TWO Special Report: The Call Detroit – A Slick Political Rally Disguised As a Religious Revival

[WildNovember]

It took several hours to figure out what was really going on – but I gasped when the disturbing pattern finally revealed itself. This elaborate show had all the trappings of a modern religious revival – from the thumping music to the two gargantuan video screens suspended above the enraptured audience. But this ostensibly religious event was little more than a political front.

Its real aim was to peel African American support away from the Democratic Party in a swing state during a critical election year. Not only is President Barack Obama’s reelection at stake, Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow is locked in a tight race that includes social conservative and former GOP Rep. Peter Hoekstra. This cynical revival was not about “values” — it was about votes. It was not about worship, but winning office for Republicans by promoting what writer Ed Kilgore called in The New Republic, a “big-God, small-government creed.”

The amazing part was that the audience seemed totally unaware of the underlying motives and machinations. After all, the words “Democrat” and “Republican” were never spoken and there was only one local politician identified on-stage. It seemed that even some of the minor speakers might not have been privy to the overarching strategy. Nonetheless, a brilliant display of political subterfuge was unfolding as the oblivious crowd bopped to Christian rock with their hands swaying above their heads.

This is not the first attempt of white fundamentalists to lure black voters away from the Democratic Party. Immediately following the 2004 presidential election, social conservatives made a strong push to lure African-Americans....the attempt was gaining some momentum until Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, which badly frayed the burgeoning unholy alliance. The effort was further hampered by the emergence of Barack Obama as the Democratic standard bearer...

In this renewed effort in Detroit, Lou Engle and his minions were smart. They wisely figured out that direct attacks on the Democratic Party would not fly, nor would all-out verbal barrages against President Barack Obama, who still has strong African American support. They also understood that the baggage surrounding white Evangelical racism would have to be addressed and surmounted before real progress was made.

To overcome these obstacles and recruit African Americans to vote for the GOP they devised what seems like a five-part strategy.

1) Pick a key swing state with a beleaguered city that had an economically disadvantaged African American population

2) Create an emotional spectacle where tearful white people pleaded for forgiveness and repented onstage for past racism

3) Sharply define new wedge issue(s) and create a racially-based conspiracy theory that could ultimately be used against the Democratic Party

4) Exploit these emerging wedge issue(s) to the point they become more important than fixing the economy

5) Redefine voting criteria so candidates are primarily judged by where they stand on these wedge issue(s) – with the ultimate goal of leading many African Americans to conclude that they are best represented by the conservative GOP.

Lou Engle understands that much of Michigan is conservative. If he were able to peel off fifteen or twenty percent of Detroit’s black Democratic vote, he might be able to turn the state solidly red. The main wedge issue he selected to accomplish his plan is abortion. For good measure, he helped weave a conspiracy theory: Sinister white bigots who run programs like Planned Parenthood were using abortion to reduce African American birthrates.

http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2011/11/20272/

[WildNovember]

1. The unctuous performance intensified when the white audience members were commanded

to find someone of another race in the stadium and apologize. Lily-white teenagers from the suburbs were embracing inner city blacks while they wept uncontrollably. You could hear murmurs of “I’m sorry” throughout Ford Field....

Indeed, you could easily imagine a similar “daring” rally in 2050, where an arena packed with fundamentalists finally apologize and hug teary-eyed homosexuals. Long after it mattered and long after the pioneering gay married couples were dead or decrepit, the fundamentalists would finally, at no political cost, admit they had caused tremendous pain, caused teen suicides, and ruined countless lives. Then, of course, a scripted gay toady would pounce on the elevated platform and make the audience feel better by offering an apology for “LGBT militancy.”...

At Ford Field, it would have been impressive had these evangelicals used this opportunity to embrace moderate Muslims. Instead, they contemptuously trotted out Kamal Saleeman (aka Khodor Shami), an alleged “ex-Muslim terrorist” who dumped Mohammed for Jesus. The Arab convert said that when he abandoned Islam he went from “Ali Baba and the 40 thieves to the Kingdom of God.” (There’s nothing like the loving and productive interfaith dialogue offered by fundamentalist Christians!)

What the audience never heard was that Saleeman is a fraud and a Christian right stooge who has actually never been a terrorist. He worked for Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network for sixteen years, and was hired by Focus on the Family in 2003. In 2006, he launched Koome Ministries, whose mission is to “expose the true agenda of who would deceive our nation and the free nations of the world.”

[WildNovember]

2. The magnetic preacher brought “renewal” based on Jesus and not jobs;

reducing abortion rates instead of raising employment rates; worship without lifting wages; fixating on Scripture while not fixing public schools; and hurting homosexuals while not helping the homeless. Detroit 11.11.11 was little more than a mere distraction that will do virtually nothing to lift Detroit out of despair.

If you find yourself growing tired and weary in our endless fight for freedom, keep Engle in mind. Our batteries must be quickly recharged and there is no time to sleep. Say what you will about the Lou Engles of this world – they are fully committed to their cause, absolutely tireless, and they will do virtually anything to achieve their theocratic utopian vision.