I do not think that the phrase “directly responsible” means what you think it does.
Ha! Obligatory counter cite: I'm totally in love with Barack Obama. He makes me weepy with happiness. - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
Damn, that was just too easy. So is this.
That second one is a whoosh.
The first one is silly, but not on the order of literal worship, which is what the right wants people to believe. Obama supporters (possibly excluding a few unavoidable crazies) do not think he is possessed of any supernatural abilities or virtues. That belief that he is a supernatural evil truly does exist, in abundance, on the right.
Well that’s a pay site I believe or an ad for some paid service. I’d be more concerned with the legitimate media (one that doesn’t have to use shock advertisement to reign in readers) being somewhat muted, at least initiall, in their criticism of Obama.
I’ve yet to see any mainstream media pundit to completely lose the plot on Obama. I think the Messiah notion may be a little far fetched and possibly giving Hannity far too much credit.
It’s not just them. Since the election, I’ve had several people tell me that they fear Obama may be someone sinister, perhaps even “the Antichrist” – yes, some have used the word “Antichrist” without any prompting. And these are non-Christian liberals who VOTED for Obama! My fundie KGSMom doesn’t believe Obama = Antichrist (she thinks Obama might usher in the “real” Antichrist, but that’s years off) but she’s hearing the same sort of “chatter” in her church group, most of whom aren’t nearly as fundamenalist as my mother (and she’s actually quite liberal, for a fundie.)
It’s no surprise, really. The common thread of these people I mentioned is that they’ve all been raised in Sunday School classes, where they talk about the End Times and The Apocalypse as if it’s something that will eventually happen. Now these deeply ingrained childhood fears are coming back to haunt us, since this man we just elected just happens to fit the profile of the fictional Antichrist. It’s just coincidence, of course (there IS no Antichrist, there will NEVER BE an Antichrist, the whole concept is fear-based and stupid!) but I’ve been reading the Bible in depth lately, and the synchronicity has never been this strong before.
Here is the dogma commonly preached as who the “Antichrist” will be:
(1) Charismatic. Yup, Obama’s got that in spades.
(2) A Peacemaker. Obama is black, pro-Muslem, and has already promised to end our stupid U.S. wars.
(3) Will come at a time of Great Crisis. Yup, I’m still watching the financial news, the stock market’s down to 8400 today…
(4) Will be hailed as The New Messiah. (And this is the part which makes me scream, “STFU, LOUIS FARRAKAN!!”)
It’s all silly fiction, of course. Turns out, like the Rapture and Hell itself, there is NO Biblical reference for “The Antichrist” in the Bible AT ALL. The word “antichrist” is only used in 2 John, and the actual text clearly refers to false prophets in general:
I’ve underlined the two parts which make it clear, when taken in context, that the Beloved Disciple John was referring only to (a) false prophets, and (b) non-Christians in general. So technically, there are millions of antichrists – all Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, New Agers and agnostics, anyone who denies the divinity of Jesus Christ is an antichrist. The SDMB itself is filled to the brim with antichrists – hey! We should have an Antichrist Dopefest! 
But, there’s more. Traditionally, the “Antichrist” is equivalent to The Beast as described in Revelation 13, which is where things get a little scary:
Clearly, to my mind, this passage predicts a One-World Government. And I suspect the topic of the upcoming G20 summit on November 15th will directly address the need for a united one-world economy, eventually leading to some type of one-world government. (Yes, I’m aware of all the “New World Order” conspiracy theories – like Biblical prophecy, these theories are inherently fear-based, due to human’s natural tendency to Fear change and Fear the future.) I think this recent “credit crunch” – in particular the time from September to mid-October when the banks suddenly stopped lending credit to each other – really scared the shit out of a lot of people, especially the top leaders in government, commerce, and finance. We shall see how things play out – especially now that America has a new liberal president, who has promised universal health care and other left-wing ideas which, until now, have often been regarded as pure socialism…except, “socialism” is no longer a dirty word, to most Americans.
Then we get to the next passage:
Oh, shit – this is what we skeptics refer to as a “self-fullfilling prophecy.” :eek: And this is why I’ve been telling people for weeks now: “If someone takes a shot at Obama, it will NOT be a racist, it will be a crazy fundamentalist whackjob who thinks Obama is the Antichrist/Beast.” Everyone’s worried about racism, but most genuine racists simply don’t have the BALLS to try and shoot the President. OTOH, while I’m no longer a fundie Xtian, I was raised under that faith, and I remember exactly how my mind worked during that brief time when I “gave my life to Jesus Christ” – it’s not just faith, or belief. IT IS REALITY TO THESE PEOPLE. And yes, I think many of them are downright crazy enough to try and fulfill Rev. 13:3, just to satisfy the little demonic voices in their heads. And such a person would be “On A Mission”, just like John Hinkley who flew under the radar and attempted to assassinate Reagan – some lonely Xtian whackjob, isolated from most friends & family (except his church, perhaps), bereft of logic and reason, driven by repressed anger and fear, and desperate enough to attempt such a stupid, stupid stunt. And there are MILLIONS of people like that in this country!
That being said, I don’t think Barack Obama’s in any real physical danger now. Now that he’s our new President, he can remain deep behind the veil of Secret Service protection – he doesn’t have to expose himself and pretend to be “A Man of the People” by freely mingling with the Electorate. So, I think he’s safe from an assassination attempt until the next campaign cycle begins, which is at least 3½ years away. Wait…3½ years? OH CRAP! I just read the next verse:
Aw, hell. That’s the problem with playing the Bible Code game…after awhile, it’s starts to make way too much sense. Think I’ll go play Civilization IV for awhile instead…
So no true democrat/liberal holds any irrational adoration of Obama. Gotcha ya.
Oh, I think I see the “logic” now–Obama’s supporter’s are evil (in the christian sense), Obama is the messiah of the evil people, so he’s the anti-christ. The problem with this analysis though is that the bible doesn’t really say that christians should kill the anti-christ (I don’t think), his coming just signals the time when jesus returns to kick some ass. So even under this analysis calling Obama the messiah isn’t really a call for assassination or even a very direct reference to it.
He’s not the Christian Messiah (or anti-Messiah) but he’s definitely the Liberal Messiah – or, at least, he has the potential to be the guy who steers the U.S.A. towards the model of socialist democracy as shown by Europe and Canada.
Indeed, after playing around with the Bible Code I’ve found some very interesting synchronicities. Revelation presumes there will be a seven-year Christian Tribulation – well, if you expand that to assert that every religion, race, and political party experiences it’s own Seven-Year tribulation, take a look at this timeline:
9/11/01 – the start of the Liberal Tribulation. (Well, it actually started earlier, but 9/11 is a supremely major event which should not be ignored.)
9/12/08 – Hurricane Ike lands on Houston, plus the Metrolink crash in L.A.; both events were the first Major Portent of the current Global Financial Crisis, which is also the start of the Conservative Tribulation. Exactly Seven Years + One Day.
IOW, we liberals have survived our own Tribulation, we are in the 1,000 year reign now. The Conservative Tribulation is now underway (and will continue to get worse until they drive the Xtian fundies out of their party) and the Fundamentalist Christian Tribulation is yet to come – and I believe the Christian Tribulation will be entirely self-manufactured. These people are seriously nuts.
It’s not a call for assassination, no. But given that fundamentalist crazies tend to play pretty fast and loose with scripture anyway, it wouldn’t be surprising if some of them took it that way. Everybody wants to be a hero, and these people are nuts. While I think the Obama assassination concerns are drastically overblown - after he won the election we had about four threads about his death pop up within 48 hours, and it can get obsessive - I do think it’s very irresponsible to compare somebody to the antichrist.
I am still wondering how it will be the fault of the right if Obama gets assassinated, because they called him the messiah, but not the fault of the left, even though they called him the messiah.
- the left doesn’t call him the Messiah
- When the right calls him the Messiah, they’re really calling him the Antichrist.
No. When the right calls him the Messiah, they are mocking the left’s irrational adoration of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI
You can tell yourself that until you’re blue in the face, but both cases are demonstrably false. Why you continue to maintain demonstrably false positions long after they’ve been proven so is beyond me, but every time you do it chips away more of your credibility.
Louis Farrakhan is the left, Shodan? Come on. I thought at least you were going to link to Oprah or something- she’s not “the left,” but it’d be less bizarre than suggesting Farrakhan represents the left. What a lame argument.
Nope. No such adoration exists. When the right calls him the Messiah, they’re saying, “kill him, he’s the Antichrist.”
Cite for anyone on the left seriously calling him the Messiah?
I can produce plenty for people calling him the Antichrist.
The idea that the left sees Obama as some kind of transcendent savior figure is pure, right wing mythology. It’s complete fiction.
You can take a horse to water, but I guess you can’t force him to drink (or click links, I guess)
Louis Farrakhan is a conservative, by the way.
I have no idea why right wingers try to identify Farrakhan with the left. He’s anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-death penalty, anti-tax, anti-welfare, anti-drug, fanatically religious and racist. He’s a rightie all the way down the line.
I guess because he’s back, they think that makes him liberal.