Does This McCain Ad Insinuate that Obama is the Antichrist?

Judge for yourself. 

If so, let's not mince words:  more than just a McCain play for reluctant evangelicals, isn't it an invitation to an assassination?  If you were a self-styled soldier of God and you believed the Antichrist was out there, how would it be enough just not to vote for him?  Isn't the Antichrist bigger game than Barnett Slepian?  [Warning:  the link is offensive.]

No, of course I'm not suggesting that all, most, or many Evangelical Christians think that way.  I'm suggesting that this ad, which merely makes fun of Obama's most fervid followers' messianism on one level, is on another level full of signals designed to inflame extremism.  I think it's dangerous.

Comments

[Peter Hoh]

Ugh. When it became clear that Obama and McCain were the nominees, I thought it might be possible that we might have an issues-based campaign. I guess this election is going to be decided on bullshit, too.

[Charles Martin]

Theologically, I'm not at all clear that one could shoot the Antichrist, but that aside, let's not go all Bletchley Park on this. McCain is making fun of his tendency to slip into a messianic grandiosity; with Obama salutes and all the talk about how Obama will make us do this and not let us do that, I think that's a good thing.

In the mean time, with Recreate '68 promising they're going to have another Chicago convention, planning mass civil(?) disobedience against the city's restrictions, and complaining about a (possibly silly) ordinance forbidding them from carrying buckets of shit to throw at the police, I think there are lots higher probability threats.

And besides, what if he is the Antichrist?

[amba]

And besides, what if he is the Antichrist?

Now where the hell is that coming from? I don't think it's a joking matter, from either a believer's or an unbeliever's point of view.

This is where my tolerance and agnosticism fail completely. I cannot allow the possibility that those "prophecies" (which are strenuous interpretations of some very cryptic shit) might be true. The only kind of prophecy I can see them as is the self-fulfilling kind: if you believe it intensely enough, you could make it happen. (Not you.) And that's why they are so dangerous.

I agree with you that the Obamessiah phenomenon is ridiculous and offensive, and why doesn't someone drive a stake through the heart of that hippie vampire, 1968? But kidding around about the Antichrist is playing jacks with nukes. Obama merely suffers from the delusional vanity shared by most of the left -- the belief that they and only they know how to make the world better. If you want to call that the small-letter anti-christ -- earthly Utopianism as opposed to the need for heavenly redemption -- well, all right. I'm still looking for the third way, the Taoist middle muddle.

The "Obama salute" was a fake, by the way (at least so they say at Althouse) -- a parody mistaken for the real thing.

[David L.]

Back in the day when such iconography boosted his poll ratings, Obama's supporters were qute happy to have him photographed or depicted with images that suggested sainthood, complete with halo. http://tinyurl.com/5cs53v
Now that those images have been turned back against him in mockery, the "hidden meaning decoder rings" of our "progressives" are spinning at top speed.

The very fact that the accusation that "McCain is trying to portray Obama as the Antichrist" originated in that echo chamber called the Huffington Post suggests how much credence it ought to be given: None. http://tinyurl.com/6ly3rx

Obama and his more fervent partisans were happy to warm themselves at the fires of adulation while those fires burned high. Now let them taste the ashes.

[amba]

Point taken, David, BUT, the "Obama as Antichrist" meme did not start on the Huffington Post (which I don't read). It's been around for a while on the far Christian right; I linked to a website that was promoting it very seriously at least a year ago. A commenter brought it up here in late June, well before McCain's ad or any reactions to it.

[amba]

Well, now I'm going to break my own vow not to laugh about it: XWL at Immodest Proposals made me LOL with his suggestion that Obama ought to embrace the Antichrist meme as a campaign strategy:

It might seem counterintuitive to embrace these absurd insuniations, but when you see the amount of merchandise moved by The Left Behind series, you can't dismiss the effect that voters who sincerely desire the Second Coming and would be willing to suffer to see it hastened could have in the Electoral College. These modern day adventists could help to seriously boost your appeal, especially in states where you seem weak. [...]

just find a way to play up the Messianic passions of your followers, play up your status as an agent of great change (and tribulations), and speak about the enduring peace that you shall bring a united and healed global community under your leadership (which come to think of it, pretty much is your current rhetoric), and you just might find yourself winning over the evangelical vote, not because they agree with you, but because they'll view you as a harbinger of the "end times".

It's a brilliant strategy, one that you seem to already be undertaking (come to think of it), so keep up the good work.

[amba]

In fact, XWL has been having ongoing fun with the Obamessiah.

[David L.]

The "Obama as Antichrist" meme may have originated on the religious right. What originated on the Huffington Post was the accusation that the McCain video spots constitute some sort of secret message to Christian fundamentalists.

The author of the Huffington Post entry, Mara Vanderslice, evidently played a role in bringing the accusation out of the blogosphere and into the MSM. She is mentioned in the "Time' magazine story dated 8/8/08 which took the accusation to a broader public. http://tinyurl.com/6n2l6c

As matters stand, there is neither intrinsic nor extrinsic evidence evidence that the McCain spots constitute secret appeals to those who might believe Obama to be the Antichrist. There are only the statements of some Obama supporters that they perceive such appeals. It is impossible and futile, of course, to argue with people who assert the existence of secret signals by third parties to other third parties solely on the basis of their own reporting of their own perceptions. Such accusations are evidence of nothing except the mental state of the accusers.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Now where the hell is that coming from? I don't think it's a joking matter, from either a believer's or an unbeliever's point of view.

Why not? Is it less ludicrous than the notion that Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea is a secret reference to Revelations.

Besides, I still remember when lefty Christians were explaining to me why Reagan was the Antichrist.

[amba]

O, I remember that too. A neopagan in Mendocino County told me the numerology of his name added up to 666 and it was an anagram of "Insane Anglo Warlord."

But Charlie, what I want to know is: did you ask of Reagan, "What if he IS the Antichrist"?

I did not.

[amba]

By the way, the best way to end Obama-worship fast is to elect him.

[karen]

I'm resigned to that, too, amba. I hate to even think it& i believe it tobe dangerous, but it may purge the Left/Right mentality(that even i admit to sippin' on).