The Second Coming

--by Sara

On Friday, the McCain campaign struck again, following up the Britney/Paris ad with one even more offensive -- a three-fer that managed to, all at once, reinvoke the Cult of Obama meme; suggest that popularity shouldn't be a criterion for picking US presidents (a notion that two stolen elections have proven in principle, but is now being baldly promoted as a GOP campaign talking point); and blast the dog-whistle at air-raid volume at the religious right, ginning up their already well-fermented fear that Obama is the antichrist.

I wrote one of the earliest blog entries on this over at ourfuture.org on Friday, and several other good posts have been written since. But I'd like to direct your attention particularly to Dave Johnson's offering at Seeing The Forest. Our buddy Dave, a man of great intestinal fortitude, waded out into the right-wing blogs and collected a few specimens of the net.slime that's already been raising the question of Obama's links to Satan. One choice bit:

Obama is the Anti-Christ. This is the evidence:

1.- He will come as a man of Peace (Obama promises peace in Iraq, defeat for the US)
2.- He will come mounted on a white Female horse(Obama mother is white who had 6 African husbands)
3.- He will come to deceive( Obama says he's a Christian but in fact he was born a Muslim, practices the Islamic religion, prays Friday’s facing Mecca)
4.- He will make himself the most powerful man on earth, if elected
5.- He will try to destroy the Jewish People and Israel( Obama has said he loves the Arabs specially the Palestinians, hates Israel and Jews. Admires Hitler, Osama etc)
6.- He will present himself as good and righteous but in fact he's Satan himself. Violence is in his heart
7.- Obama will help Al Qaida in its evil projects.
8.- Barack Hussein Obama is the “King of the South” predicted in the Bible.(Daniel .11, Kenya is south of Jerusalem)
9.- Obama comes to implant muslim Sharia Law upon America.
Obama is the Anti-Christ, beware of him.
Watch him and don't let you be deceived by Him.
Supporters of Obama: 1.5 billion Muslims, Oprah, Louis Farrakanh, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and all American Muslims.
OBAMA’S GAME IS DECEPTION AND VIOLENCE
A VOTE FOR OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR OSAMA AND KILLER ISLAM!!

Dave notes that everybody from Hal Lindsey to Glenn Beck has piled onto this, giving the an absurd level of media legitimacy to a story that should never, in any sane country, ever have risen to the level of a talking point in a presidential campaign. The only bright spot here is that the people most likely to believe this were never going to vote for Obama anyway due the race thing -- though I suppose the fact that they'd rather cop to believing in the Rapture fable than admit they won't vote for a black man does say something interesting about where our taboo lines fall these days.

Fortunately, the indispensable Snopes is on the case. Their last word won't be -- but should be -- the last word on this entire sorry farce:

The Biblical citation most relevant to this issue might not be one from Revelation, but rather this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Let the people of the word say amen.