I’m taking this story (from Not Always Right) at face value, about a person who wants an Obama T-shirt wearer thrown out of a (religious) bookstore. I get that some people believe those who believe differently are doomed to hell. What I don’t get is seriously believing Obama is the Antichrist, being so flustered by the T-shirt that she has to leave, and thinking that those who refused to throw out the shirt wearer are going to hell. Even in the light of fundementalist Christian belief, it seems incapacitatingly extreme and, frankly, stupid to me.
I’m not interested in disparaging the basic faith tenets of this woman, but I just don’t understand how her thought process got from point A to points X, Y, & Z here. Can anyone enlighten me?
Well, this Snopes report may be helpful in tracking down how this particular meme got started (or at least promulgated).
But more directly (and I think this relates to a lot of the stories on Not Always Right), consider that the average IQ is 100. Now consider that a bunch of people have to occupy the space two or three standard deviations below that. Apparently, more than a few of them watch Fox News.
She’s a Fundy, what else do we need to know? Come election time they will show all kinds of Fundy propaganda, expect the Reverend Wright thing to pop up again…then when Obama wins re-election expect the same Fundy responses and all of that. {Shruggs}
Dunno, but it seems that some people are susceptible to doing really fucking idiotic things, if they think they have sufficient justification. Religious belief seems to provide that justification sometimes.
I don’t think religion made this person insane - it gave an insane person an outlet for expressing their insanity.
You’re assuming that she DOES think these things out. I live in the buckle of the Bible Belt, and a lot of people just don’t think things through. If their pastor/preacher/priest says something, it’s true. If a spiritual leader says that Obama is Muslim, or the Antichrist (assuming there’s a difference there), then a lot of his/her flock will believe it, without requiring any sort of proof.
And that’s the difference. Some people will require proof, while others rely on faith. The ones who rely on faith don’t have to do all the hard work of thinking things through, and this can be very comforting for them to know that they are RIGHT about things, even if they do occasionally get scared by a T shirt.
Fear and pride play a large role in it. The power of the antichrist is nothing compared t the power of Christ. For the believer, one who has become one with Christ, with the exact same spirit, the power of the antichrist is nothing compared to the believer, and nothing to fear.
The battle is the Lords however, the believer is not to fear or try to battle it him/her self, it is faith in the power of Christ to overcome, and in His protective abilities for us.
But many people, before knowing the Lord, are afraid (fear) of end times prophecy, and that carries over to what we see in the OP, a person fearing the antichrist + exposed to the power of God, mix in the misunderstanding that it is they who are to wage this battle (pride) and you get the above.
Fear and pride are of the devil, so in short the devil made her do it
Oh, man, whenever I read “Not Always Right” I come away convinced that there are a lot of people walking around who are mentally ill, and a lot more who are just Too Stupid To Live.
A couple of recent examples here and here. One might as well ask “How do these folks (Twilight readers) think?” or “How do these folks (Harry Potter fans) think?”
The Crazy is the essential part; it just manifests itself in different ways in different people.
As someone who has worked in retail, I regret to inform you that no, there are many more than that. Many, many more.
The thing is, most of the time these idiots are capable of living without supervision. Yeah, sometimes they do stupid things, but for the most part they’re capable of holding down a job and paying their bills. As someone who enjoys marching to the beat of a different violist myself (I don’t march to drumbeats, that’s way too ordinary for me), I try to live and let live.
But I sure do judge people mentally. And sometimes online as well.
