Obama, Assassination, and the Antichrist Conspiracy
Even if the shooter is a thorough crackpot his delusions did not form in a vacuum. Hate sites like Prison Planet, Atlas Shrugs, and Farrah’s World Net Daily all do most of the heavy lifting for these conspiracy theories and delusions. Oprah is not a hate site, but she does her share of aiding and abetting delusion with promotion of pseudoscience and magical thinking disguised as pop pscyh self help, so it’s really not a contradiction that he addressed a video to her, even though many on the right will grasp at that and say aha!
The alleged shooter charged with attempting to assassinate President Obama, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, apparently thinks our Commander in Chief is an agent of Satan in an End Times war. Sarah Posner has explained the basics in an article “‘Obama the Antichrist’ and end-times doctrine.” I warned about the possibility of the demonization of Obama leading to more violence in a book chapter published in 2010 “The Roots of Anti-Obama Rhetoric.” Here is a slightly revised version of what I wrote:
Many Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. Others are convinced he was not born in Hawaii and is thus not eligible to be President. Some say Obama is the Antichrist of Biblical prophecy.
A September 2009 poll in New Jersey found that 14% of Republicans believed that President Obama was the Antichrist—Satan’s agent in the End Times according to one reading of the Bible’s Book of Revelation. Another 15% thought it might be possible.
The results across political allegiances, however, were also troubling; with 8% of respondents statewide saying they thought Obama was the Antichrist and 13% stating they “aren’t sure”. The poll also found that “21% of respondents, including 33% of Republicans, express the belief that Obama was not born in the United States”.
According to the pollster, these are “eye popping numbers” (“Extremism in New Jersey”, 2009). The mobilization of apocalyptic expectation among Christian Evangelicals in the United States has been shown to be an effective mobilization strategy by the Christian Right and allies in the Republican Party (Boyer, 1992; Fuller 1995). This is especially true among fundamentalists (Barron, 1992; Mason, 2002; Berlet, 2008). This millenarian mood is spread from religious into secular communities, often through conspiracy theories (Brasher, 2000).
Related articles
- ‘Obama the Antichrist’ and end-times doctrine | Sarah Posner (guardian.co.uk)
- How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Being the Antichrist? (slate.com)
- White House shooting suspect thought himself Jesus, Obama antichrist – Detroit Free Press (freep.com)
- White House gun suspect said to hate Obama [compared him to the Antichrist] (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
- Idaho man charged with trying to assassinate Obama (mercurynews.com)
- https://theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/crazy-for-god-religious-right-insider-exposes-evangelical-insanities-1-in-3-conservative-religious-nuts-truly-believe-obama-is-the-anti-christ/
- https://theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com/
The Age of Blasphemy 
One thought on “Obama, Assassination, and the Antichrist Conspiracy”