I made up a word for this several years ago: parvenize. This is the verbal form of the noun and adjective “parvenu” which has been lying in wait of Barack Obama. A parvenu, you see, is “one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it.” Thank you, Merriam-Webster. This describes Obama. He’s a parvenu.
Likewise, it’s incredible to note the messiah overtones in Obama’s parvenization. The current best-selling children’s book on Amazon is testimony to this. The book: Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. It’s story, his story:
Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held on to Hope. Even as a boy, Barack knew he wasn’t quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to Hope and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together.
This is the moving story of an exceptional man, as told by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Bryan Collier, both winners of the Coretta Scott King Award. Barack Obama has motivated Americans to believe with him, to believe that every one of us has the power to change ourselves and change our world.
You can’t be entirely sure what this children’s book is meant to engender, but without a doubt it’s more than just respect for the President-Elect. For examples simply read the reader reviews
You have GOT to be kidding me???? There is something seriously wrong with any parent that would give this god-king worship book to a child. I fear for anyone that focuses this much adoration towards a man. I fear for any nation that adores a leader to this extent. Lets pull our heads out of the clouds people.
Or
A friend and I saw and went through this book in a store. We could not believe it. It portrays Obama as Messiah, Obama as deity. And the presentation is to children. Yep, the illustrations are, indeed, beautiful. The message: over-the-top brainwashing. Of children. This book represents the unquestioning society and hero worship. The book is beautiful, and sickening.
It’s also intriguing to see a children’s book about John McCain
“First, accomplished writers create an English rendering; then, respected Bible scholars adjust the rendering to align the manuscript with the original texts.”
This raises all kinds of questions: What Vorlage (if not the GNT) are the “accomplished writers” using? If they’re consulting an English translation, the Voice Translation goes from Greek to English to “accomplished writer” tweaking to only then consulting “the original texts” to the finished product. This is surely backwards: re-interpreting English translated from Greek which is tweaked by Greek to arrive at English. Woah. No wonder they’re arriving at outlandish translations/interpretations.
Moreover, we primarily English readers already have a hard time enough trying to recognize OT allusions in the NT (intertextuality or whatever’s the best term) without replacing terms like “Messiah” with “the Liberator.” Indeed this is only one aspect of the expected Messiah.
Finally, though they claim “it is time to bring the body of Christ together again around the Bible” (page one of Preface) they unnecessarily distant themselves–yay, cut themselves off–from the last millennia of Christianity by removing words like “baptism” and “repentance.” I’m afraid more so than already people won’t have a clue what they’re talking about in their striving to be understood, contemporary and non-divisive.