Barbara Thompson

Barbara Thompson

Overview

* Professor of Health and Physical Education at Florida A&M University
* Author of the 2012 book, The Gospel According to Apostle Barack
* Predicted that Barack Obama would create “heaven here on earth”


Born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, Barbara A. Thompson received both a bachelor’s degree (1974) and a master’s degree (1975) from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU), followed by a doctorate from Florida State University in 1982. All of her degrees were in the field of physical education.

Thompson has taught in FAMU’s Department of Health and Physical Education since 1986 (as an assistant professor from 1986-89, an associate professor from 1989-92, and a professor from 1995-present). She served as FAMU’s assistant vice president for academic affairs from 2008-10, and is a past president of her university’s chapter of United Faculty of Florida, a teacher’s union. She is also a graduate of the National Education Association‘s Emerging Leaders Academy.

Thompson made headlines in 2012 when she published a 220-page book lauding President Barack Obama for what he had accomplished during his first term as U.S. President. Titled The Gospel According to Apostle Barack: In Search of a More Perfect Political Union As Heaven Here on Earth, the book praised Obama particularly for his achievements in the areas of healthcare, the economy, and education — achievements that, by Thompson’s telling, were part of the “Good news” delivered by the “apostle.”

Recounting how she had come to write this book, Thompson said that as she “began to contemplate ways to assist Barack in his 2012 re-election bid, something miraculous happened.” “I felt God’s (His) Spirit beckoning me in my dreams at night,” she explained. “Listening, cautiously, I learned that Jesus walked the earth to create a more civilized society, Martin (Luther King) walked the earth to create a more justified society, but, Apostle Barack, the name he was called in my dreams, would walk the earth to create a more equalized society, for the middle class and working poor.” Thompson characterized Obama as “the next young leader with a new cause,” a man who “had been taken to the mountaintop and allowed to see over the other side.”

Reporting that in one of her dreams God had commanded her to “go on a journey with apostle Barack,” Thompson described her book as a written account of that journey, focused chiefly on Obama’s campaign speeches. Obama “had the answers to unlock the kingdom of ‘heaven here on earth’ for his followers,” said Thompson — answers that “were repeated, over and over, in speeches Barack had made” throughout his political campaigns. The book’s objective, she added, was to provide Obama’s “followers” with a guide “to creating and living in the reality of a middle-class lifestyle that was [as] economically and ethically sound that it appeared to be ‘heaven here on earth.’”

Further Reading: Curriculum Vitae of Barbara A. Thompson (FAMU.edu); The Gospel According to Apostle Barack: In Search of a More Perfect Political Union As Heaven Here on Earth (by Barbara A. Thompson, 2012, pp. 1-3); “Book Compares Obama to Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King” (Daily Caller, 11-9-2012); “Professor’s Book Hails ‘Apostle Barack,’ Compares Him to Jesus” (The College Fix, 11-20-2012); “Professor’s Book Salutes Obama” (The FAMUan, 11-6-2012).

 

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