Obama, the Antichrist

Some folks are working themselves up into a froth over this: McCain Ad Suggests Obama is the Antichrist?

That’s just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain’s campaign did in an ad called “The One” that was recently released online. The Republican nominee’s advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a “creative” and “humorous” way of poking fun at Obama’s popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio, political blogs, and in widely-circulated email messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

Here’s a double-dog dare for any lefties who read this blog. Find just ONE clip of a nationally syndicated Christian radio host who declares that Obama is or even might be the anti-Christ. It doesn’t exist. As for blogs, any idiot can start one. (Q.E.D.) But show me a link from a blog with any kind of decent following - someone in the top 100, say - who declares that Obama is or even might be the anti-Christ. It doesn’t exist. Time just made that up. It’s an outright lie.

I wonder if leftists actually think that President Bush is a chimpanzee. I mean, that IS how they portray him in a lot of political cartoons, and even call him Chimpy. And you’d never portray a political figure as something if you didn’t actually believe it to be true, right?

You know another group who tends to hold really literal, black and white views? High schoolers. People on the left who think that mainstream Christians really buy the idea that Obama is the antichrist probably also believe that Bush is going to institute a fascist theocracy. Oh, wait. They do. (Even though it’s their side who’s actually doing what they accuse Bush of.) Which is probably why they’re so wrought up about this ad. As it turns out, I got that email. Not from someone who sent it in a serious way, but someone who thought I’d enjoy it because she knows it is dangerous to send me forwarded email blasts. I have been known to “reply to all” with a sound debunking. So here’s the infamous email:

Consider this…………

This will make you re-think: A Trivia question in Sunday School :
How long is the beast allowed to have authority in Revelations ?
Guess the Answer?
Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months, and you know what that is.
Almost a four-year term………….. to a Presidency.
All I can say is Lord Have Mercy on us.!!!!!!
According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:
The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40’s, of MUSLIM descent,
who will deceive the nations with persuasive 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 destroy everything ….
Is it OBAMA??
I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can!
Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet…do it!
Refuse to take a chance on this unknown candidate who came out of nowhere.

And my response, dashed off in about a minute and a half - no research required:

I do love debunking this stuff… Aside from the fact that the original author of the email doesn’t know the correct name for the final book in the bible… and none of the undoubtedly well-meaning Christians who forwarded it caught that red flag… and the fact that the word Muslim is not in the bible at all; in fact Islam wasn’t even invented until nearly 700 years after the bible was written… even if it had been, there’s no proof Obama ever practiced Islam, especially as an adult when it would really “count” as children can’t be held responsible for following a faith their parents teach them, and in any event his Muslim father did not raise him… and then there’s just basic math – 4 years x 12 months = 48 months, not 42, and “close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades” isn’t exactly how the bible handles time-related prophecies.

I have a long list of reasons to oppose Obama politically, but this email is just nonsense. Thanks for the chuckle – after the chaos of the last two weeks I really needed it!

Obamessiah’s euphoric, faith-based “I’m going to save the world” rhetoric leaves him wide open for such insults, including their inverse. “This is our moment,” indeed! Like this:

I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.

How any intelligent person can hear or read that and not marvel at his arrogance and the sheer foolishness of such a prediction - the utopianism - the dishonesty of pretending that America is not already doing a phenomenal job of caring for the sick and has a FAR lower unemployment rate than the European countries Obama seems so in love with - it’s very perplexing. But with that statement and countless others, Obama brings this sort of thing on himself:

Charles at LGF writes,

I’ve received quite a few emails from evangelist mailing lists (lists I didn’t ask to join) that make the Antichrist accusation very explicitly—so I know that they really are trying to spread this ridiculous canard. Is this an attempt by the McCain campaign to leverage far-right religious support on the sly?

Obama wants to pretend, for political reasons, that he’s the messiah. A handful of others want to pretend, for political reasons, that he’s the antichrist. Both groups have some sheeple who buy into it, but the antichrist crowd is by far the smaller movement. I seriously doubt that even McCain is so stupid that they’re doing it. It’s more likely to be a Huckolyte somewhere. They’re known for that kind of bad behavior.

Bottom line - no serious person buys this stuff. People forward it for a variety of reasons. I.) they can’t stand Obama to the point that any argument against him seems worthwhile, just like the right did against Clinton (remember that list of dead people?) and the left does against Bush. 2) they are new or nominal Christians without a good grasp of theology. c) they have no grasp of history, particularly biblical history. 4) They just think it’s funny. V) any combination of the above. But let me tell you, if we actually believed that Obama is the antichrist, you’d be seeing some very different behavior from us - not politics as usual. Consider the fact that we genuinely believe the rise of the anti-Christ presages the LITERAL END OF THE WORLD as we know it. Do you REALLY think that we’d be fretting about a lousy election at that point? Lefties, please - use your common sense, if you have any.

It’s just another election. If he loses, good. If he wins, we’ll survive it. And idiocy like the email is no different than what’s been passed around for every election since we started having elections, right back to the pamphlets Jefferson sponsored against Adams. But what do I know? I’m just bitterly clinging to my guns and religion.

Added: Hot Air has more on this ridiculous story.

Their racial paranoia having earned them ridicule even from “The Daily Show,” the forces of progress shift gears. Karl reminds us in the comments to our Headlines item that author Amy Sullivan comes to Time mag from the Washington Monthly (see his post from March about her take on l’affaire Wright) and the piece itself follows hot on the heels of Democratic consultants circulating a memo that pushes the Antichrist read.