# If Obama is assassinated, the right's use of "messiah" will be directly responsible **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 12, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382 "2008-11-12T18:05:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382/81 "2008-11-13T17:53:11Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Yes, he is. > I did. He saidHe. Said. The. Messiah. Is. Absolutely. Speaking. When. Obama. Speaks. That’s what he said. > Simply and unambiguously false. Farrakhan said that when Obama speaks, “the Messiah is absolutely speaking”. Horseshit. If I said that “when Obama speaks, God is absolutely speaking”, then I would be saying that Obama is God. > > This is just [blackwhite](http://chrisabraham.com/2007/03/09/george-orwwells-1984-newspeak-dictionary/). No it’s just you saying the same incorrect line over and over again. If you can look at what Farrakhan actually said and come up with the conclusion you’re repeating, you simply aren’t thinking and are allowing your partisanship to drive your intellect. You’re wrong. You claimed a stupid thing, were called on it and proven incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382/82 "2008-11-13T17:58:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > He’s got the whole world in his hands? My god, it’s even more insidious than I thought. I bet his thumb is on Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382/83 "2008-11-13T18:35:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > A lot of leftists said that there was an irrational religious fervor for Bush on the right, and this is the same thing going in the other direction. It was true in many cases with Bush; when I had the misfortune to see _Jesus Camp_ last week, it provided a good example. And there are absolutely people on the SDMB and elsewhere who have an irrational passion for Obama. I think most of us knew that without asking for any cites. What it means about Obama support overall is the question. More than 66 million people voted for him last week, and if 1 percent of them saw him as any kind of savior that would be a small portion but still a large number. I would like to be able to scoff at this. I wish I could. I can’t. Not after watching my home state move from the centrist common sense Libertarian stances it had always taken to the far right in such a short period. A short tangent as I think it’s applicable. When George Bush was governor of Texas, he ran and governed as a moderate. His cabinet was comprised of Republicans and Democrats alike and he worked with the legislature. Aside from the death penalty which I know the majority of the country is very much against, we had a center-right state. I was surprised at how quickly that changed once he was elected president, and I did not vote for him when he ran for a second term. I suppose what I’m saying is that while I can see the danger of allowing the minority fringe voice to be the loudest and deciding faction, I do not believe as a whole our country wants to see that happen again. That said, any shift toward center is going to look like a left turn. The responses to [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=492682) seem to agree. It would be massively helpful if we stopped identifying as left/right and went back to identifying as American. Sorry, end tangent. Again, I think the passion held by many on the left may appear religious-_like_ in its zeal, but there’s a huge difference in intense passion and religion attempting to insert itself into politics. Aside from the earlier reference to an obvious frothing wing nut, the latter has not asserted itself in a way that I would consider to be alarming WRT Barack Obama. I think a good reason for that is that while he has stated his faith, he did not claim to be running for president because God wants him to, as did George Bush. His faith does not make his major decisions for him. It’s clear from the lack of pandering to a religious base that that will likely not change in the foreseeable future. I’m not sure that it’s possible but I think we need to stop giving so much credence to these ridiculous rumors. Someone makes a stupid baseless assertion and instead of saying “Wow, that’s a really stupid baseless assertion” and moving on, someone else will dignify it by taking it seriously and then real, substantial issues that affect us daily are ignored so we can clear up something that shouldn’t even be a concern. We’re better than this, dammit. Obama’s not “the messiah” of any religion and claims from frothing wing nuts on either side of the political spectrum will not make it so. And we as a nation have far too much to do to be harping on about some stupid superstitious title that isn’t even applicable. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382/84 "2008-11-13T18:50:27Z")
I don’t think calling Obama the Messiah will cause him to be assassinated, but it may increase the odds. Consider what happens to an ignorant, small town, evangelical member of the Republican base when they hear that Obama is the messiah. They get angry and incensed because they know the \*real \*messiah. You have to factor in how small minded and angry some members of the Republican base are. The same people that ate up the Palin lies about “palling around with terrorists” and “marxism” and ignored the fact that Joe the plumber would actually benefit under Obama and held up the uncomplicated clod as a hero. I know there are probably as many ignorant democrats out there, but they aren’t as a rule stoked with religious hate. Watch this Al-Jazera video showing a small town Palin rally: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zRqcfqiXCX0/maxresdefault.jpg "Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0) Evangelicals are used by republicans because they’re easy to motivate with anger. Why do the republicans love gay marriage and abortion? Because it pisses people off and pissed off people will get out off the couch and head to the polls. Is one of these halfwits gonna be motivated by his hate because of a messiah comment? I dunno, but the comment is \*meant \*to piss them off. That said, everything you say is likely to piss off someone, but is this really the equivalent of calling Bush “the Shrub”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-obama-is-assassinated-the-rights-use-of-messiah-will-be-directly-responsible/472382.md?page=4)