There’s a meme going around certain quarters that Republicans are nuts because a massive number of them believe that President Obama may be the antichrist.
I first encountered this on the Drudge Report, which linked to the British paper the Daily Mail, which has a story headlined:
Here’s the entirety of what that article has to say on the antichrist subject:
Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe the Democrat president ‘may be the Antichrist’, according to a survey.
That’s it! No link to the original poll. No clue about how it was run. Nada!
A lot of other people are blogging it without linking it, to which I can only say, “Shame on you. Linking is an essential part of blogging. You’ve got to show people the source so they can make their own judgments. Blogging an inflammatory subject with no link is Just Plain Wrong.”
So I’m not going to do it. Here’s a summary of the Harris Interactive poll at the root of the meme
According to the Harris Interactive group, the poll . . .
. . . finds that 40% of adults believe he is a socialist. More than 30% think he wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns and that he is a Muslim. More than 25% believe he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a world government, has done many things that are unconstitutional, that he resents America’s heritage, and that he does what Wall Street tells him to do.
More than 20% believe he was not born in the United States, that he is “the domestic enemy the U.S. Constitution speaks of,” that he is racist and anti-American, and that he “wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers.” Fully 20% think he is “doing many of the things that Hitler did,” while 14% believe “he may be the anti-Christ” and 13% think “he wants the terrorists to win.”
Among Republicans, the numbers are different:
Majorities of Republicans believe that President Obama:
* Is a socialist (67%)
* Wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns (61%)
* Is a Muslim (57%)
* Wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (51%); and
* Has done many things that are unconstitutional (55%).Also large numbers of Republicans also believe that President Obama:
* Resents America’s heritage (47%)
* Does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (40%)
* Was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (45%)
* Is the “domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of” (45%)
* Is a racist (42%)
* Want to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (41%)
* Is doing many of the things that Hitler did (38%).Even more remarkable perhaps, fully 24% of Republicans believe that “he may be the Anti-Christ” and 22% believe “he wants the terrorists to win.”
While few Democrats believe any of these things, the proportions of Independents who do so are close to the national averages.
What the press release doesn’t tell you, but what is in the poll summary table, is that a surprisingly number of Democrats believe similar things. They proportions are smaller than the above numbers, but significant number of Democrats believe that President Obama:
* Is a socialist (14%)
* Wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns (17%)
* Is a Muslim (15%)
* Wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (12%).
* Has done many things that are unconstitutional (9%).
* Resents America’s heritage (12%)
* Does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (15%)
* Was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (8%)
* Is the “domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of” (8%)
* Is a racist (7%)
* Want to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (8%)
* Is doing many of the things that Hitler did (6%).
* May be the Anti-Christ (6%).
* Wants the terrorists to win (5%).
The Republican party, of course, has a large Evangelical component that is interested in the end-times, inclined to think we are living in them, and thus on the lookout to scope out current political figures with an eye to whether they might be the antichrist. That’s just going to happen to some degree. (Note also: It says “may be” the antichrist, not “is”). It’s like back in the ‘80s when some were suggesting that Ronald Wilson Reagan was the antichrist because he had six letters in each of his three names.
The more surprising number—if any of these numbers were real (more on that in a moment)—is how many Democrats think Obama might be the antichrist. If six percent of your own party think you may be the antichrist, that’s potentially newsworthy.
Rather than the nutty/scary/evil Republican meme, the more newsworthy headline based on these numbers would be something like,
“More Than 1 in 20 Democrats Think Obama May Be Antichrist (And Compare Him To Hitler)”
But are these numbers even real?
The poll was an online one that apparently used leading questions. (It wasn’t the completely unscientific kind of online poll, but it used methodology that is at least questionable.)
So at bottom what it looks like we have is an iffy, leading poll being used to feed the meme of “conservatives have Obama Derangement Syndrome.” (As if we hadn’t just suffered through eight years of Bush Derangement Syndrome.)
When this kind of thing happens, and particularly when it involves religious matters (like who might or might not be the antichrist), it’s important to have a response.
So I wanted to give you the scoop on the poll (including a link! I had to search hard to find that!) and some perspective in case someone throws this your way (and they may; it was on Drudge, after all).
As a final bit of perspective, I’ll say this: Whatever his flaws may be and however profound they may be, President Obama does not fit the model presented in the Bible of the figure commonly referred to as “the antichrist.”
The book of Revelation presents the Beast from the sea (commonly identified with “the antichrist” that John’s epistles speak of, though they may not be the same) as a European monarch who literally demands worship and who puts Christians to death and whose name adds up to 666 in a common alphabetic/numbering system in use at the time. That fits Caesar Nero (right down to the name adding up to 666), but it does not fit President Obama.
Of course, there may well be a future fulfillment of the antichrist archetype (I expect that there will be)—and there is a great deal of liberty of interpretation here since the Church’s teaching in this area is very limited—but we shouldn’t feed the meme identifying President Obama as the antichrist.
Your thoughts?
Here is why he isn’t: He’s not slick enough. Pretty much everyone is going to be enamored with the anti-christ and Obama just doesn’t have it.
I have never thought that mr. obama was THE Antichrist but I know he is AN antichrist.
“Everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist [1 John 4:2-3, 2 John 7]; whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross is of the devil; and whoever perverts the sayings of the Lord for his own desires, and says that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, such a one is the firstborn of Satan”-Polycarp of Smyrna (Letter to the Philadelphians 7:1 [A.D. 135])
Take care and God bless,
Inocencio
J+M+J
Obama the antichrist?
What a let down!
I like to tell people that I’m a moderate because I think Obama is neither the Messiah nor the anti-Christ. 😉
@Suzanne from Oklah-
When the press and just about everyone I talked to was so enamored by Obama, I thought he could be the anti-Christ. But since his poll numbers have come down, I had to re-think that. Not it.
He’s way too pathetic of a figure to be the Antichrist…not as bad as Jimmy Carter but he’s close.
No, because the Anti-Christ will perform preternatural acts, mocking supernatural ones and he will convince many of the really good, that he is a holy man.I am not referring to liberal cafeteria catholics, but he will convince good orthodox Catholics that he works with the power of Almighty God, and so far Obama has done nothing like this.
He is so black and white evil,
There is no preternatural power about him, yet.
The gospel must be preached to all nations prior to the apostasy which leads to the antichrist. We are a long way off. And the anti christ will make the MIT faculty look slow to learn… by comparison.
Sure Spain preached to Peru but spent 200 years stealing their silver at the same time…that’s not preaching the gospel in the full sense.
Sure France represented the Church in China in the 19th century but at the end of a gun she forced open all provinces to missionaries and to the English opium trade simultaneously in the 1860’s. And she ransacked the emperor’s palace in Beijing so many times, she had her own key to the rest room. That is not preaching the gospel.
Christ condemned the Jewish leaders not simply for hating his words but for simultaneously hating His works which he did. Indigenous peoples in the Philliipines, Peru, China etc. had a right to hate our works.
The gospel has not been preached in the two fold sense of words adn works except by exceptional missionaries amongst the macro trends of imperialism….ergo the real apostasy is far off because real preaching is far off…ergo the real antichrist is further off.
“Sure Spain preached to Peru but spent 200 years stealing their silver at the same time”
Avignon Days,
You must differentiate between the reality that Spanish Missionaries preached the gospel and baptised and converted pagan indiginous peoples to the True Faith, wherein they have a chance at salvation, the ultimate good, and simultaneously condemned abuse of the Indians, and the mercenary plottings of Spanish laymen who did not live out the Catholic Faith.
Secondly, what do your “colonization” statements have to do with Obama being the Anti-Christ, which he is not.
It sounds like you have an axe to grind, I apologize if you do not.
I don’t think he’s the anti-Christ, but even if he fit the bill, the anti-Christ will be joined by a false prophet. Unless there are two together, then Obama couldn’t be the anti-Christ.
And don’t say it’s Joe Biden….he’s too goofy.
D.P.H.
How many moderators do I have here?
The connection is that Obama cannot be the anti Christ because other macro trends must happen first.
Really preaching the gospel to the whole world in the two fold sense that Christ mentions (words and works)…unaccompanied by imperialism did not happen excepting the cases I gave of saintly missionaries.
You are incorrect on Catholic history as “clergy pure…laymen sinful”. That is why you see normal history as an axe to grind….because it grates on the “clergy pure” school.
Read “Romanus Pontifex” by Pope Nicholas V mid 4th large paragraph wherein he gave Portugal the right to rob and enslave perpetually any new natives that resisted the gospel..confirmed by 3 subsequent Popes and repeated in boilerplate for Spain by Pope Alexander VI in one of his “Inter Caetera” (May 3/1493) (“Privileges,favors (of Portugal)…as if they were inserted word for word in these presents”). Pope Paul III tried to undo their work on slavery in 1537 but he did not use interdict to back up his words and so it continued because they earlier bulls said that they could not be gainsaid by any authority. Indigenous people have been trying to get the Vatican for years to denounce Inter Caetera….easily google.
John Paul II apologized for such things in general in the 1990’s in a letter.
Is Obama _the_ Antichrist?
As I’ve joked with my wife, Not yet, but he seems to be running in the primaries…
Anyway, I’d expect the Antichrist to be very popular _and_ arrogant above believers of “gods” of any religion. Is Obama really like that?
Maybe he’s a forerunner?
Wow, a post with the words “Obama” and “Antichrist” in the title!
I bet a post with the words “Democrat”, “Republican” and “Abortion” will be next. Oh… wait… National Catholic Reporter already did that.
-Tim-
Given the people I know who think that the Mark of the Beast is a subcutaneous computer chip, I’m not surprised that some think that Obama is the Antichrist. Of course, many of these same people though that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist back in 1990/91. But then again, “And I saw one of his heads as it were slain to death: and his death’s wound was healed.” So maybe Saddam Hussein, whose head came off in the hanging, still has a chance at being the Antichrist according to their lights.
Suzanne and Inocencio are right on the money.
Biden looks like the Anti-Christ in the photo you chose!
Obama and Biden? Either one of them the Anti-Christ? No. They’re just idiots. Pray for them. God Bless.
Let’s see:
Remember “Faith, Hope, and Change”? (Corruption of Christianity.)
The Notre Dame fiasco.
Co-opting the Nobel Society.
He legalized live stem cell research i.e. live human experimentation.
Selling our children’s and grandchildren’s lives (i.e. taxes) for this stimulus.
Signing the health care bill has who knows how many bio-ethics consequences e.g. abortions, qualified treatment red tape.
Not “the” but giving “an” a good run for its money.
Boy, a lot of people here need to step off the ledge.
Obama may be pro-abortion, but to pretend that he is ideologically different than about 30-35% of our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and relatives is a little extreme. To me, on a liberal/conservative scale of 1-7, with 4 being moderate, he’s a 2. Bush was probably a 6. Just bide our time and the electoral pendulum will once again swing back towards the center, and eventually to the right again… just as it has for 225 years.
Obama the Antichrist? Nonsense! He may have the ambition, but he doesn’t have the talent.
Of course, there has never been a shortage of small-a-antichrists…
He’s only a front … for foul mouth anitchrist Rahm Emanuel.
I thought the closest person to fit the bill of antichrist is the POPE
I mean really????THE HOLY FATHER?NOT.there is but one Holy Father and it ain’t the pope.
GODS VICAR ON EARTH?NOT.That was and is still JESUS
rawiri: Did it make you feel better to post that?
“GODS(sic) VICAR ON EARTH?”
What does that mean? We Catholics are unfamiliar with that title.
No, the Antichrist will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and set up his image to be worshiped. Obama is no friend to Israel so this ain’t gonna happen.
I feel sorry for all of those who think that Christ will come back to reign and re-institute the temple sacrifices. What was that whole thing about “once for all” that the fundamentalists keep harping about?
Blood of bullocks and goats, can they atone for sins? Why would Christ come back to start that over again?
Obama is not the Anti-Christ and Biden is not the false prophet. They’re both heterodox liberals who are amateurs compared to the horror that is coming, in 1-1,000,000 years.
Biden looks like The Joker in the picture above!
Re Dr. Eric’s comment:
Antiochus IV in Daniel, supposed to be the “type” of the AC – if you read Jesus’ own reference to Daniel that way – didn’t rebuild a Temple. This proto-AC replaced the Temple religion with his own, and substituted his proxy for the priest, and erected a statue of a pagan god (of national defense, actually). In reality, he was full of himself and didn’t believe in any gods. But he rewarded those who played along. Antiochus represents a collusion of pagan religion with politics. (It is interesting that true believers, represented by the Maccabees and the Qumran sect, despised what they considered the substitute Temple cult (what Qumran called the false high Priest; they wouldn’t make sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem.)
Also interesting is that Jesus never is portrayed as making sacrifices in the Temple, despite the importance for ancient Judaism. (Whatever else this means, it would have posed a problem – since Jesus had no sins needing sacrifice.)
Anyway, it seems plausible that the NT is suggesting, not that the AV will rebuild the Temple and its cult, but will attempt to subvert and overthrow Christian faith, by promoting a false Christian religion, substituting a secularized, pagan version – which promotes the interests of a powerful state. A religion he doesn’t even believe in. He is full of himself, and believes nothing.
He may have not have the poll numbers now but what if ,the health care , auto industory plans and all the major changes he is making or made already changes the economy dramaticaly. Wouldn’t people love him then ? Then he could surely fit the scriptures description of antichrist. There is a very good chance he is, will just have to wait and see\
FWIW, Jesus was not God’s vicar on earth. Jesus was God Incarnate on earth.
I don’t think obama is the anti christmaybe next they will say Biden is.. Get off of it folks there just men.
Please serve me with more information on the subject.
Gail, I just re-read every post here; no one claimed that he thought Obama is the antichrist. Who are your comments aimed at?
Don’t be morons, Obama will bring the world to its doom. I pray he doesn’t but i have a strong feeling that he’s not as innocent as he appears. Of course he’s gonna fool you to become president but what happens after he’s in power.
Many years ago a learned Catholic man told me that the antiChrist was born on May 6, 1953. I remembered this because that is also my birthday as well. Tony Blair was born that day as well. Does he meet the criteria for the antiChrist? Daniel says thet he will come in on a peace platform. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/world/middleeast/27cnd-mideast.html
Blair was made a special envoy to the Middle East peacwe talks. The man of sin will arrise from the 7 hills of Rome. Blair is poised to become President of the European Union, based in Rome. I believe he IS the antiChrist.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/28/tony-blair-european-union-president-opinions-columnists-quentin-letts.html
My name is Scott. I live in Michigan. I have been doing serious reverse speech analysis for several months now. I have done speeches from several people including
J.F.K.
M.L.K.J.
Michelle and Pres. Obama
The Pres. Obama reverses are littered with references to “The Mark” “Seals” “Forhead” “The bomb” and so on and so forth. I am in the process of doing his 2008 acceptance speech. I came across MEGIDDO. In his State of the Union speech he says “Seal my head-Nik your forhead” I am very much convinced that Obama intends to initiate Revelation 13:16………………….I am very much interested in speaking with you on this matter…..perhaps before it is too late. I have many more examples of what I am talking about. I have included a short list of words that have come up that you can look up for yourself. They all came from Obama.
Nerf-To make worse or weaken
Sheba-Queen in West Asian mythology
Serf- Member of lowest class
Snerf-To eagerly or rapidly devour
Suening- Norway 11th century dog
Surnaut- Close, here, present day
Zulu-Universal Coordinate Time UCT
Nik- Cut into something
Sharf- This edge or sharp point
Pasadea- Biblical fundamentalism Profunds (Literal biblical interpretation)
Karf-??? (Might be a reverence to radio media)))
*****************************************************************************************
Is there any money in Reverse Speech???
Scott