President Obama...The Anti-Christ?

A week before the election, I overheard a conversation on the phone between my wife and her sister. Her sister lives in the southern part of the country, so we don't get to see her very often. Now I like my sister-in-law...she's a hard-working divorced mother of two who is doing her best to make ends meet. Unfortunately, most of the people who live in her area of the country are quite religious...indeed it would not be an exaggeration to say that the fundies are out and about most Sundays.

In any case, the gist of the conversation was that the reverend at my sister-in-law's church had told the congregation that a vote for Obama was a vote for the Anti-Christ. Apparently the entire sermon consisted of one dire warning after another of the calamities that would occur if this man were elected President. Indeed, when my wife told her sister that both of us were voting for Obama, my wife proceeded to get a 10 minute lecture on how we would pay for our decision in the afterlife.

Needless to say, my wife and I had quite a conversation after she hung up. It made us wonder how many people sitting in church that Sunday totally disagreed with what was said, and did nothing. How many of those folks talked at coffee after services and nodded in agreement with the reverend, with their neighbors, and were appalled by what was said that day...and said or did nothing.

Now before you say to yourself, "well how is that different then keeping quiet about being an atheist or and agnostic?", remember...these people were presumably there because they were believers. Was it the "Christian" thing to do to preach this drivel that Sunday? The thing that frightens me the most is maybe everyone in church that day agreed with what was said. I can only hope that there were a few in attendance that Sunday who were so angered at what they heard, it will goad them into action of some sort. Obviously, these people who believe Obama is the Anti-Christ are in the minority, but until this type of nonsense is ended, there's little hope that sanity and reason will be the hallmarks of this once great country for a long time to come. Hopefully this president will be the one to start us back on the path of enlightenment. I'm not optimistic.