe my eyes. Alinsky offered this acknowledgment:
“’Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology , and history … 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.’”[Emphasis mine]
So it turns out Dr. Ben Carson was not so far off the mark after all.
Thankfully, Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil---not to spread them.
Furthermore, in Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky even has a new trinity:
“CLASS DISTINCTIONS: THE TRINITY
“The setting for the drama of change has never varied. Mankind has been and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.”
The original Trinity---the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit---is worthy of our worship and fidelity. The vast majority of the founding fathers held this view.
For example, when Ben Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams negotiated the official peace treaty between the United States and Great Britain in 1783---the Treaty of Paris, it opens this way: “[I]n the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.”
Just because Hillary admires greatly Saul Alinsky, who dedicated his seminal work to Lucifer, doesn’t mean, of course, she lights votive candles to Satan. Of course not. But it is a fascinating irony. We tend to become like that we worship. It’s no secret she greatly admires Alinsky, so the press trying to crucify Dr. Ben Carson for this point ignored a crucial piece of evidence---the facts.
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