Last month, God-o-Meter wrote about Barack Obama becoming the Democrats’ Mike Huckabee–a secular preacher. Columnist Kathleen Parker takes the case even further today, seeing in the Obama juggernaut a messiah for today’s secular youth:
Reports of women weeping and swooning — even of an audience applauding when The One cleared his proboscis (blew his nose for you mortals) — have become frequent events in the heavenly realm of Obi-Wan Obama.
His rhetoric, meanwhile, drips with hints of resurrection, redemption and second comings. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” he said on Super Tuesday night. And his people were glad.
Actually, they were hysterical, the word that best describes what surrounds this young savior and that may be more apt than we imagine….
One of Obama’s TV ads, set to rock ‘n’ roll, has a Woodstock feel to it. Text alternating with crowd scenes reads: “We Can Change The World” and “We Can Save The Planet.”
Those are some kind of campaign promises. The kind no mortal could possibly keep, but never mind. Obi-Wan Obama is about hope — and hope, he’ll tell you, knows no limits.
It is thus no surprise that the young are enamored of Obama. He’s a rock star. A telegenic, ultra-bright redeemer fluent in the planetary language of a cosmic generation. The force is with him.
But underpinning that popularity is something that transcends mere policy or politics. It is hunger, and that hunger is clearly spiritual. Human beings seem to have a yearning for the transcendent — hence thousands of years of religion — but we have lately shied away from traditional approaches and old gods.
Thus, in post-Judeo-Christian America, the sports club is the new church. Global warming is the new religion. Vegetarianism is the new sacrament. Hooking up, the new prayer. Talk therapy, the new witnessing. Tattooing and piercing, the new sacred symbols and rituals.
And apparently, Barack Obama is the new messiah.
Here’s how a 20-year-old woman in Seattle described that Obama feeling: “When he was talking about hope, it actually almost made me cry. Like it really made sense, like, for the first, like, whoa … ”
This New Age glossolalia may be more sonorous than the guttural emanations from the revival tent, but the emotion is the same. It’s all religion by any other name.
God-o-Meter thinks Parker is pretty much on the money. If elected, however, will the messiah be brought down to earth by the challenges of governing?
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posted February 22, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I’m a Christian who also happens to be an Obama supporter. I have one Saviour, Jesus Christ. I’m not sure why because throngs of people have come out to support Obama, the media thinks they are worshipping him. I support Obama because of his policies and I believe he has a better plan for moving this country in the right direction than Hillary Clinton. He is not my Messiah and I’m offended that others would think that I worship him. If you are so concenred about Obama worship, where is your scrutiny for those on the Right who worship Ronald Reagan?
posted February 23, 2008 at 11:52 am
yes, i think obama will be the one to win the dem nom,and i think he will gain the white house, because over on the republican side what choice is there? not a very good one for sure.i am a republican and i will die a republican, but i dont vote for just anybody, but for the best qualified person,without a hidden agenda, for the job. so….. i am not voteing at all.we are in the times that people are begging for a leader with real solutions to what has ailed us for so long,so in that vien i think obama is on the right track.but, he is an engineer of the wrong train, one that will lead this nation in the wrong direction to the wrong cocclusion, hillary? she is no better.huckaby needs to bow out and go home and register with the employment office and secure a real job.huck-game over,comprende?time will tell.-harv
posted February 23, 2008 at 11:57 am
You call it worship, but the mass population is tired of all the BS. The country is going down the tube and for what? greed, power. We want a country we can be proud of. If things continue the way they have been our generation is in serious trouble. There is no reason a country like ours can’t have universal healthcare- they’ve been talking about this for the past twenty years and we are no closer to universal healthcare than we were twenty years ago. Its disgusting. If Clinton or McCain is put into office it will be a decision this country will live to regret. It is a rocket straight to hell. A Flashback to the last eight years or so is a Glimpse into the next eight years to come.
posted February 23, 2008 at 12:59 pm
True enough Obama is about hope which in this dismal society the youth seem to need.We have lost our values to degrading women our planet& ourselves. With every candidate we all should feel hopeful. Unfortunately what they talk is not what they deliver and so Obama may very well be like all the other politicians.
posted February 23, 2008 at 2:42 pm
This was all predicted in the New Testament. People are gathering around them teachers to give their itching ears what they want to hear. Without doubt, Obama and his wife and his ad team, are selling him as a messiah.
The audacity of hope? Obama is just selling selfishness in a new wrapper.
posted February 23, 2008 at 7:46 pm
This messiah talk is a bunch of boo-boo. Obama is what his wife speaks. He’s no different. Check out the church he goes to and you’ll see why his pastor (advisor) is under wraps. He’s pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes and the media are his biggest boosters.
If you attack Obama you’re considered racist or a loser but his wife can say anything she chooses about Clinton and it’s no big deal. The American Idol may wake up one day to how they’ve been taken.
posted February 23, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Okay I guess I don’t see it. He is a great speaker and he not only can tell you what he wants to do (lay out his plans), but can actually get you excited about the prospects. But most of all he’s motivational. People keep saying he’s inspiring. All good leaders have always been inspiring, they’ve always reached out to the people and inspired them to do more than they thought they could. That’s why we call them “Name-the-Great” usually or why they are remembered in history…because they unified those they governed and inspired them to strive towards goals. Elizabeth I is a good example. Her nation was torn over all kinds of divisions and yet somehow she found a way to unite her people…and today she is revered as a great leader. Winston Churchill inspired those he governed at a time when they really needed to feel motivated and inspired. I’ll admit I didn’t immediately jump onto the Obama band-wagon. If anything I was skeptical of this politician…..he seemed to be saying a lot, but I wondered if it meant anything. Turns out he has ideas, too, and they’re not really all that bad of ideas. And turns out he’s a bit of realist. That was refreshing, though I’ll admit I didn’t realize that. Suddenly I realized what some of my friends were saying about him. That it wasn’t just the inspiration and the message of hope that they liked, they liked his ideas and they felt like this was a person who could get people to sit down their divisions and work towards common goals. I remember after listening to one speech I turned to my mom and I said “he sounds kinda like Rev Martin Luther King, Jr.” My mom said she thought he sounds more like “John F. Kennedy.” All I know is that I see people who are Republicans and Democrats and Independents who are suddenly paying attention to the election and who are interested in him. They haven’t said they’re going to vote for him, but they’re interested. They feel engaged again, like they have something to contribute. After the last elections many people I talked to wondered why they’d even bothered voting in the first place. What was the point? Millions of votes, machines problems, list problems…how did you know your vote counted? People were starting to think that they didn’t matter. All of sudden many of those same people I have known now for awhile are actually interested, actually engaged. They’re not apathetic, they’re paying attention. No they haven’t said they’re all voting for Obama…some of them went and voted for Clinton, but they’re paying attention now! And I like that!
posted February 24, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Jules: you’re right to suggest that Obama worship is redolent of Reagan worship on the right. Obama himself has noted some of the similarities.
posted February 27, 2008 at 11:11 am
oh, oh, oh, I barely got through the article. Kathleen Parker, A woman who reeks sarcasm and political bias.
Hope IS a powerful tool. Don’t be fooled into thinking preaching hope is wrong. Obama knows that in a political ring the four letters H-O-P-E will take him a very long way with the general public.
Ah a video about optimism. How refreshing. especialy in the face of Clinton’s pessimistic tendencies.
I dont have a lot to say about “Obama as Messiah” it’s all just a lot of useless un-tasteful disparagement.