Exposing Planned Parenthood, Good, Saul Alinsky, Not Good

On February 18, 2011 By Lee (@disciple96)In Morality, Pro-life, Rules for Radicals

Last night I wrote a post about LiveAction and the Saul Alinsky book they recommended, Rules for Radicals. I have to admit, even after reading Why Live Action did right and why we all should know that by Dr. Peter Kreeft, I still object to Alinsky’s ideas and to anyone in the pro-life movement using them.

And that is my real beef with LiveAction, not that they did undercover sting operations and lied to the sleazy corrupt minions of sleazy Planned Parenthood. It’s that they recommended Saul Alinsky to their fellow pro-life workers on their website and that their representative actually told me via email that they didn’t see anything wrong with his book or his methods. That is what bothered me then and is still what bothers me now. I think they took the book off their site, I haven’t seen it lately, but I have yet to hear any of them repudiate it. If you’ve read Rules for Radicals, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, read it. Everything you’re seeing right now in the world–the middle east, Wisconsin, Europe–will suddenly make a whole lot of sense. Evil sense, but sense, nonetheless.

So, as I have said, I am glad that LiveAction is exposing Planned Parenthood for the sleazy corrupt bunch that they are. I think that is great. Wonderful. Marvelous! Praise the Lord! I just wish I knew they understood why Saul Alinsky is someone who cannot instruct us in spiritual combat, except insofar as he can show us the demonic forces we are up against.

5 thoughts on “Exposing Planned Parenthood, Good, Saul Alinsky, Not Good”

Laura George

We are fighting the devil himself with Obama in office.

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November 8, 2011 at 8:01 am Reply
1. Disciple
  
  Lots of little devils, seems like, doesn’t it? O’s administration and the senate seem to be full of them. I don’t want to give Obama any more fuel for his ego by calling him the devil; he’s just a small fry amongst other fries. (Reference to unhealthy food and frying process equally unhealthy to body and soul intended.)
  
  Thank you for reading and commenting, Laura. :) Peace be with you.
  
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  November 15, 2011 at 12:22 am Reply
Disciple

Then Maritain was wrong. Many Catholics were wrong about Alinsky, including many priests and religious. As for me, I have read the book Rules for Radicals for myself. I have thought for myself. And I have thought with the mind of an informed and deeply faithful Catholic and this I know: Saul Alinsky was not a great man. He was a great deceiver and corrupter of men’s minds and hearts. Do not rush to judgment about what you think I think without reading the posts I linked to. I know who Saul Alinsky was, I know who some of his fans are. They aren’t great people either. Alinsky and his followers are a large part of what is wrong in this country and elsewhere. If you think he was great, then I will pray for you that you will see him clearly for what he really was. His books and legacy are still corrupting minds and hearts and leading people far far astray.

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February 22, 2011 at 2:52 am Reply
Ralph Benko

Jacques Maritain said that Saul Alinsky “one of the few really great men of our century.” Please do not rush to judgment and do not fail to actually read, rather than read about, Rules for Radicals. This post does not demonstrate deep discernment about Alinsky.

And, perhaps, http://www.newoxfordreview.org/briefly.jsp?did=0695-briefly

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February 21, 2011 at 6:55 pm Reply
1. Disciple
  
  I found this article today and thought I’d post a quote at some length. I feel it’s worth a read. From “Saul Alinsky – Secular Saint or Subversive Neo-Marxist?”
  
  Addendum 2: While the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), part of the USCCB, has had a longtime role in supporting Alinsky projects, not so well known is the 30-year friendship of the renowned Catholic philosopher, Jacques Maritain and Saul Alinsky, two people seemingly so very different in their beliefs and personalities. It was a friendship for which Maritain was accused of compromising his beliefs.
  
  Maritain approved of community organising as an application of the Catholic teaching for the need of those “subsidiary, mediating structures” in society he had called for in his book, Integral Humanism. Alinsky’s project was, in Maritain’s view, a fitting remedy for one of the great scandals of the developed world.
  
  Yet, it is incorrect to claim, as some Catholic writers have done, that Maritain had no serious reservations about Alinsky. His letters to Alinsky show that he clearly disagreed with Alinsky’s inherited Marxism that manifested itself in amoral relativism and a conviction of the total depravity of human nature. The Machiavellian model for action found in Rules for Radicals deeply offended Maritain, and suggested to him a loss of sound thinking in Alinsky’s later years when he wrote the book. For a more details, see: The Catholic Social Science Review 16 (2011): 229-240 http://cssronline.org/CSSR/Current/Articles%20-%20Wolfe.pdf
  
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  May 23, 2015 at 5:17 pm Reply