The day after writing my initial article on the subject, even more idolatrous statements have been made about Obama as a biblical hero and even the Messiah. Steve Watson reports on this trend,
Celebrities, including Jay-Z, Smokey Robinson, Don King, Denzel Washington, and Oprah Winfrey, spoke in the hours before the inauguration just a few feet from the rostrum where Obama was sworn-in as the nation’s 44th president, CNS News reports.
They spoke about how Obama had changed their lives and which Biblical character they think he most resembles, the report states.
“I would say that he would be Joshua going across to the Promised Land,” Boxing promoter Don King said. “Martin Luther King Jr. went to the mountaintop like Moses, and he said, ‘I might not get there with you, but I can see the Promised Land.’ But we gonna’ get to the Promised Land. So Joshua carried them across. Martin Luther King, Jr. was prevented from going into the Promised Land.”
R&B singer Smokey Robinson described Obama as a “world leader” and said that “There are so many Biblical figures who had the same task,” as the new president. [...]
Lennis Washington, the mother of actor Denzel Washington described Obama as being like any of the biblical leaders. “The apostle Paul, Moses, John the Baptist – any one of them. Seriously, he is like one of those apostles for our day. He came to lead us to the original design of what we are supposed to do on this earth.” she said. [...]
The image of Obama as Messiah is being pushed evermore by the corporate media. The London Telegraph reports that a vast amount of pictures taken over the past few days and weeks have shown the new president and his wife with a light source behind him so that light is thrown around his head like a halo. “Obviously this plays well for the image of Obama the messiah and it can result in some stunning pictures.” the newspaper comments.
Meanwhile, headlines around the world declare “America has its messiah“, “Obama offers hope to an ailing world“, “The savior America needs?” etc etc.
ORIGINAL REPORT CONTINUES BELOW:
Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
January 20, 2009
It just doesn't stop. Just yesterday, I posted a lengthy report on the American Civic Religion. And now, on inauguration day, the worship service has begun, and there's so much to cover.
The latest outrage is that Obama is again being compared to Moses, leading America through the wilderness. This quotation by Ed Koch invents another American equivalent to the biblical story, making the American story a counterfeit copy of the Bible. It is disgusting to see sacred history usurped by a human kingdom, a worldly government. Here's Koch:
"We have chosen our leader to lead us across the desert and now we must help him with our political support and for those who believe in the Almighty, our prayers as well and for those who don't, their good wishes."We have chosen? Think again. The same elite are behind both parties, and therefore we have no real choice.
Our leader? If that isn't reminiscent of the fuhrer, I don't know what is. (Fuhrer actually means "leader.") Even the headline at MSNBC states that a new "leader" has been inaugurated, not a new "president."
And Koch is not the first to make this comparison. Bishops like Cornal Garnett Henning are calling Obama the new “Moses” while his supporters refer to him as “the black Jesus”.
Bumper stickers with Obama's head with a halo are being put on peoples' cars. Hey, America! The campaign is over! You don't need to promote Obama anymore! Well, this is the new America, where we glorify our leaders.
Louis Farrakhan is even calling Obama the Messiah, albeit in a somewhat veiled fashion. He says Obama speaks and the youth listen. Then he says "when the Messiah speaks, the youth listen." Not that veiled; I know.
This is the civic religion taken to the next level, where the "leader" is being deified and compared to the heroes of the biblical narrative, and even to Christ, himself. For all the excesses of the religious right (of which I've been the harshest of critics), the left is dwarfing anything that the right came up with on the matter of the religion of the state. As Butler Shafer points out, "As goofy as the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell often revealed themselves to be, a president transformed into a pharaoh is a far more troubling phenomenon in American politics."
The religious right were and are dangerous, but this Obamamania is down-right scary.
No doubt, Obama is going to dupe a lot of Christians. In his inauguration, he quoted Scripture, and referred to the national service agenda as God's "calling" upon Americans. Oh how it turns my stomach to hear the rulers of this world hi-jack the holy words of Scripture and the sense of servitude to God, not to the state.
Then he idolatrously referred to the American "charter [that has been] expanded by the blood of generations," as that which "lights the world." The civic religion could not be more potent and more of a counterfiet of biblical Christianity. Not the blood of Jesus, but the blood of American soldiers; not Jesus as the light of the world, but the "American charter" as the light of the world. As a Christian, I can barely handle this.
I guess there's one item of good news on inauguration day. The more hope that people put in this man, the greater the disappointment will be, which will lead to a serious re-thinking of peoples' priorities. As Manuel Laura points out, "once the god-president fails, the disillusionment will be deliciously widespread." Then true political change will come, as Americans call for a return to the Constitution. But more importantly, people will have a spiritual crisis, as their god, the state, fails them, at which time they will turn to Jesus Christ and his Kingdom. The American Civil Religion might give way to the advancement of the one true Gospel.
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