Falwell: Rethinking Kwanzaa - Democratic Underground

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Falwell: Rethinking Kwanzaa

FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL
Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and
The Liberty Alliance http://www.moralmajority.com <https://webmail.liberty.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.moralmajority.com/>

From: Jerry Falwell
Date: December 28, 2006

Rethinking Kwanzaa

We hear a lot these days about a divided nation. So I began wondering this week why our nation has begun to embrace a relatively new celebration known as Kwanzaa, which is not as innocent as it appears on the surface.

Launched in 1966, Kwanzaa is celebrated for seven days, beginning December 26. The weeklong festival was introduced by Ron Karenga (AKA Ron Everett), a black author and Marxist devotee, who has a very dubious history. Mr. Karenga’s Marxist roots should be a warning signal right off the bat, but there’s more to be concerned about here.

In 1969, on the campus of UCLA, Mr. Karenga led a student group known as United Slaves, which, along with students in the equally radical Black Panthers (the rivals of United Slaves), actually attended classes with loaded weapons.

David Horowitz, in his book “Radical Son,” noted that Black Panther John Higgins was then “murdered — along with Al ‘Bunchy’ Carter — on the UCLA campus by members of Ron Karenga’s organization.” Later, female members of the United Slaves said they were tortured by United Slaves members, all at Mr. Karenga’s command.

Members of the organization have since reported being beaten and tortured by Mr. Karenga and his minions. He was actually convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment in 1971, and sentenced to prison. At his trial, a psychiatrist’s report declared: “This man now represents a picture which can be considered both paranoid and schizophrenic with hallucinations and elusions, inappropriate affect, disorganization, and impaired contact with the environment.”

But the story gets more bizarre.

When he was released from prison, Mr. Karenga had earned his doctorate degree and soon was appointed to the Black Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach.

I’ll never cease to be amazed at the foolish gullibility of modern education officials.

Our nation, I believe, has also been naïve in accepting Kwanzaa without examining its roots and its founder. In our modern quest to embrace multiculturalism and diversity at all costs, I believe we are being duped by the founder of Kwanzaa.

I’ve watched several news reports on Kwanzaa in recent days and none of them have mentioned the dark history of its founder or its Marxist pedigree. The reports have simply noted that Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration rooted in African traditions, and even that is untrue.

Mr. Karenga himself admits that Kwanzaa is not fundamentally African, telling the Washington Post in 1978, “People think it’s African, but it’s not.”

In a recent column, Ann Coulter, never one to mince words, said of Kwanzaa: “(It) is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy ‘60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism.” She added, “When Karenga was asked to distinguish Kawaida, the philosophy underlying Kwanzaa, from ‘classical Marxism,’ he essentially explained that under Kawaida, we also hate whites.”

Listen, I love learning about other cultures. At Liberty University, where I am the chancellor, this year we welcomed students from 83 nations among our 10,000-plus resident students. Further, nearly 14 percent of our student body is African-American. I truly enjoy meeting these students, hearing their stories and celebrating their life goals. It is fascinating to learn about others’ customs and ways of life.

But I cannot accept Kwanzaa as a legitimate American holiday. It is corrupt and wholly anti-American. There is danger in it.

I join with Ann Coulter in celebrating Galatians 3:28, which notes that the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ is available to all, no matter their race, color, background or heritage. It says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus …” (NKJV).

Therein lies real diversity and true freedom for all.