Gmail - SOCIAL JUSTICE: By working inside (Alinsky-OBAMA) or outside (Cone-WRIGHT) the system? - jacobthanni@gmail.com

Gmail - SOCIAL JUSTICE: By working inside (Alinsky-OBAMA) or outside (Cone-WRIGHT) the system? - jacobthanni@gmail.com

SAUL ALINSKY (Obama's thought-&-action model) was an insider in his approach to social justice. (I saw his operation up close, as did one of our sons.) Wikipedia rightly calls him "the father of community organizing." His Industrial Areas Foundation was of "the nonsocialist left," aiming to arouse to action "the silent majority," especially those feeling "futureless," helping them "to let go of the past and change the future." As a magnifying glass can concentrate beams of light into a pinpoint focus of light-&-heat intensity, he sought to arouse his public to indignation about one specific injustice affecting them all, then to organize them into action for change at that focus. (A one-generation-removed disciple of Alinsky, Obama's key word is "change.") His model went 'round the world. An especially well-heralded instance was "organizing the Woodlawn area" (which I knew well a generation earlier; I was the assistant pastor of the Woodlawn Baptist Church). (Alinsky was a recipient of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award.)

3 While both approaches--the outside & the insider--work for social justice, the insider has priority: "revolution" (the outsider's aim, as in "God damn America") is justifiable only if "reformation" (Obama's insider life-long-aim of reconciliation) fails.

4 How do I explain Obama's tolerating Wright as his pastor (for 20 years!)? Wright was both an insider (70 ministries of his church to the community!) & (mainly with his mouth) an outsider.