01 April 2008

Politics, American-Style - Part Two

Oh for the love of God. And I mean that in the most areligious way possible.

Apparently, many people (aka "nutjobs") are convinced that Barack Obama is the Antichrist. To get the general flavor of the craziness, read the comments on this blog:

http://seanskti.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/barack-obama-is-not-the-antichrist

Can you believe this? This is one of the less wack blog sites I encountered when I googled the words "obama antichrist" today, my curiosity having been piqued by some nutjob making this claim on one of the websites (CNN?) I'd gone to in an attempt to parse the current craziness surrounding Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

My favorite comment on this post was from Ursula, whose reading comprehension skills were so poor that she mistook the blogger's ridicule of the Obama-is-the-Antichrist meme for solidarity, and tried to organize a support group for other God-fearing end-times Left-Behind-reading Christians who also believe that Obama is the Antichrist. I guess these folks would email each other when the swarms of locusts and other signs of the Apocalypse are revealed, and text each other on their mobile phones as they are being Raptured up into the sky. And I'm not just surmising the Left-Behind bit; she referenced the Left Behind books and movie explicitly.

And note the date. It turns out the tinfoilhat brigade has been speculating about Obama being the Antichrist for well over a YEAR now. What the f---?

Maybe now would be a good time for me to point out that, like the author of the above blog post, I do not believe in the existence of the Antichrist. Much as I'd like to*, I can't very well believe in a supernatural Antichrist when I don't believe in the existence of a supernatural Christ. That would be like believing in antimatter but not believing in matter.

Unfortunately, I have been forced to believe in the existence of crazy whackjobs who have a lot of free time on their hands and spend it speculating wildly about someone who scares them because he is good at his job.

I was on the fence before -- Hillary, or Obama? But now I am really, solidly, 100% four-square in Obama's camp. I'm not a cultist; I still find the uncritical Obamalove to be a bit weird and unsettling. The guy is a politician, folks, and a lawyer! Of course he's flawed.

He's flawed because... he's human. If he was the Antichrist he'd be perfect, right? No Reverend Wrights in the Antichrist's past, because the Antichrist would be too smart for that! He'd choose a picturesque, passive black church -- maybe a nice Episcopalian church -- to attend for "cover."  No questionable real estate deals for the Antichrist, because he'd be much too clever, and rich, to need any help from shady characters.

And yes, in my research -- trying to understand the magnitude and nature of the "Reverend Wright problem" from abroad -- I learned all of the following about Obama. That he's really a Muslim. (The logic here appears to be, "C'mon, his name's Obama! He's obviously a Muslim.") (Which, by the way, I am qualified to say -- after doing extensive research -- is pretty much the level of discourse typical of these anti-Obama screeds.) That he is married and has two children only as a "cover."  (I guess the Antichrist won't need love.)  That he attends a Christian church as a "cover." That he is pro-Palestinian, pro-African, and anti-Israel. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, and most difficult for me to accept, anti-American.

Because as a loyal, patriotic American, the racism implicit in 95% of these screeds depresses the crap out of me. No one would be saying any of this bullshit about him** if he was a charismatic, charming, eloquent white politician. I am very sad to see that my country hasn't come so far since 1968 after all.

I wonder what the official Scientology position is on Barack Obama. Does anyone know? Please, someone email me if they ever post a lunatic diatribe against Obama, because that is the day I will pledge cold hard cash -- of which I have precious little to spare -- to Obama's campaign.

*Tongue firmly in cheek
**A friend reminds me that there were those who claimed Ronald Wilson Reagan (count the letters, kids, that's 6 6 6) was the Antichrist.

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