Winger Madness: Obama Winning the Nobel Prize Proves that He's the Antichrist and the End is Near

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

When I first heard last Friday morning that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, my heart sank a little. Not that I wasn't proud; I was just scared of the reaction of the radical right.

Strangely enough, they're scared too, or at least professing to be. Turns out, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is tantamount to being crowned the Antichrist. Take for example this response to the breaking news that Obama had been awarded the prize:

When I heard this morning about o's [sic] glorification, I was terrified that the Rapture had occurred and I had done something to miss it. No way in a normal world would anyone give the prize to 0bama based on his record to date... I mean something weird had to happen, right?

But, I got on here, you guys are all still here, so either we messed up somewhere along the way, or we're still waiting to be called home!

These comments come from a user named "Never alone" posting on the bulletin board for the Web site Rapture Ready, a resource for Christians who believe the end is near and that it will unfold as written in the Bible's Book of Revelation.

Back in August of 2008, I looked behind that infamous political ad called "The One" by the McCain campaign, with the help of religious scholar Bruce Wilson of Talk 2 Action. Wilson told me he worried the ad was evidence that eschatology (the study of the "end of times") and dispensational Christianity (a modern platform for explaining the existence of evil in an end-of-times narrative) are "becoming the idiom of politics."

Little over a year later, I'm ever more convinced that Wilson had it spot-on.

Much has been made of the right-wing's unpatriotic and anti-peace reaction to the Nobel committee's decision. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called it "Obama Derangement Syndrome."

"President Obama's critics railed today that winning the Nobel Peace Prize is somehow an insult. That international hope and encouragement for success for an American president is something to be ashamed of," Maddow said. "The American president just won the Nobel Peace Prize. By any reasonable measure, all Americans should be proud."

But Maddow and other commentators are missing the undertones of religious fundamentalism, a major component to this story.

The people who consider themselves "Rapture ready" believe that a long list of events, as prophesied by the Bible, must occur before and after the Rapture. The Rapture itself is merely one event, at which the cream of the Christian crop is able to avoid seven years of hell on Earth ruled by the Antichrist and his pal the false prophet. The image of the Antichrist as charismatic and well-loved by the world, made very real-looking by movies and books such as Left Behind, Day of Deception and Vanished, easily fit into the "other" meme of Obama's presidency.

The Web site AreWeLivingInTheLastDays.com (hint: the answer according to them is a resounding yes) says this about the Antichrist (emphasis mine): "He will be super, not ordinary; everything about the Antichrist will be extraordinary. He will possess great eloquence, charm, wit, military genius, vision, and intelligence. He will be extremely influential, charismatic, a false champion of peace, and will possess strong leadership abilities. One could even say he's a rock star."

The site even notes that the Bible says he will "arise out of the sea." Maybe we can finally put this whole Kenya-born rumor out to pasture, as his birthplace in Hawaii fits better within the framework of dispensational Christianity?

A different poster at Rapture Ready who goes by the name AmazingLove said of Obama, "If he's not 'it', then the 'one' to come will sure be a doozy, because I have never seen an individual's characteristics and worship by the world fit any better than this creepy Obama."

The thing is, these people are not just against Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize. It may sound strange to say it, but they're also anti-peace and anti-Nobel.

Beyond anti-Obama sentiment, these Rapture-ready folks are also anti-Nobel in that they're against any kind of global committee of any sort, as it may lend itself to co-option by the Antichrist. They get nervous when any group spanning more than one nation gets together, be it the European Union, G8, G20, International Monetary Fund, or the World Bank. You name it, there's probably someone out there who thinks it's a sign of end times.

This comes from the fear of what they call the New World Order or One-World Government, which extends to One-World Religion as well as that One-World Currency thing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) keeps crowing about. Any time the world gets together and agrees on virtually anything, it means the Rapture is right around the corner.

And while some were heartened to hear Obama accept the award "as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century," as well as to hear his commitment to share the Nobel with the world, such language comes off as threatening to the Rapture-ready crowd.

They're also anti-peace, partly because the Antichrist supposedly presents himself as a man of peace. But also, warfare and Israel play big parts in the plan from Revelations, which is unsurprising, since most of the entire book's events unfold in that very region. This "timeline" for the end of days begins in 1948 at the formation of the Israeli state.

The Bible predicts that the Antichrist will broker a seven-year peace treaty with Israel. Again, from the "last days" Web site:

Once this treaty is signed, a very specific set of events will unfold over the next 7 years. The importance of the signing of this treaty cannot be understated. [It] marks the beginning of the 7 years of tribulation which will conclude with the return of Christ. Beginning with the signing of the treaty as day one of the seven year tribulation, we can calculate the number of days that will separate each of the major events of tribulation. We are able to calculate when the Antichrist will stop the daily animal sacrifice on the temple mount in Jerusalem, when he will desecrate the temple, when he will be assassinated and satanically resurrected and indwelled [sic] by satan [sic], along with when the final battle of Armageddon will take place.

Several posters reacting to the Nobel news on Rapture Ready referenced the rebuilding of the temple in Israel. User "justthinking" warned that he foresees Obama may now begin "spouting off about the Jews needing their temple rebuilt in the 'International City of Jerusalem', allowing all three faiths (Judiasm [sic], Christianity and Islam) to worship together."

The end-of-times narrative is particularly damaging politically, when bloody conflict in the Middle East means Jesus is right around the corner. As I wrote in a post specifically about Sarah Palin's ties to dispensational Christianity last year:

The danger in this goes far beyond the erosion of separation of church and state. This "end of times" belief translates to the end of responsibility and custodianship for leaders. As Wilson puts it, "since they believe the world is spiraling to a terrible end anyway, why bother preserving the environment? Also, they find everything from war to natural disaster quite exciting because it means the Rapture is near."

This is why I cringe when I hear Palin say the Iraq war "is a task that is from God." People like her want to fight religious extremism with more religious extremism, and think that the Rapture is not an event to wait around for, but something they need to hasten. 

I don't think very many Americans want someone who wants the world to end ASAP to have nuclear codes.

Indeed, I was struck by the escapism evident in many of the hundreds of posts on the Nobel Peace Prize thread at Rapture Ready. It seems that, if these people don't get their way politically, they'd prefer to be raptured off of this Earth, rather than deal with four years in the minority.

One user who goes by BAC said Obama "is so arrogant and all about his agenda that it literally makes me sick to my stomach. I will continue to pray for him as best I can for as long as this nation holds together, which most likely will NOT be long! PLEASE COME SOON LORD JESUS!!!!!"

"DeputyEZ" used six emoticons to express concern about the future of the country, writing, "I just pray that we are not here to see it. I grow more and more weary of this world everyday [sic]. Come quickly Lord Jesus."

Another writer, mom4Yehoshua, had similar worries, writing, "I am not looking forward to the likes of this country or world in the next many months and years, Lord willing of course. I really hope that our Lord Jesus will call us home soon. I wanna go now Dad, come on!"

Sure, immature nutcases have been relying on fundamentalism to get them through tough times for centuries. But the days of the preacher wielding a "The End is Near" placard on a busy street corner are over.

These people are being whipped into a frenzy by Internet rumors and code-wielding politicians such as Bachmann and Palin. They think Jesus is going to come down onto the planet and sweep them into heaven any day now. Who knows what they'll do in the name of eschatology. And that is why little things, like the Nobel Prize, scare me nowadays.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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