Monterey Bay Forum

COPA franchise fees

You want to start a McDonald? You pay a franchise fee.

You want to spread the ‘food’ of Saul Alinsky, progressive who wrote Rules for Radicals?

You will pay a ‘franchise’ fee to spread the progressive ‘gospel’ of Saul Alinsky via COPA and other similar organizations with different names and same philosophy. The money paid to COPA goes out of state to Chicago, Illinois. Home of community organizer Obama. Mmmm.

Why cough up big bucks to founders of COPA, an out of state organization, for franchise costs? This does not make sense.

Why pay Illinois for how to do community organizing in a California community? Do we really need more of Obama type organizers here in Santa Cruz and Monterey? What say you.

Time for church & other religious organization members to ask why….

Ask why. Time for local church and other religious organizations to ask why their local Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay area religious organization pay up to $10,000 a year in COPA ‘franchise’ costs to out of state Illinois & no buy-in by church members?

If you want the ‘real answers’ why the franchise costs paid to an out of CA community organization ( in Chicago, Illinois) then ask the original founders of COPA.

Wonder who? There were three persons who started COPA: the driving force was a Catholic sister/nun who runs a Watsonville, CA women/ children care facility, an Aptos, CA Lutheran minister who has since died.. and …

1) What COPA did many years ago was to get ‘buy in’ from the local leaders of local churches & other religious organizations.

2) Then COPA said to the general Santa Cruz/ Monterey CA community that all the members of these organization supported COPA views.

3) Now COPA uses those churches to hand out material and tell members how to vote.

COPA is smart. People who go to a local church or other religious organization may not want to ‘argue’ about COPA with those who provide spiritual assistance. More info follows below.

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
_______________

Political Community Organizing through Places of Worship

By Freedom Advocates
Monday, 02 November 2009

Question: “I have just learned that my Monterey Bay Area church has given large sums of money to a political Interfaith Network organization called COPA. COPA stands for Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action. What is COPA?

Answer: COPA is a member of Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) which was founded by Saul Alinsky in the 1940’s. Alinsky authored two books that are used as manuals by socialist and communist change agents – Reveille for Radicals in 1946 and Rules for Radicals in 1971.

It is a serious concern that the money I’ve been giving to my church is being used for political and radical ideological purposes without my knowledge or authorization. There are many Interfaith Networks operating under different names throughout the country and most of them like COPA, are members of IAF.

Answer: In their own words, Industrial Areas Foundation helps build broad-based, non-partisan organizations of dues-paying member congregations, schools, unions, business associations, and non-profits committed to building power for sustainable social and economic change.

Alinsky in his book writings puts it like this,

You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules. You can kill them with this. They can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

Believing that the ends justify the means, Alinksy stated that,

In action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind.

So churches are being used for political purposes rather than for spiritual reasons. COPA affiliated churches use congregational capital to influence local politicians and intensely advocate for so-called “affordable housing” developments built by well paid so-called, “non-profit” developers.

The reality is that our money is funding an undisclosed massive subsidy for building projects benefiting individuals who are very ineffective at cost containment. This should give pause to anyone thinking that COPA and IAF are organizations out to help the downtrodden. Those downtrodden are the means, the pawns, in COPA’s game plan.

Where was I when these political shenanigans were being discussed? Was it part of a sermon or simply handled as a financial transaction behind closed doors? It’s alarming that I and my fellow congregants missed the discussion about morphing my church into an instrument of socialist/fascist economic change. This is antithetical to what I believe in.

Your church may be doing this too. Go to the IAF Industrial Areas Foundation “affiliates” page. Click on your region on the left side of the page. In our area, COPA was formerly known as CCIS – Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors.

Congregations across the country find themselves attached to COPA-like organizations with names like Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE), Tying Nashville Together (TNT) or Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground.

Most of us never saw this happening. We trust our places of worship and attend in order to honor God and invigorate our spiritual beliefs. Now we discover that an outside political action group is working insidiously to infiltrate our church and undermine our ethical and spiritual structure.

COPA/IAF is clear that their mission is to train parishioners in community organizing tactics in order to achieve a political result through lobbying. Sound familiar? ACORN has been in the news recently for exploiting poor neighborhoods through the use of misleading promises used in community organizing and lobbying. ACORN targets neighborhoods. COPA and IAF target places of worship and unsuspecting parishioners.

COPA/IAF are coming into our churches and synagogues, misleading many of our ministers and other leaders by having them support COPAand IAF politics.

Is your church or temple involved with an interfaith congregation network and IAF? If so, you need to ask:

Is my church a member of a network or organization that supports IAF? What is the organization called?

If yes, why did our church leadership decide to join?

What was the commitment made to the organization?

Has the pastor, minister, rabbi or other spiritual leader been informed about the true nature of Interfaith Networks and Congregation Based Community Organizations?

Has the congregation been informed?

Call to action – Let your church know how you feel about affiliations with political and ideological groups such as IAF and COPA.

Political Community Organizing through Places of Worship by Freedom Advocates

More on Political community organizing through churches:

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Some acronyms say a lot: Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) concisely makes its point.

COPA is not such an acronym. It is not “wanna cup-a tea…” Why that acronym?

It is hard to wrap your brain or mouth around “communities organized for relational power“.

Is that deliberate? Undoubtedly. A fuzzy acronym lacking clarity (COPA) is better when the ultimate goal is something people might resist: re-distribution of wealth.

COPA talks about “relational power”. What in the world is “relational” power? Is that what a work supervisor has over the supervisee? Is that what the home room teacher has over students as they wait to be dismissed from school?

“Relational power” What in the world is that? As the priest blesses the wine to become the blood of Christ during the Eucharist what is the “relational power” of the priest to the congregation? Magician? Conduit of God’s Love? Relational power. What a mouthful.

Think about it. What is the best way to organize a community for socialistic, Alinsky type goals?

Of course, use the “progressive” and “liberal” churches. Get the titular heads of the organizations to sign on. That is relatively easy to do.

Churches and other faith organizations typically are not democratic. The head of the churches typically set policies and people rarely disagree with their priest, rector, minister or rabbi.

Yes, housing is expensive in Santa Cruz County. Though it certainly is aloft less expensive than it was before Nov. 2009.

The article below appears on the web site for Temple Beth El in Aptos, CA.
Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA)

“Temple Beth El [in Aptos, CA] is an active participant in this interfaith effort to improve our communities. COPA is a network of 35 faith-based and nonprofit institutions in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. COPA’s activities are based on the concept of “relational organizing”—a process of deepening and broadening our understanding of each other that identifies potential areas for action on behalf of our members. Relational organizing includes one-to-one meetings, house meetings, research actions, and community actions. This model can develop in two ways, one identifies and serves the needs of the congregation, and the other prepares us to work together for a better (broader) community.

Our primary action had been an initiative to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in Santa Cruz County. Then our focus was on negotiating with Standard Pacific to develop housing on the Par 3 property in Aptos. The development was to have 90 units, a mix of rental and ownership, that will be affordable by very-low-income, low-income, and moderate-income households.

Andrew Goldenkranz and Carolyn Coleman lead the COPA Committee at Temple Beth El.”

So, is COPA “your cup-a tea” ? Do you think that the Tea Parties organized to tell the government what the People think of higher taxes and less freedom would use the COPA model? Who runs the financial books on COPA?

How to stop–at least put a major crimp — in gang violence? What are YOUR ideas?

These are mine. By the way, this is NOT a Saul Alinsky COPA approach ….

1. UNIFORMS: Public schools will agree that they will require that all students (K- grade 12) wear uniforms at school and to and from school. To and from school, note. Schools will enforce the uniform rule Consequences for breaking the uniform rule will be clearly set out and enforced. The parents will choose what kind of uniforms and what consequences for breaking the rule. The uniforms must fit the students in a reasonable, normal manner — not extremely tight or loose. Top of the pants can be no lower than an agreed upon number of inches from the waist.

2) NO TATOOS, MAKE UP AND CLEAN APPEARANCE. Girls and boys are to be clean and wear clean clothing. No cosmetic make-up or visible tatoos allowed for school age boys or girls. Consequences stated for breaking the rule. Dirty hair and clothing? Go to thegym and take a shower and put on clean clothing.

3) FAMILIES WILL CONTROL WHERE & WHEN CHILDREN GO. Families commit to control where & when children go out from after school to time to be home for the night. Both schools and faith organizations can assist in making these Agreements. This has to be by choice and made indvidually by families and children with schools and thier faith organizations.

4) COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS WILL SUPPORT FAMIY COMMITMENT TO CONTROL CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR. Strengthen School/ Parent and Faith Organization/ Family Agreements with school/ community events (pot lucks, park activities, athletic events for families) which provide structured time for families to do fun, safe activities together. Provide weekly safe activities for families.

COMMUNITY NON-PROFITS. Faith organizations and community organizations should collaborate to strengthen values of honesty, non-violence, and cooperative behavior. Possible ways could include Affirmation of Family Values (akin to renewal of baptismal vows) done by faith organizations with their members.

POLICE: Spread Neighborhood Watch (know your neighbor, make your neighborhood safe for children, report suspicious behavior, increase more police walking the beat).

This is to start a conversation… What say you? written by Cameron Jackson, Ph.D., J.D. DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

written by Cameron S. Jackson DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Temple Beth El, Resurrection Catholic Community and St. John’s Episcopal are 3 faith organizations that are members of COPA in the Aptos, CA area. I believe that about 10+ faith organizations in Santa Cruz County came together about 4-5 years ago. I was at one of the original meetings.

Let’s work for “affordable housing” in Santa Cruz County was the way it was presented. We were all supposed to “tell our stories” so the community “could come to know how others live”.

Here’s a story about how people live in Santa Cruz County:

My hair stylist in Capitola is a Buddhist from Thailand. Her second husband was a Catholic American who brought her to America. She later had two more husbands and is currently divorced.

To save money she lives with her sister who is a cook in a Thai restaurant. The sister has a cheap (less than $200 a month) Housing Authority one bedroom apartment. Not supposed to house relatives but my hair stylist and her adult son live there. Or at times they sleep where they work. My hair stylist has paid off a $35,000 debt to the bank in Thailand and she goes back to visit Thailand most years for a month. She gets free food from her sister the cook.

My question about COPA: What entity maintains the books for the monies given by faith organizations to COPA? The money goes somewhere. Where?

Community Organizing through Places of Worship
Written by Freedom Advocates
Monday, 02 November 2009

“I have just learned that my Monterey Bay Area church has given large sums of money to a political Interfaith Network organization called COPA. COPA stands for Citizens Organized for Relational Power in Action.

“COPA is a member of Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) which was founded by Saul Alinsky in the 1940’s. Alinsky authored two books that are used as manuals by socialist and communist change agents – Reveille for Radicals in 1946 and Rules for Radicals in 1971.

“It is a serious concern that the money I’V been giving to my church is being used for political and radical ideological purposes without my knowledge or authorization. There are many Interfaith Networks operating under different names throughout the country and most of them like COPA, are members of IAF.

“In their own words,

Industrial Areas Foundation helps build broad-based, non-partisan organizations of dues-paying member congregations, schools, unions, business associations, and non-profits committed to building power for sustainable social and economic change.

Alinsky in his book writings puts it like this,

You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. Make the enemy live up to his/her own book of rules. You can kill them with this. They can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.

Believing that the ends justify the means, Alinksy stated that,

In action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind.

“So churches are being used for political purposes rather than for spiritual reasons. COPA affiliated churches use congregational capital to influence local politicians and intensely advocate for so-called “affordable housing” developments built by well paid so-called, “non-profit” developers.

“The reality is that our money is funding an undisclosed massive subsidy for building projects benefiting individuals who are very ineffective at cost containment. This should give pause to anyone thinking that COPA and IAF are organizations out to help the downtrodden. Those downtrodden are the means, the pawns, in COPA’s game plan.

Where was I when these political shenanigans were being discussed? Was it part of a sermon or simply handled as a financial transaction behind closed doors? It’s alarming that I and my fellow congregants missed the discussion about morphing my church into an instrument of socialist/fascist economic change. This is antithetical to what I believe in.

Your church may be doing this too. Go to the IAF Industrial Areas Foundation “affiliates” page. Click on your region on the left side of the page. In our area, COPA was formerly known as CCIS – Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors.

Congregations across the country find themselves attached to COPA-like organizations with names like Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE), Tying Nashville Together (TNT) or Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground.

Most of us never saw this happening. We trust our places of worship and attend in order to honor God and invigorate our spiritual beliefs. Now we discover that an outside political action group is working insidiously to infiltrate our church and undermine our ethical and spiritual structure.

COPA/IAF is clear that their mission is to train parishioners in community organizing tactics in order to achieve a political result through lobbying. Sound familiar? ACORN has been in the news recently for exploiting poor neighborhoods through the use of misleading promises used in community organizing and lobbying. ACORN targets neighborhoods. COPA and IAF target places of worship and unsuspecting parishioners. COPA/IAF are coming into our churches and synagogues, misleading many of our ministers and other leaders by having them support COPA and IAF politics.

Is your church or temple involved with an interfaith congregation network and IAF? If so, you need to ask:

Is my church a member of a network or organization that supports IAF? What is the organization called?

If yes, why did our church leadership decide to join?

What was the commitment made to the organization?

Has the pastor, minister, rabbi or other spiritual leader been informed about the true nature of Interfaith Networks and Congregation Based Community Organizations?

Has the congregation been informed?

Call to action – Let your church know how you feel about affiliations with political and ideological groups such as IAF and COPA.