Posted on 10/28/2010 11:00:25 AM PDT by NYer
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who's mulling a run for the White House, appeared Wednesday at the school founded by Jerry Falwell to address students and to meet with key conservative Christian activists from across the country.
In a speech to students at Liberty University on Wednesday morning, Gingrich said that Americans needed to fight back against secular socialists, including President Barack Obama, at home and against Islamic radicals around the world.
"Imagine a small secular political elite imposing its radical values on a massive majority of worshippers," he said in a passage describing Poland under communism, according to remarks distributed by his spokesman. "You can see how strange Poland was - or maybe you can see how relevant this story is to America today."
"President Obama's secular socialist philosophy is profoundly in conflict with the heart of the American system and is a repudiation of the core lessons of American history," Gingrich told students at the Lynchburg, Virginia, school, according to a copy of his speech provided by spokesman Rick Tyler.
"With God's help," Gingrich continued, "and with our willingness to humble ourselves, to always seek his guidance, and always do his bidding, we will overcome both our radical secular opponents and our radical Islamist enemies."
Gingrich has said he will decide whether to run for president by early next year. He is touring the country in support of Republican candidates.
After his speech, Gingrich was scheduled to meet with some of the most influential Christian conservatives in the country at Liberty, including Tom Minnery, executive vice president of Focus on the Family, Craig Parshall, executive vice president of the National Religious Broadcasters and Jim Garlow, who led pastors in support of California's gay marriage ban in 2008.
Gingrich approached the school with the idea for his visit, according to Brett O'Donnell,
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
"Mrs. Gingrich #2 was dumped after her husband had carried on an extramarital affair with a fetching, blond congressional staffer named Callista Bisek, who went on to become the present Mrs. Gingrich #3. This Family Values paradigm was complicated by the fact that whilst Mr. Gingrich was filibustering Ms. Bisek over the Speaker’s desk, he was simultaneously leading the impeachment charge against a naughty president of the United States....The much-married Newt Gingrich converts to Catholicism this weekend—and I’d pay a year’s salary to have been a bug on the wall during his religious instruction."
-- Christopher Buckley, from the thread The Audacity of Poping
maybe not secular. he is visiting a mosque in indonesia and went to church a few weeks ago to hear an imam speak.
Once again Newt Gingrich trying his own spin to be relevant; if he wants to appear really smart he should have been talking about ‘Obammunism’ instead of Marxism light, aka Socialism.
Once again, the Great Bloviator has it all wrong. Obama is not a secularist; he’s a Muslim. And he is not a socialist; he’s a Marxist.
Hannity seems to love you, maybe he'll hire you permanently as his go-fer.
OK then. That's 7 years of salacious gossip. Can we please come up with A PROGRAM, A PLAN, SOME LEADERS,and SOME FRICKIN' CLUE on how to stop, and roll back Obama's socialist tide?
Perhaps you have noticed that we have been placed in penury, 1 in 5 of us is out of real work, and that we are about to be taxed to death?
and Gingrich is a vapid, self-serving, RINO opportunist who is as bad as Obambi. It is 2010 not 1994 go away Newt. The days of snake oil politicians selling the cure all potion of the moment are over.
My Dr. Scholl’s callus remover has more credibility than Gingrich, it works as advertised. He never has and never will.
Oh yes.... Newt seems to be quite relevant with Hannity. When channel-surfing talk radio, I hear Hannity, as per usual, giving a run-down on what's coming up (both on the radio and on his show at night). It seems to be eternally "Newt." If Newt thinks we are all waiting to find out if he'll run in 2012, he's got another "think" coming. When will he ever go away? I barely lived through Rush's shows when the then-speaker, "MR. NEWT" would call in every other day. He will never be forgotten for his Pelosi-Newt Climate Change commercial. Stick a fork in him--he's done.
Why, oh why is it so hard for Gingrich to say MARXIST? What the hell is a “secular socialist anyway?
Dang, the reds already have invented a bunch of euphemisms for Marxist: Progressive, liberal and Communist being three of them.
Gingrich’s time has come and gone. His ascendancy cut off by his own cowardice. This man needs to get a life—as far from every day politics as he can get.
I see. You marry three times then become Catholic.
“Obama’s a secular socialist”
####
I got: RaceMarxist deploying the politics of vengeance.
Exactly.. double speak.. could be that the progressive Teddy Rooseveldt turned Gingrich into a progressive Newt.. in a bit of magic..
As both Rooseveldts (one a D the other an R) started allowing the federal government to boguard land/property in the States.. In some States the feds OWN more land than the States do...
The federal government OWNING land in the States is obscene..
The only label that works in all cases is ‘evil.’
My guess is that there's such a thing as a "religious socialist" - and Gingrich is one of them.
Yo Alex—Thanks for thought provoking post. How would you describe a “religious socialist”. I’ve tried to get my arms around the idea, but can’t seem to do it.
As I see it, the term “socialist” was created in Europe as a euphemism for Marxist. “The term “communist” was also tried for the same reason. Not sure which came first. But I do know that Europeans generally called Marxists communists. Perhaps because there was less pejorative associated with the idea of communes. Americans have generally referred to Russian, Chinese, N. Vietnamese, S. Koreans and Cubans as communist states.
In any case, if we agree that socialist also means Marxist, how can one be a religious socialist? Religion is always the enemy of Marxism because Marxism becomes the new God. Can’t have any competition.
What say you?
Like this:
It is not a case of two typologies of social doctrine, one pre-conciliar and one post-conciliar, differing from one another: on the contrary, there is a single teaching, consistent and at the same time ever new. (12)Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty. (21)
“The scandal of glaring inequalities” continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones. Among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers. (22)
Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers… (25)
Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. (25)
The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. (27)
It is necessary to cultivate a public conscience that considers food and the access to water as a universal right of all humans, without distinction or discrimination. (27) (Cf. Benedict , Message for the 2007 World Food Day: (2007), 933-935.)
Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country’s international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development. (32)
Alongside profit-oriented private enterprise and the various types of public enterprise, there must be room for commercial entities based on mutualist principles and pursuing social ends to take root and express themselves. It is from their reciprocal encounter in the marketplace that one may expect hybrid forms of commercial behavior to emerge, and hence an attentiveness to ways of civilizing the economy. (38)
In order to defeat underdevelopment, action is required not only on improving exchange-based transactions and implanting public welfare structures, but above all on gradually increasing openness, in a world context, to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion. (39)
Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. (48)
The international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process. (49)
The technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption. (49)
In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together. (57)
Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance. (62) (Cf. Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Instruction Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi (3 May 2004): AAS 96 (2004), 762-822.)
The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated. (64)
In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. (67)
-- Alex Murphy's highlights from the paragraph-by-paragraph summary of Caritas in Veritate, July 8, 2009
Human beings have the positive and Divine right to daily bread, health care, and other aspects of human dignity. In his Luciferian quest for individual Liberty, however, Western man has destroyed the Divinely-ordained social order under which the Church provided these goods. As a result, the heavy hand of the State will now intrude into every aspect of public life in its futile attempt to build a just society. Ironically, the worship of individual liberty instigated by the "reformers" of the Church and the secular counterparts of the "enlightenment" has destroyed the liberty under God that individuals once enjoyed as organic parts of the Catholic and medieval social order.
-- from the thread How Liberalism and Libertarianism Destroyed Liberty
"...in the end, the final answer to the question of "So is the Pope above criticism? Is he infallible?" is "Shut up and kiss the ring." No one is permitted to question the Vicar of Christ's guidance. If he says that- food and the access to water are a universal right of all humans,as he did in his recent encyclical Caritas in veritate, you'll be expected to step aside and let the centralists and socialists take over. Your eternal salvation is in jeopardy if you don't go along with whatever he says, whenever he says it."
- abandoning mechanisms of wealth redistribution will hinder the achievement of lasting development
- technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption
- labor unions should expand their influence over those outside their membership, and beyond national boundaries,
- a reform of the United Nations Organization is necessary, likewise a reform of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the "family of nations" can acquire real teeth.
-- Alex Murphy, August 21, 2009
"...anyone who claims that _Caritas_ is non-political or that it doesn’t take a POSITIVE interest in a Roman Catholic-based “development” of globalism is someone who has not read the encyclical, or someone who is not able to read it with comprehension, or is purposefully lying."Caritas in Veritate:
-- Poe White Trash, October 14, 2009
Threads on Caritas in Veritate:
Faith in God, not the market [Pope Benedict XVI favors more govt regulation over financial markets]
Economic Heresies of the Left (Novak on Caritas in Veritate)
Encycli-bites for reading “Caritas in veritate”
Pope Benedict's Meeting with Obama a Setback for Conservative Catholics
Is the Pope for New World Order?
Pope gives Obama 'unannounced' gift: Vatican document on right to life and bioethics
Benedict's Third Encyclical: A Summary
(Catholic) Bishops Wrong: Health Care Not a Right
Is Benedict in Favor of World Government?
Doing The Truth In Love: An Evangelical Call for Response to "Caritas In Veritate"
68 Protestant Leaders Applaud Encyclical-Caritas in Veritate [Ecumenical]
Vatican Backs Obama's Global Agenda
What the Church teaches about (big) government
Catholic Church has great faith in U.N., new Vatican secretary of state says
Alex—I suppose it would be an understatement to say that you’ve taken the time to know your subject. Your ability to be so precisely organized so quickly leads me to believe that, to one extent or another, you’re very much involved in your subject.
Although I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer I understand you to say there is another totalitarian threat—after Marxism—coming at us and it will be led by religion. Your paralleling the stated aims of religion and Marxism is unique and profound—at least to me.
I wonder if militant Islam is the vanguard of this assault on individual and collective freedom. As unbelievable as it may seem we are already in the middle of a 16th century religious war.
In the event that I correctly understand your meaning I thank you for the enlightenment.
Let's just say that, when it comes to the Religion Forum and religious topics on FR, I strive to be well-informed.
Although I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer I understand you to say there is another totalitarian threat—after Marxism—coming at us and it will be led by religion. Your paralleling the stated aims of religion and Marxism is unique and profound—at least to me.
The idea that "there is another totalitarian threat—after Marxism—coming at us and it will be led by religion." is not at all what I'm suggesting. My only intentional takeaway was that the reader that should take note of Gingrich's repeated use of the modifier "secular". It may be that it's the secular aspects of socialism that make it (always) bad in Gingrich's mind.
If you're seeing socialist ideas wrapped in religious language in Pope Benedict's Caritas in Veritate, maybe Gingrich saw them, too - and he took those political statements from the Pope as affirmations of his own political ideas and agendas.
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