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Should Christians Use Saul Alinsky’s Tactics in Exposing Corruption?
Townhall.com ^ | March 7, 2010 | Doug Giles

Posted on 03/07/2010 12:28:44 PM PST by Kaslin

A Christian pundit, Dawn Eden, thinks my daughter Hannah Giles and her partner James O’Keefe should not have used Saul Alinsky’s deceptive tactics against ACORN because Saul was “evil,” his methods sneaky, and he dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer.

In addition, Eden took a swipe at Lila Rose, Planned Parenthood’s main pain in the butt, for being deceptive in her undercover vids which exposed Planned Parenthood’s illegal activity. Oh, and I almost forgot: Dawn also busted on Hannah for being un-Christlike for wearing a miniskirt and dressing like a hooker. Sounds a little catty to me—and a wee bit like Dana Carvey’s Church Lady—but I digress.

First off, Ms. Eden, if you ever drum up the nerve to expose a scandalous multimillion dollar Obama-backed, taxpayer-funded organization for doing illegal crap and then undergo death threats (versus sitting on the sidelines and simply critiquing those who have the cojones to do so) you will find that the lawbreakers are rather reticent in telling journalists, who are intent on exposing and destroying their world, exactly how they’re breaking the law. Yeah, I know. It’s weird, eh?

You’d think that nefarious organizations would just spill their guts, throw up their hands, give up their hard drives, refrain from dumping tens of thousands of documents in a dumpster, and just cooperate to the fullest extent with the FBI and the DOJ, but alas, they don’t because they’re criminals, and criminals, generally speaking, aren’t known for truthfulness, contrition and full disclosure with cops.

Therefore, most of the time when journalists, Christian or not, want to get the 411 on a reprehensible group, they usually have to fly under the radar, you know, by being misleading, going stealth, acting like serpents, slithering in and getting the apple in front of the culprit and seeing if they’ll take the bait. Deception is a given in the truth seeker’s toolbox when it comes to dealing with slippery critters who won’t easily spill the beans. It’s called hunting. Haven’t you ever watched a Jason Bourne movie, seen Barney Fife in action, or read Joshua or Judges? Geez, Dawn. Come to speed, why don’t cha?

For frail Dawn, the deceptive tactics Giles, O’Keefe and Rose employed in exposing crappy cabals like ACORN and Planned Parenthood present a pious conundrum because she sees deceit, in all forms, as evil; according to her read of the Bible, sweet Jesus would never give the thumbs-up to a believer to participate in that kind of devilish activity.

No, for Dawn, we must pray, be more “mature,” take the high road, wait a million years, come through the front door with a press pass around our neck, and tell the twisted that the USA and Jesus would really appreciate it if ACORN and Planned Parenthood would confess their sins, close down their operations, and become a Ben & Jerry’s.

Here’s my take on whether or not Jesus and the Bible are cool with deceit for righteous purposes. First off, when I’m talking about Jesus, I’m talking about the one in the Bible who methodically made a whip and beat the religious hucksters out of the temple (that’s not very Christlike, eh Dawn?), purposely picked fights with sanctimonious toads and political pukes, and instructed his disciples to be “shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mt. 10:16). Or, as my King Doug Contra Mundus Translation interprets the original Greek text, “be as clever as the Devil.” Yep, good old Jesus said it’s okay to imitate the serpent in regard to cleverness; just be righteous in spirit and desired goals.

From what I know from my own serious Christian kid and O’Keefe (as well as Rose, via several interviews with her), their motivations were pure in that they wanted to sink these two sucky organizations—organizations, mind you, that are on tape aiding and abetting underage prostitution, home loans for multiple whorehouses, money laundering, tax fraud, millions of abortions, and not just any old abortions but abortions for underage girls (without their parents’ knowledge or consent) who have been the victims of statutory rape.

The reason I believe Jesus wouldn’t give a flip about these three heroes’ mad methods but would instead applaud their efforts is because the Scripture doesn’t condemn:

• Rahab, a real whore, for her sleight of hand with the Canaanites • Gideon’s pretense with his small army • Abraham’s lie regarding his wife • King David’s feigned madness before King Achish.

Real life is war, sweetie pie, and I hate to burst your smug balloon, my dear Dawn, but sometimes playing dirty for noble reasons is the right thing to do.

With Eden’s edict banning deception, it follows that Christian cops couldn’t do their fabulous undercover work; Christian soldiers couldn’t wear deceptive camo or take on local dress in order to whack the Taliban; Christian CIA ops would have to wear dove and fish T-Shirts instead of their Simon Templar garb; and the amazing Christians who lied to the murderous Nazis would all be uniformly condemned for fibbing about the whereabouts of precious Jews they were hiding.

Lastly, Dawn, at the end of the day, I believe Hannah, James and Lila will get mad applause in heaven as they are here on earth for exposing ACORN and Planned Parenthood’s hellish practices. I know, as a Christian, I prefer their ways of doing things to your way of not doing them. Amen.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: acorn; giles; hannahgiles; jamesokeefe; military; notaboutthemilitary; obama; plannedparenthood; saulalinsky
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1 posted on 03/07/2010 12:28:44 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The basic premise is flawed. What was used was undercover journalism, not Saul Alinsky’s rules for radicals.
2 posted on 03/07/2010 12:29:50 PM PST by highlander_UW (Obama has lost or not saved over 4 million jobs!)
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To: Kaslin

Was it right for Jesus to make a whip out of cord and tip over the tables of the money changers at the Temple? Some of you probably wont see my point here.


3 posted on 03/07/2010 12:33:04 PM PST by fish hawk
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To: Kaslin

Alinsky didn’t invent these tactics, he just collected them, organized them, wrote them down in a book, and since he had done all of the above, he got to name the book claiming ownership.

Seesh.


4 posted on 03/07/2010 12:34:10 PM PST by Balding_Eagle (If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
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To: Kaslin

The Christian pundit is correct, we should have used bananas to fight Nazism instead of guns and bombs./s


5 posted on 03/07/2010 12:35:13 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: highlander_UW

Needless destruction of people is wrong. Exposing them for what they really are is fine in my book.


6 posted on 03/07/2010 12:36:22 PM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin!)
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To: cripplecreek
Needless destruction of people is wrong. Exposing them for what they really are is fine in my book.

Exactly. I rather doubt Mr. Giles has read Alinsky's rules for radicals.

7 posted on 03/07/2010 12:37:35 PM PST by highlander_UW (Obama has lost or not saved over 4 million jobs!)
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To: Cacique

I dont think the Nazis would have fallen for the old banana in the tailpipe routine!


8 posted on 03/07/2010 12:39:35 PM PST by RaceBannon (RON PAUL: THE PARTY OF TRUTHERS AND TRAITORS!!!)
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To: Kaslin
Sounds a little catty to me—and a wee bit like Dana Carvey’s Church Lady—but I digress.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

"Wellllll, Isn't that special?!

9 posted on 03/07/2010 12:40:00 PM PST by ozark hilljilly
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To: highlander_UW

Even so - yes, Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals is to be used against the leftists at every possible opportunity, at maximum force and effectiveness.


10 posted on 03/07/2010 12:44:06 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Kaslin

They set the rules so we may as well play by them.

Pray for America


11 posted on 03/07/2010 12:46:33 PM PST by bray (Throw All the Bums Out, starting with McCain)
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To: Kaslin
Ol Pappy used to say, “you lay down with the dogs, you wake up with fleas”.
12 posted on 03/07/2010 12:48:18 PM PST by BallyBill (WARNING:Taking me serious could cause stress related illness.)
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To: Kaslin

The reference to Simon Templar is curious. Wikipedia it up.


13 posted on 03/07/2010 12:49:49 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: fish hawk

Yes. It was His Father’s house. Next time somebody does corrupt deals in your father’s house, you can defend it for him and throw them out, even if they were under the mistaken impression that everything was cool and it had been going on for awhile.

Giles and O’Keefe aren’t doing that exactly, though. They do not exactly have the moral stature of Jesus, and may be tempted to use their stunts more for attention than for moral correction. Personally, I am pondering whether they are more like papparazzi from the tabloids, with an unusual target, or whether they are wiser/of better character than that.


14 posted on 03/07/2010 12:50:49 PM PST by married21
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To: Kaslin

That is one proud father - God bless him.


15 posted on 03/07/2010 12:51:55 PM PST by sodpoodle (Despair - Man's surrender. Laughter - God's redemption.)
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To: Kaslin
Interesting idea, but as a Christian I have to say no.

Evil for evil is still evil.


16 posted on 03/07/2010 12:52:36 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart. WHO DAT!)
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To: Spktyr

When spelling out exactly what that means, people of good will will differ. But it doesn’t seem like Giles is talking about Alinski per se but about the discarding of scruples.


17 posted on 03/07/2010 12:52:40 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: married21

The redeeming thing, if any, about this escapade is that their requests were so outlandish that any person short of full-on evil should have flatly refused. Indeed, some ACORN sites did refuse them. This isn’t even at the level of offering to sell some mary jane to a stranger sprawled on a park bench.


18 posted on 03/07/2010 12:57:04 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: Kaslin

To use “Dawn’s logic”, Joshua should not have sent spies under disguise into Jericho nor Moses sending same into Canaan. Christians there-fore can’t be cops...especially under-cover cops!


19 posted on 03/07/2010 12:57:12 PM PST by mdmathis6
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To: fish hawk
Was it right for Jesus to make a whip out of cord and tip over the tables of the money changers at the Temple? Some of you probably wont see my point here.

I see it. Ephesians 4:26 tells us "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:"

Christ was indeed angry and rightfully so, but He did not sin in His anger.


20 posted on 03/07/2010 12:58:08 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart. WHO DAT!)
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