The entry is in response to one of those email smears, which reads, "According to the Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuassive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal.... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destory everything. Is it OBAMA??"
I'm sure you'll be a lot less than surprised to learn the answer is no. For one thing, the Bible doesn't say anything about Islam -- it hadn't developed yet. I always wonder about the people who fall for this crap, but I guess someone's out there buying phony Viagra and sending off money to Nigeria, so I guess that some dopes would fall for this shouldn't strike me as much of a shock. Stupid, gullible, and foolish people are, sadly, not at all rare in the world, let alone the United States.
As dirty campaign tactics go, claiming a candidate is the freakin' Antichrist may be about as low and dishonest as you can possibly go. And, as I'll get to in a minute, it may be about the most stupid way to go, as well. The religious whackos take this sort of thing very seriously.
One of those whackos is Grant Swank of the Alan Keyes-founded Renew America. In a piece titled, "America, Save Your Soul," Swank writes typically hysterical and feverish crap about how the devil is out to git ya. Throughout the article, he refers to Barack Obama as B. Hussein Obama -- thirteen letters. As I say, it's pretty insane:
B Hussein promised sodomites that it was his "Christian ethos" to endorse their "blessed estate" of homosexual "marriages" from coast to coast.
B. Hussein stated: "I'm not a theologian. I'm a Christian and I'm a member of a church. My personal philosophy is that as a Christian, I see no contradiction with embracing same-sex couples as part of our community. That's my Christian ethos" per David Brody's "Obama on Gay Marriage."
His Christian ethos? That is the talk of the "spirit of antichrist."
"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come." (I John 2:18 — NIV)
Another nut jumping on this bandwagon is a founder of the rapture right, Hal Lindsey. Lindsey, like Swank, is obsessed with Obama and sees the end of the world coming with him. But his Barack Obama isn't the Antichrist, his piece is called, "How Obama Prepped the World for the Antichrist":
America has never faced so many different crises at the same time in living memory. The war with al-Qaida and Islamic terror, the Iran crisis, Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation, the rising price of oil, the falling dollar, enemy acronyms like OPEC, NAM, OIC, U.N. ... Obama is correct in saying that the world is ready for someone like him -- a messiah-like figure, charismatic and glib and seemingly holding all the answers to all the world's questions.
And the Bible says that such a leader will soon make his appearance on the scene. It won't be Barack Obama, but Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive.
He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.
The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance.
Why does Lindsey stop short of calling Obama the Antichrist, saying only that he "paves the way" for the Antichrist? Simple; serious rapture nuts -- called Dispensationalists -- would vote for the Antichrist.
That may seem a little anti-intuitive, but our perception of the Christian idea of an Antichrist is polluted by horror movies like Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. The Antichrist is prophesied and, because of this, represents the will of God. The AC is God's idea, not Satan's. If Obama was the Antichrist, then his election would be inevitable. Dispensationalist Evangelicals may vote for the will of God, they may stay home and not bother to vote in an election whose outcome has been foretold, but they wouldn't vote against the will of God and they certainly wouldn't vote against the Second Coming of Christ, which is the final step in all this Revelations nonsense. First comes Antichrist, then Jesus Christ -- no AC, no JC. Try to get some Bible-drunk fool to vote against Jesus. It's not going to happen. There are people out there actively trying to bring about prophesied events and, with them, the Antichrist. They're all for it.
So casting Barack Obama as the Antichrist may not be the best way to go if you want the nuts to vote against him.
All of which might make this ad seem like kind of a bad idea:
Click to view at full size
Forget the supposed "race card," some see this video as playing the Antichrist card.
It wouldn't be the smartest thing in the world, but McCain hasn't been known for doing the smartest thing lately. Giving right wing Evangelicals one more reason to vote Obama or sit out the race would be par for the course.
Here's hoping it bites him in the ass.
-Wisco
Technorati tags: politics; elections; 2008; Religious Right; rapture; dispensationalism; propaganda; Is John McCain making sure Barack Obama is "The One" crazy people will vote for?
