Obama Anti-Christ? McCain Ad Touches Off Religious Debate

A number of progressive religious figures are angry over the McCain campaign's recent ad "The One," which they believe paints Barack Obama as a kind of anti-Christ, specifically to conservative evangelicals:

On Beliefnet.com, Mara Vanderslice, founder and director of the pro-Obama religious group Matthew 25 Network, writes:

I found this McCain campaign ad "The One" to be one of the most offensive ads we have seen in American politics to date.

At best, this ad implies that those who plan to support Senator Obama are looking for a new savior or a replacement Messiah. But many are reading it even more darkly as an attempt to portray Obama as an anti-Christ figure.

A vote for Senator Obama is a vote for the man we think will make the best President, not for a new Messiah. As Christians, we have one Lord And Savior. Jesus Christ. It is blasphemous to suggest otherwise.

And it is beyond offensive to suggest that Senator Obama is a false Messiah or the anti-Christ himself. How low can we go? It shows the McCain campaign is willing to make a mockery of our faith to feed people's fears. Christians need to reject this out of hand.

At the same time, several blogs have noted a growing number of conservative evangelicals alleging that Obama is the anti-Christ, or at least a precursor to that end-of-days figure. For example, Hal Lindsay, a prominent evangelical writer, charged in a recent WorldNetDaily article:

Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive.

He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin.

The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance.

Comments

[Pherdnut]

09:53 AM on 08/09/2008

This is a mistake. The evangelicals aren't all idiots and bigots and they're already resenting the GOP for paying lip-service to their faith for votes. This isn't new though. Viral marketers have been kicking this idea around the web since it became clear Hillary wasn't going to have an easy win.

[horndoggler]

11:34 AM on 08/07/2008

Why do we bow down to these evangelicals with their kooky beliefs? If we had a better education system, these people would not exist! Can we stop giving these mega church leaders tax breaks for spouting all of these ridiculous views???

Tell me why being called an elitist is a bad thing? Don't athletes strive to be elite? When did being articulate mean that you are an elitist? Being able to have a beer with someone is not a good reason to elect them as president!

Do we want to elect a president who finished 885 in a graduating class of 889, or one that was the editor of the Harvard Law Review? If you were hiring a CEO, which one would you choose?

[nolajam]

05:01 PM on 08/09/2008

You're absolutely right horndoggler.

[mhoiles]

10:40 AM on 08/05/2008

WOW! Snicker :)

[Softnsweet]

09:13 AM on 08/05/2008

I really hope McCain wins. I said the same thing with Bush won. People are crying over there vote and they will cry when they vote for McCain. I cannot wait to see what he does to you people.

[wdw101]

09:39 AM on 08/05/2008

i agree but for different reasons though........I am not voting for McCain but against obama

[JaseAllen]

01:55 AM on 08/05/2008

WTF? Is this a /real/ ad? I agree that Obama is getting a little full of himself, but that commercial was down right ridiculous! It's also more than a little hypocritical. Bush used his miss-perceived Godliness as a campaign tool.

[wdw101]

07:56 AM on 08/05/2008

a person's words can be used against them.......I don't see anything wrong with that

[neocommie]

01:41 AM on 08/05/2008

Cool. Rapture time. Bring it on!

[Mildmannered]

12:01 AM on 08/05/2008

Unfortunately there are many people out there who will take this seriously.

[alleykat]

09:54 PM on 08/04/2008

OMG Talk about scare tactics. Sounds to me like the McCain people are desperate and so are the people who think this stuff.

[08politicaljunkie]

07:23 PM on 08/04/2008

Does this mean McCain is a Prophet?

[razberryberet]

10:19 PM on 08/04/2008

hmmm....wouldn't this make McCain Pharaoh??? wasn't the Pharaoh Evil? this doesn't seem like a good analogy for McCain to use...

[wdw101]

08:00 AM on 08/05/2008

it means obama does think he is......

[RoveRoveRoveYourBoat]

07:08 PM on 08/04/2008

Wrap him with chains and thow him in a lake...If he floats, he's a witch!!!

[wdw101]

04:31 PM on 08/06/2008

makes sense let's did it

[wdw101]

05:10 PM on 08/06/2008

corrected:

makes sense let's do it

[WhiteDelyte]

06:39 PM on 08/04/2008

im surprised it took this long for the whacko's to imply Obama as the anti-cris.
this is good news. my life philosophy over the last 16 years is, whatever james dobson or jerry farewell say, do the opposite.
they want you to hate, i love..they want you to be scared of skin color, i embrace it...and on..and on...
now if we can only get these people to pay taxes...hmmmmmm

[spikeheels]

06:06 PM on 08/05/2008

Evangelical Republicans worship the rich and despise the poor. They love war and hate peace. They believe lies and hate the truth. How else could they be good Republicans? My evangelical relatives have strayed so far from Christianity to be good Republicans that their religion resembles little that is taught in the Bible.

[forebode]

11:06 AM on 08/09/2008

In addition, Evangilical Republicans, and Conservative Republicans in general, LOVE to blame the victim. I have actually been told by several of them that it is MY fault I was born with a disability! I have been told it is MY fault that I have been discriminated against in the workplace because of the disability. I love to tell the conservative Republicans that they are naive and gullible to support anyone like Bush and Cheney, and purely bigoted to suggest that it is my fault that I was born with a disability, and to hold that disability against me, actually saying it is the right of the employer to pass me over for employment when I am as qualified, if not more qualified than my non-disabled competition for the job. I am told by these self-conceited, self-worshipping eugenics sobs that when employers hire "my kind," they are, in essence, feeding us, and when we can eat, we can "breed" our "inferior" selves.

I ask them "Since when are you so perfect in body and mind, NAZI?"

[Sysiphuslove]

06:07 PM on 08/04/2008

What absolute nonsense.
We're in a war that's taken tens of thousands of lives, including at least 4,000 American servicemen.
Gas is over $4 a gallon, and stands to go higher, raising the price of virtually everything else in the economy.
Millions of Americans have lost their homes.
Millions more have lost their jobs.
Banks are failing all over the country.
God knows how much money was smuggled away from the American people by crooked contractors installed in Iraq. I hear it's in the billions.
We don't even know everything yet that the Bush Administration has done to our civil liberties, the defining characteristic of an American citizen. When we find out it will whiten our hair, I'm sure.
The middle class has all but disappeared in America.
And this is the best McCain can do...?! The best this man can do to recommend himself for President is paint his opponent as a Biblical villain?

I'm completely speechless. What screaming idiocy, what backward and disingenuous nonsense. The country is going down in flames, and McCain thinks he can pull this kind of attack now? After all his talk about a respectful campaign!??!

This is insulting to the country's intelligence. Wow.

[LightUpAmerica]

10:01 PM on 08/04/2008

oh but he's just having fun

[Marlyn]

06:01 PM on 08/04/2008

"a growing number of conservative evangelicals alleging that Obama is the anti-Christ, or at least a precursor to that end-of-days figure." ???

These people are INSANE !!!!!!

[charles847]

05:48 PM on 08/04/2008

McCain has reached a new low. This is blasphemy. I hope a bolt of lightning strikes McCain back into his senses. He has allowed the Rove politics to define his candidacy and it shows that he will be another BUSH. Let's put McCain and his Rove politics to rest. VOTE OBAMA 08.

[mikie63]

05:27 PM on 08/04/2008

Anyone with a tiny bit of education and brain power will know that the evangelicals are preaching to the wind. Oh, when I wrote the word "education" of course I meant education anywhere but a christian or islamic fundamental school. Those institutions have know idea what real education means. They only teach what their so called god tells them to teach. What else is new?

I plan to vote for Obama, not because he is a christian, or a democrat, or black, but because he is ten times as smart and educated as McMuffin is, and I feel he will be able to lead with good judgment and thought, whereas McMuffin needs so much time to think and to decide things, he would be completely scarryas president.

Oh, by the way, I"m not planning to pack my bags for the apocalyptic end of time. I'm sorry evangelicals, but you have no clue; I'll leave it there.

[wdw101]

07:42 AM on 08/05/2008

not once was apocalypse or Antichrist stated in that ad

[forebode]

11:28 AM on 08/09/2008

No need to pack your bags for the Apocalypse. Everyone raptures naked, so they say.