John McCain, who as the Republican candidate for president has spent the past two months trying to consolidate right-wing support, has a problem of disputed dimensions with a vital component of the conservative coalition: evangelicals. The biggest question is whether Mike Huckabee is part of the problem or the solution for McCain.
Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as "God's candidate" for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.
. . .
One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.
John McCain, who as the Republican candidate for president has spent the past two months trying to consolidate right-wing support, has a problem of disputed dimensions with a vital component of the conservative coalition: evangelicals. The biggest question is whether Mike Huckabee is part of the problem or the solution for McCain.
Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as "God's candidate" for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.
. . .
One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.
Several outlets have noticed this (like HuffPo), but it hasn't hit the networks yet. They're probably waiting to see if he dodges again (this stupid game-show method of releasing deserves a swift kick in the ass).
I miss it when that word meant bringer of good news and not fanatics who say everyone else is wrong and will send the world to the pit to themselves right
Man Effexor was a hellish drug. It's been linked to a rash of teen suicides, and having taken it for a little while, I can completely understand why.
My wife's been on worse (Dear Paxil, fuck you, XOXO) but Effexor wasn't exactly a bed of roses.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
John McCain, who as the Republican candidate for president has spent the past two months trying to consolidate right-wing support, has a problem of disputed dimensions with a vital component of the conservative coalition: evangelicals. The biggest question is whether Mike Huckabee is part of the problem or the solution for McCain.
Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as "God's candidate" for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee's course.
. . .
One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.
I like it. What does NRO take away from it? "He said he's qualified for president because of his middle name!"
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
I like it. What does NRO take away from it? "He said he's qualified for president because of his middle name!"
Err, correct me if I'm wrong, but what's BAD about a possibly hostile nation saying that he likes a presidential prospect?
I mean if it were Osama Bin Laden, I'd understand. But Iran is POTENTIALLY hostile. Not CURRENTLY hostile.
Whoa, I just read that plague article. I can believe evangelicals think Obama is a plague sent by God, sure. What I can't wrap my brain around is that they welcome being plagued. Didn't any of them read that story about Moses and the Pharaoh? What part of "plague" sounds positive in their minds?
Whoa, I just read that plague article. I can believe evangelicals think Obama is a plague sent by God, sure. What I can't wrap my brain around is that they welcome being plagued. Didn't any of them read that story about Moses and the Pharaoh? What part of "plague" sounds positive in their minds?
They believe it's a sign of the beginning of the end times which ends in the Rapture and the all that jazz. As such it's ultimately a good thing from their viewpoint.
Whoa, I just read that plague article. I can believe evangelicals think Obama is a plague sent by God, sure. What I can't wrap my brain around is that they welcome being plagued. Didn't any of them read that story about Moses and the Pharaoh? What part of "plague" sounds positive in their minds?
We're talking about a bunch of death cultists who want the Jews to control Israel because they think it will bring about the end of the world faster.
Whoa, I just read that plague article. I can believe evangelicals think Obama is a plague sent by God, sure. What I can't wrap my brain around is that they welcome being plagued. Didn't any of them read that story about Moses and the Pharaoh? What part of "plague" sounds positive in their minds?
The part that thinks crazy shit has to go down and the Chinese (the Chinese?) have to launch a massive assault on Israel to be nobly defended by the Americans and Israelis. Near the end of the battle Jesus comes down and kills everyone involved and then raptures all the fundies up to heaven. By comparison, being pro-plague seems sane.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Whoa, I just read that plague article. I can believe evangelicals think Obama is a plague sent by God, sure. What I can't wrap my brain around is that they welcome being plagued. Didn't any of them read that story about Moses and the Pharaoh? What part of "plague" sounds positive in their minds?
Beyond that, God wouldn't plague us unless he had a good reason, so we should welcome whatever lessons and experiences we're meant to take from miraculous hardships.
In Evengelical circles the Obama-plague-that-brings-apocalypse viewpoint is competing with McCain-will-start-religious-war-that-brings-apocalypse. So the election is really a proxy theological debate for really really dumb people
In Evengelical circles the Obama-plague-that-brings-apocalypse viewpoint is competing with McCain-will-start-religious-war-that-brings-apocalypse. So the election is really a proxy theological debate for really really dumb people
They should just steal "Change You Can Xerox" from Hillary. Seriously, if you're trying to crib the Change message from Obama, you're going to fucking lose.
Not to mention it's the fucking conservative party. The best thing they've got going in the name of change is Ron Paul.
Bob Barr, a former congressman from Georgia and a former Republican, today announced his candidacy for president as a Libertarian who would rein in federal spending and foreign wars.
"The government has run amok fiscally," he said at a press conference. Saying that during the first quarter of this year the private sector was losing millions of jobs while the federal government was "hiring with enthusiasm," Barr added, "As the American people see their standard of living falling, the standard of government keeps going up."
Expected to win the nomination of the Libertarian Party when it holds its convention in Denver over the Memorial Day weekend, Barr, 59, criticized Republican John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, for not being a true conservative.
"There's not a great deal of substance there in terms of a commitment to cutting the size of government," Barr said He said no one who had authored the McCain-Feingold campaign reforms that cap individual donations could call himself a conservative, "at least with a straight face."
Barr also lashed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying that if Iran threatens Israel's existence, the United States should "obliterate Iran." Calling the New York senator's statement "tremendously dire," Barr called the possibility of Iran possessing nuclear weapons "remote" and said he has seen "no evidence that indicates that is an imminent likelihood."
Saying both the Republican and Democratic Parties have "bought into a system of running a charity called the United States of America," Barr blasted programs that use public funds to educate the children of illegal immigrants and maintain foreign military bases "that have no more efficacy in the 21st century."
"The federal government needs to get away from the notion that simply because we have all this money in the Treasury -- or we can borrow more money -- that we can provide all these services," he said. "That is not responsible government."
Political commentators debated the impact of Barr's entry, with some arguing that, like Ralph Nader in 2000, who pulled votes away from Democrat Al Gore, Barr could pull enough votes away from Republican McCain in 2008 to give the Democrats the election.
Barr confirmed that he was asked by McCain supporters not to run for fear he would pull votes from the GOP, but he defended his decision by saying that "American voters deserve better than simply the lesser of two evils."
Barr confirmed that he was asked by McCain supporters not to run for fear he would pull votes from the GOP, but he defended his decision by saying that "American voters deserve better than simply the lesser of two evils."
I hate my state.
I'm ok with it.
And why is the Libertarian nomination going to this Bob guy instead of Ron Paul? Paul has been the front centre libertarian candidate for months, and is polling pretty high (for a libertarian). Why's Bob getting the nomination?
Barr confirmed that he was asked by McCain supporters not to run for fear he would pull votes from the GOP, but he defended his decision by saying that "American voters deserve better than simply the lesser of two evils."
I hate my state.
I'm ok with it.
And why is the Libertarian nomination going to this Bob guy instead of Ron Paul? Paul has been the front centre libertarian candidate for months, and is polling pretty high (for a libertarian). Why's Bob getting the nomination?
Because for whatever reason, Paul isn't leaving the Republican party.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
edited May 2008
Jane Harman, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Veep Is Right! (Thank Hardball for that one.)
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
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HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
edited May 2008
There's an interesting and strange op-ed in the New York Times Today:
BARACK OBAMA has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires. The resulting emotional intensity adds greatly to the more conventional strengths of the well-organized Obama campaign, and it has certainly sufficed to overcome the formidable initial advantages of Senator Hillary Clinton.
One danger of such charisma, however, is that it can evoke unrealistic hopes of what a candidate could actually accomplish in office regardless of his own personal abilities. Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.
This idea often goes hand in hand with the altogether more plausible argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa — indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent.
But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.
As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.
Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.
His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad†or “ridda,†usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,†but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).
With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)
It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.
For example, in Iran in 1994 the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy.
Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.
At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.
That an Obama presidency would cause such complications in our dealings with the Islamic world is not likely to be a major factor with American voters, and the implication is not that it should be. But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Senator Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims is the least realistic.
Edward N. Luttwak, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is the author of “Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace.â€
I don't really buy it. Isn't Obama's father the real apostate?
So, I'm guessing that whoever it is that made that video for Clinton hasn't been payed in a while.
Somebody noticed that the headline "Obama attacks Clinton's gas tax plan" is actually on top of an article about Troopergate. And if you look in the background of that shot in the video, there's one screen talking about Obama's plan to tax oil companies (the video says he doesn't have a plan) and the quote "Clinton aides admit it won't do much for you."
I don't really buy it. Isn't Obama's father the real apostate?
As I understand it, though I'm no expert, Obama's fine because his father abandoned him and thus the obligation to participate in his faith was abandoned. This is what I read upon further research anyway.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I don't know how the Muslim world will react to a Christian President with a half-Muslim background, but I'm confident it will be better than the way Muslim world will react to a Christian President who openly wants to nuke Iran.
HachfaceNot the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered Userregular
edited May 2008
My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Iran forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
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HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
edited May 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen I regret to inform you that I have been a sleeper agent all this time and am now accelerating my country's glorious plot to vaporize the infidels in light of your overwhelmingly stupid rhetoric.
Posts
In short, some evangelicals within the Republican Party think Obama is meant to be a plague on this nation which, while not quite an endorsement from God, at the very least indicates that his presidency is God's will.
Expect him to transform into a cloud of locusts immediately after his inauguration.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Not until at least May 15.
Several outlets have noticed this (like HuffPo), but it hasn't hit the networks yet. They're probably waiting to see if he dodges again (this stupid game-show method of releasing deserves a swift kick in the ass).
Games: Ad Astra Per Phalla | Choose Your Own Phalla
I'm sorry, but if he did that, that would be totally awesome.
<buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>
<reforms at the podium>
Obama, Hive-Lord of Krzzztsh: 'Did you see that? Did you see that? How's that for change? Unbelieveable, huh?'
Games: Ad Astra Per Phalla | Choose Your Own Phalla
Ok, not really.
Man Effexor was a hellish drug. It's been linked to a rash of teen suicides, and having taken it for a little while, I can completely understand why.
How am I supposed to feel?
I miss it when that word meant bringer of good news and not fanatics who say everyone else is wrong and will send the world to the pit to themselves right
My wife's been on worse (Dear Paxil, fuck you, XOXO) but Effexor wasn't exactly a bed of roses.
Are...
Are they openly admitting that it doesn't matter if it's a bad idea, so long as it's God's idea?
This can only lead to more bullshit.
I like it. What does NRO take away from it? "He said he's qualified for president because of his middle name!"
Err, correct me if I'm wrong, but what's BAD about a possibly hostile nation saying that he likes a presidential prospect?
I mean if it were Osama Bin Laden, I'd understand. But Iran is POTENTIALLY hostile. Not CURRENTLY hostile.
The part that thinks crazy shit has to go down and the Chinese (the Chinese?) have to launch a massive assault on Israel to be nobly defended by the Americans and Israelis. Near the end of the battle Jesus comes down and kills everyone involved and then raptures all the fundies up to heaven. By comparison, being pro-plague seems sane.
I'd welcome this.
Beyond that, God wouldn't plague us unless he had a good reason, so we should welcome whatever lessons and experiences we're meant to take from miraculous hardships.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I still want to see his wife's tax return. If it was good enough for Teresa, it's good enough for Cindy.
But trophy wife beer heiresses are off limits!
And why is the Libertarian nomination going to this Bob guy instead of Ron Paul? Paul has been the front centre libertarian candidate for months, and is polling pretty high (for a libertarian). Why's Bob getting the nomination?
Because for whatever reason, Paul isn't leaving the Republican party.
I don't really buy it. Isn't Obama's father the real apostate?
This is amazing. I wonder how long it will take her campaign to fix or get rid of that video?
As I understand it, though I'm no expert, Obama's fine because his father abandoned him and thus the obligation to participate in his faith was abandoned. This is what I read upon further research anyway.
totally
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
You should have sent me
to
Denveeeeeeeeeeer! :x pewpewpew
Also this ad is actually kind of good: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vn55ZdmBPJ4&feature=bz302
NNID: Hakkekage
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation