One must ever bear in mind the occupation of Barak Obama.  He is often referred to as a professor, an expert on Constitutional Law.  But that is not it.  Barak Obama from his beginnings has been a “Community Organizer.”  Even in the White House, that is what he remains.

And just what is a community organizer?  A community organizer is (historically) a Marxist who sows seeds of discontent, distrust, and envy, otherwise known by the Biblical term from the Tenth Commandment, “covetousness.”  His aim is to create a perception of unfairness, to stir up resentment by which he persuades vulnerable people of their disadvantages, so that they may be manipulated into violent actions that weaken and, it is hoped, will bring down the prevailing social order.  In short, a community organizer is a revolutionary.

Community organizers are a recurring factor in the social history of America.  Their aim is relentlessly the overthrow of the nation.  Consider a brief survey:  Begin with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.  Due to the economic depression of the 1870s which brought wage cuts of up to 45 percent, railroad workers launched violent strikes that paralyzed continental shipping.  For a period of 45 days in July and August, massive riots, joined by coal miners, erupted in West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and other Eastern cities.  Buildings and equipment burned, and men died.  The New York World reported that behind the unrest were “the hands of men dominated by the devilish spirit of Communism.”

Labor unrest continued into the 1890s fomented by Anarchist agitators.  On May 1, 1886 leading Anarchist Albert Parsons marched at the front of 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue in Chicago in the country’s first May Day parade.  They demanded an eight hour work day.  Three days later the Haymarket riots resulted in seven policemen and five workers killed.  The movement propelled the Anarchist Leon Czolgusz to assassinate President William McKinley (who was a devout Christian) on September 6, 1901.

Soldiers returning from World War I created an employment crisis across the country leading to massive race riots in 1919.  In Washington, 10 were killed.  In Chicago, 38, with 537 injured.  And in Elaine, Arkansas, 100-200 blacks were murdered.  The riots flared in 38 cities before the Army and the National Guard restored order.  The period is called “The Red Scare” because among the many factors which set blacks against whites, underneath it was, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, “a Bolshevist, a Negro, and a gun.”  The New York Times wrote of, “A new negro problem” caused by “influences that are now working to drive a wedge of bitterness and hatred between the two races.” 

During the 1930s the Great Depression produced more labor unrest.  One and a half million workers conducted 2000 strikes.  In May, 1934 32,000 dockworkers in San Francisco and other West Coast ports brought shipping to a halt.  The pitched battles lasted for two and a half months, and triumphant cries were raised that the long-sought revolution was at hand.

In the 1950s the McCarthy hearings, for all of their tactical excesses, exposed committed Communists high up in the federal government.  In 1968 the Marxist revolutionaries tried again.  That was the year that Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated.  Nineteen sixty-nine featured Woodstock.  In its wake, a whole generation of Baby Boomers rebelled and smashed everything of value in society.  I lived through those days.  They were a horribly ugly period in America.

And now, in places like Ferguson, Missouri, the same forces are at work again.  We witnessed the mindless looting and burning.  On November 30 five members of the St. Louis Rams entered St. Louis football stadium with the chant, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”  On December 1 the Congressional Black Caucus took to the floor of Congress with the same words.  Truth does not matter.  Evidence does not convince.  Ferguson has become a rallying cry to rouse the same underclass, the same discontented masses.  And the revolution is on again.

The Bible offers a parallel.  The book of II Samuel (chapter 15) tells the story of Absalom, the son of David.  David had built Israel into a regional power.  He had created an effective central government and ensured that justice was available to every person.  Economic prosperity was unprecedented, the arts flourished, and God was worshiped by the entire nation.  And people were free.  Absalom committed a murder for which he was exiled.  When he returned he began a campaign to undermine his father’s rule.  Verses 3-4 report that Absalom drew the people away to himself by appealing to their discontent.  “See, your claims are good and right, but no man listens to you on the part of the king…O that one would appoint me judge in the land, then every man who has any suit or cause could come to me, and I would give him justice.”  Verse 6 says, “So Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.”  He initiated a coup and overthrew the best king Israel ever had.  David prevailed in the end and Absalom ended up dead, an abiding symbol of infamy.

Absalom’s is the way of community organizers in every age.  It is a tactic as old as hell itself.  The revolution failed in 1968 because, as the radicals later realized, they did not control the power at the top.  Today they do.  President Obama could have risen to greatness had he gone to Ferguson and marched down the main street, and said to the people, “The evidence does not support the claims of injustice.  We must honor the rule of Law.”  He could have brought all America together as the nation’s first black president.  Instead, following the tactic of a community organizer, he quietly stokes the fires and says to the looters and the rioters in effect, “I will give you justice.”  And his aim is power for himself and his cause

America may weather this latest assault on Law and our social fabric, as we have done in the past.  But let us not take the outcome for granted.  Instead, we must commit ourselves to that which is good and right and just, and refuse to play into the hands of those who agitate for revolution, or who stir up hatred among people.  And we must turn to God who rewards the righteous, and appeal for his aid.

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..