Amy Sullivan of Time writes about fears that Team McCain is trying to stoke fears of Christians who worry that Barack Obama is the Antichrist. Excerpt:
Perhaps the most puzzling scene in the ad is an altered segment from The 10 Commandments that appears near the end. A Moses-playing Charlton Heston parts the animated waters of the Red Sea, out of which rises the quasi-presidential seal the Obama campaign used for a brief time earlier this summer before being mocked into retiring it. The seal, which features an eagle with wings spread, is not recognizable like the campaign's red-white-and-blue "O" logo. That confused Democratic consultant Eric Sapp until he went to his Bible and remembered that in the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, the Antichrist is described as rising from the sea as a creature with wings like an eagle.Sapp knows that the phrasing and images could just be dismissed as a peculiar coincidence. After all, it was Oprah Winfrey who told an Iowa crowd that Obama was "the one!" But, he insists, "the frequency of these images and references don't make any sense unless you're trying to send the message that Obama could be the Antichrist."
I'm lovin' it. Honestly, the utter freakout of media liberals about those half-baked McCain ads is hilarious to watch. These are the same people who have built Obama up as a secular messiah who's going to come save us from the wicked legacy of Chimpy McBushitler, and when McCain starts to poke fun at the pop sanctimony surrounding Obama's image, these folks can't handle the teasing. If Obama becomes president, and has to undergo the usual criticism that presidents do, they're all going to spontaneously combust trying to police the heretics.
Do they really think this kind of paranoia helps Obama? Surely they can't. And yet...
Anyway, I'm with Ross:
...the people who think Obama might be the Antichrist and the people who think the McCain campaign is cannily designing its campaign ads to exploit fears that Obama might be the Antichrist deserve each other.
UPDATE: Dan Gilgoff on why Obama's Time essay about religious faith is a far better outreach to Evangelicals than McCain's competing piece.
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Obama and co. asked for this. His beatific platitudes BEG for mockery. He's just another politician who talks out of both sides of his mouth.
"In that sense if the reference is intentional, it's intentioned towards a rather small and limited group of Evangelicals and not towards conservative Christians at large."
Um, starting with "The Late Great Planet Earth" in the 1970's and continuing on with "The Left Behind" series, millions upon millions of books about the "end-time Bible prophecy gig" have been sold. This is not a "small and limited" group of evangelicals. Further, they are a critical part of the base that is distrustful of McCain, and whom he needs to appeal to if he wants to have any hope of winning this election.
I don't think it is paranoid at all to entertain the possibility that McCain would dogwhistle the prophecy-addled masses, while at the same time creating a humorous parody of Obama's overblown rhetoric that speaks to a more general audience. Surely, you must admit that these folks are smart enough to create ads that work on several levels at once, especially given the multi-million dollar investment that campaign ads represent.
You have to read 'The Man Who Would Be King: Why Every Christian in America needs to seriously consider who Barack Obama could actually be."
It was prepared by Christian Apologist Wes Hazlett and it will blow the doors off your mind.
I got half way through it and I was stunned at what the meaning of the monkey god really is and was quite surpised that Obama carries an idol of this hindu god in his pocket.
I was an Obama supporter and am a Christian democrat and many Christians are concerned that Obama is the antichrist, black, white, Hispanics, etc. I have prayed long and hard on this issue as I hope that other Christians will do as well. My concern really grew when his grandmother died a day before the election and a choked up Obama gave a speech a day before the election saying that he prayed that she would have lived to see him elected president. However Obama’s grandmother was sent home from the hospital a day before the election. When my loved one was in intensive care and they gave us a choice as to send him home to die or try to keep him alive in the hospital we chose to try to keep him alive and the doctors resuscitated several ill patients while we visited in the unit. It is odd to me and others that his grandmother was not kept in the hospital to be kept alive at least one more day to see her grandson elected president as anyone in the world would want to be kept alive for 1 more day under those circumstances. I cried when I heard Obama speak about his grandmother’s death, I am sure many voters felt for him and his family as well. I say this not to cause any pain to anyone but only because this has caused me many sleepless nights as a Christian and I would like to know that I supported a good person for President and not the Antichrist. If anyone knows why Obama’s grandmother was sent home from the hospital a day before the election, pls post and put our minds to rest.
Correction to comment above:
Obama’s Grandmother was released a few weeks before the election and we would like to know why. Since many patients are kept alive for several weeks to years in the hospital. Pls post. If you know.
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