Messiah complex - Obama and the danger of a divinized ruler

WORLD Magazine ^ | 8/21/08 | Gene Edward Veith

[XR7]

Critics accuse Barack Obama of presenting himself as some kind of Messiah (see "Hurry Up and Wait," WORLD, March 22/29, 2008). His speech upon clinching the Democratic nomination claimed for the event a cosmic significance that future generations would look back upon: "This was the moment," he said, "when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." His campaign slogans exhort us to "Believe." One of his posters gives biblical concepts a new object: "Faith. Hope. Change. Barack Obama for President."

But Obama's messianic image is more than just over-the-top political rhetoric. Many Americans are actually giving him religious veneration. Some are even hailing him as savior.

Conservative Catholic blogger Christopher Blosser started an entire website, Is Barack Obama the Messiah? (obamamessiah.blogspot.com), to track the spiritual devotion to the presidential nominee. The site shows how media photographs portrays the candidate bathed in heavenly light or adorned with halos. More telling are the testimonies of Obama's disciples.

Says U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., the son of the civil-rights activist, of Obama's pending nomination: "The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance." Movie director Spike Lee goes further. After the presidential election, "You'll have to measure time by 'Before Obama' and 'After Obama.'" Lee added, "Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe."

"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," proclaimed Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. He "could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."

Established journalists have embraced the new religion. "Barack Obama isn't really one of us," reports Mark Mortford of the San Francisco Chronicle. He is, in fact, "a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve."

At Obama rallies, such is the religious fervor that people often pass out, like being slain in the spirit at a Pentecostal revival.

Democrats have been warning against the danger of mixing religion and politics. They fear the influence of conservative Christians on a secular state. But influence and mixing is far less of a danger to a free republic than the union of religion and politics in the form of a divinized ruler. Human beings have a tendency to revert to that kind of ruler, as we see in the god-kings of ancient Egypt, the divine emperors of Rome, the divine-right absolute monarchies of early modern Europe, and the cult of the Leader in today's totalitarian states.

The real Messiah, though, was despised, rejected, and crucified. He gives salvation from sin, death, and the devil and opens the way to the kingdom of heaven. And He allows for no other Messiahs.

[XR7]

Barack Obama isn't really one of us...He is, in fact, a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve.

Scary?

[John Valentine]

In San Franfruitcake, this kind of thinking is mainstream.

[singfreedom]

What are these disillusioned dumbasses going to do if the Obamassiah is NOT embraced by a majority of us, the U.S.? Such disillusionment is not usually taken well. I think we are going to be buying a couple more guns and LOTS of ammo! Just in case, ‘ya know.

[XR7]

In San Franfruitcake, this kind of thinking is mainstream.

Not just in San Francisco, unfortunately.

[Shelayne]

Yes, and this one chills me to the bone:

Says U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., the son of the civil-rights activist, of Obama's pending nomination: "The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance."

Movie director Spike Lee goes further. After the presidential election, "You'll have to measure time by 'Before Obama' and 'After Obama.'" Lee added, "Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe."

Heaven help us, these people are crazy!

[SupplySider]

I am just amazed with this Messiah stuff, considering that Obama's views are nothing more than college sophomore level warmed-over Marxism. There is no substantive difference between Obama and Jimmy Carter.

My only explanation for the phenomenon is racism. The Obamessianics are thrilled to the core by an "articulate" black man.

[XR7]

Barack Obama must be elected President of the United States. It’s his worldview, his clarity of judgment, and his just plain right-mindedness that resonate with me. Figuring that my efforts were best spent raising money for the campaign, I have thrown myself into a new world—one in which fluffy chatter and frivolous praise are replaced by a get-to-the-point directness and disciple-like devotion. It’s intense and intoxicating. Much has been said about Obama’s rock-star appeal: the ability to fill 75,000-person venues; the way his arrival in any public forum generates tears and frenzy (as I witnessed last week as white-haired event attendees stood on chairs, risking bodily harm to take pictures of the Senator); and the rapture that ensues—all warrant such comparison...

I have to confess I felt a certain shame that the dress I wore—a bright-red Prada number from next season that my former boss, Carol, insisted I buy the day before—cost more than the $1,000 ticket to the event itself. After surveying the large crowd, however, I quickly realized that this dress was a big standout in a sea of black, brown, and grey. How this paid off I’ll share in a moment.

The town-hall style staging of the event meant that, during the delayed start, I was compelled to work the room, mixing and mingling with my new friends on the campaign—all of whom I’ve come to fixate like a transfer student in a new high school might on the cool kids in class...

Now, at least, I was on my feet as Senator Obama entered the room. Fate had blessed me in this moment, as I realized that the aisle that was keeping me from my seat was created for him and his secret service escort to make their way to the stage. Within seconds, he was a few feet from me. Cameras were flashing, everyone was cheering, and I knew this was my moment. I pushed my way up to the barricade as he shook hands with as many people as time would allow. I squeezed up front, but Obama was moving quickly and just passed me by. Then, in a moment of divine intervention, he saw me, clad in my red stop-sign of a dress, back-tracked ever so slightly in his procession, grabbed my hand, and gave that brilliant smile of his. I literally said out loud to the woman next to me who witnessed my good fate, "I’ll never wash this hand again."

Smantha Fennell is a fashion columnist for ELLE.

LINK: http://fashion.elle.com/blog/2008/07/joining-the-oba.html

[FreedomCalls]

The Obamessianics are thrilled to the core by an "articulate" black man.

And that speaks volumes about them.

[Son House]

Ain't much difference in any of them

[smedley64]

"...Obama has this almost irrational following and I myself can't sometimes explain why I'm supporting him," Noah Norman, 25, recently told the Washington Post.

Because you're a brainless idiot?

"He's all things to all men. At least that's how I put it."

Exactly. He's a pandering goofball and lemmings such as yourself don't have enough smarts to seperate fact from fiction. Check yourself into a mental hospital and get the help you need, weirdo.

Thanks for posting that link. It's been awhile since I checked it out. Some new quotes, but most of them have been up for awhile. Comparisons to Jesus, Solomon, GOD. Sheesh. Lib-tards in this nation are truly deranged and dangerous. Reading the quotes on that site are enough to make one vomit. The idol worship. The blasphemy. The mindlessness. I pray to God those freaks lose on Nov. 4th and watch their false messiah go down in flames.

[jazzlite]

Scary and dangerous.

[beachn4fun]

...the phenomenon is racism. The Obamessianics are thrilled to the core by an "articulate" black man.

You've got it! Most if not all of those people are only voting for him because he is black (somehow the majority forget that he has a white side) and they think he can really do something to help the poor, mistreated black population.

[Humble Servant]

I wish I was a graphic artist. I want to see a shot of Moses smiting the rock with his staff, only it’s Barack’s face, the staff is a giant tire gauge, and it’s oil, not water, spouting forth from the ground.

These people scare the hell out of me.

[beachn4fun]

Yes, scary.

This reminds me of how many of the dictators and cult leaders have used the crowds over the years.

And, we must remember that a MAJORITY of HOLLYWeird is financing his campaign. So it is safe to reason he has the help of media geniuses in helping to create this image!!!!

[mtntop3]

When the true Lord God and Religious Faith have been not only dismissed but disparaged by many in this secular society/world, many WILL find substitute Gods: themselves, materialism, sexuality, political movements - particularly Marxism - and “deliverance” individuals such as Obama.

Obama is truly a Messiah to them because so many of them have ignored, or discarded, the Godly light within themselves upon birth.

Correspondingly, most Evangelicals do NOT go for Obama.

[CalvaryJohn]

A multiple Obamagasm.

[beachn4fun]

"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," proclaimed Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

Here's a sign!

[mrsmel]

I am just amazed with this Messiah stuff, considering that Obama's views are nothing more than college sophomore level warmed-over Marxism.

I share your amazement. Of all the empty, platitudinous nonentities in which to pour their desires for a "savior", and to whom to ascribe such charismatic power, when he'd be nothing without the propping-up of his handlers. They just look foolish, and he's going to look foolish right with them when this is over, and he's just another failed liberal candidate onto whom they projected their wishful thinking. Bunch of babies, always looking for a father, a savior, a nanny. Well, they're going to be lost when they find that Obama is not "The One".

[SupplySider]

For joy! He will bring prosperity to every corner of the land with his brilliant new idea! He will be responsible, and raise our taxes. This act of courage and statesmanship will usher in a Golden Age of fiscal responsibility! I feel a thrill up my leg!

Um, wait, I was remembering McCain's domestic policy in his primary battle with Bush. Never mind.

[XR7]

Obama is truly a Messiah to them because so many of them have

rejected the true Messiah.

Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God
for an image in the form of corruptible man...
(Romans 1:22-23)