Oh dear, here we go

[dianeduane]

When those images of the big Berlin gathering at which Obama spoke started turning up on the Net, I said to myself, “Hmm, this is going to provoke certain kinds of language here and there…”  And when the word “demagoguery” started turning up here and there in conjunction with his name, I thought, “Hmm. It’s only one step to… No, surely no one would try playing that card!”

(heh) Silly me.

McCain Web Ad Is Accused of Linking Obama To The Antichrist

Oh noes!!  …But here, this should make us all feel better:

The Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the [Left Behind] series, said in an interview that he recognized allusions to his work in the ad but comparisons between Sen. Obama and the antichrist are incorrect.

"The antichrist isn't going to be an American, so it can't possibly be Obama. The Bible makes it clear he will be from an obscure place, like Romania," the 82-year-old author said.

So we can all relax now. I think. (But the simile is peculiar. Since when is Romania obscure? It’s been important in human history for thousands of years: its language remains one of the most direct descendants of Latin as it was spoken in the Empire. And the country’s just sort of sitting there between Europe and Asia, right out in the open. It’s not like it’s trying to hide under Liechtenstein or something.)

(Sidebar: And to think I was getting bored with the US election campaigns when they started to obsess about tire gauges.)

Anyway, maybe now we can go straight to the Godwin’s Law stage of the campaigns and get that out of the way.* (eyeroll)

*Or maybe this has happened already. Doubtless somebody will let me know.

Tags: antichrist, Obama, LaHaye, idiocy, campaign

Comments

[albireo.livejournal.com]

Godwin's has, unfortunately, been and gone. (http://mediamatters.org/items/200807240001)

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I think you're right: the Antichrist charge is as likely to invoke Godwin's Law as any normally covered thereby.

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

And if anyone dares disagree with anything Obama says, they're immediately accused of racism, even if the thing they've said has nothing to do with race at all.

[yrena.livejournal.com]

In general society or is it coming from the Obama campaign itself?

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

This comes from Obama's campaign directors, his more vocal supporters, and "leaders" of the black community, i.e. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the like.

[yrena.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised at the campaign directors.

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

Evidently they think that because they work for "The Messiah" they can get away with it.

I'm not voting for either man. I'm doing a write-in for the Meadow Party.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Oh, the "Obama is the Antichrist" thing has been going on for a while.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp

And Ben Stein, among others, did go there.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807240001?f=h_latest

"STEIN: I want -- I'm glad you brought up this Denver thing. I don't like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people. That is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America. We have a contained number of people in an arena. Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past"

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

McCain wishes he could get a wildly cheering audience of 75k.

"that" card and Godwin's Law

[lunalovegoddess.livejournal.com]

*groans* Not those old chestnuts again. (I hear them quoted nearly as often as the "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" rhetoric and the "They came for the Jews" poem.)

I hate politics for this reason; that so much time is spent backbiting and mud-slinging, and not enough time focusing on results and solutions. Just once I'd like to see someone elected who demonstrates competence and refrains from smear campaigns. *Whoa, Bren! Dream big!*
I want the candidates to prove that they can do a good job in office. I also want them to dissuade the public from demonizing certain groups of people. Just because it says so in the Bible doesn't mean that it's true, or that it's right. Some things are better left open to interpretation. Like other texts, it's written by fallible, sometimes prejudiced, human beings. Therefore, it should be taken with a grain of salt that things become lost in translation or that the book as a whole reflects the opinions and social mores of the time. Plus, lots of symbolic references to decipher.

*rambles a bit, due to lack of sleep*

[grubby-tap.livejournal.com]

I never knew the Bible said that. I'm from Armenia. That's pretty obscure. I could totally be the antichrist!

[batyatoon]

Silly people. Obama can't be the Antichrist because he's not Jewish.

(Sadly, I can't be the Antichrist either because the Antichrist has to be male. Which is hardly fair! I think it'd be fun!)

[windcedar.livejournal.com]

Darn, that makes me disqualified on multiple counts. Definitely unfair. :P (And here I would have thought that being gay and hence saturated in sin would give me an advantage in any Antichrist-aspirations, but I guess my gender and un-Jewish-ness trumps all. Not to mention my probably insufficiently obscure nationality. Phooey.)

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

LaHaye is not known for his understanding of the complexities of geography and politics. Or for his understanding of the Bible, for that matter.

...oh yes, I went there, Tim LaHaye!

Crackpot premillennial dispensationalist eschatology aside, I think any "Antichrist" overtones were completely coincidental. The Evangelical Christian community has been thoroughly trained to think of any Messianic overtones as Satanic unless they're directly connected to Christ Himself. Even satire is going to be interpreted through that lens. McCain, methinks, failed to take that into account.

Regardless, I actually found it kind of amusing. Considering I have actually seen at least one person claim that Obama is some sort of spiritual higher being (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/06/notes060608.DTL), I always enjoy seeing someone take potshots at the religious fervor around him. He's got charisma, but seriously, guys, he's still human.

[stokerbramwell.livejournal.com]

...then again, perhaps it was intentional (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2008/08/unsubtle.html).

Bad form, guys. VERY bad form.

I should have guessed this would be coming...I've already heard one or two people, even within my family, muttering darkly about "what if Obama is...?" My disgust knows no bounds.

Demagoogues = BAD?

[harper-knight.livejournal.com]

Riiiight, beacuse ALL the most successful politicians, ever, haven't been demagogues. Because being charismatic is totally a bad thing.

Because no-one wants the people of his country to actually LIKE their president and WANT to follow him. Hell no.

And, Romania is obscure to that guy's target audience.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I was JUST discussing this with someone via IM:

txvoodoo: something I don't get about Christians scared that Obama is the antichrist
txvoodoo: by their OWN canon, the antichrist MUST come
txvoodoo: and will
txvoodoo: AND
txvoodoo: he heralds 2nd coming of Christ
txvoodoo: so if you're an Christian who believes in that?
txvoodoo: CELEBRATE
txvoodoo: You're gonna be raptured!

[only-spiders.livejournal.com]

You know, my voice teacher actually does honestly believe Obama is the antichrist. She doesn't freak out about it or anything, but she has the most interesting conversations about it with the accompanist sometimes.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Considering what's geographically close to where the Bible was written, I'd imagine a country all the way across the world, that didn't even exist yet then, would be a better example of an obscure place to the prophet in question.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Actually Obama/McCain reminds me of Woodrow Wilson vs. Teddy Roosevelt...

Oy.