[Promoted by DHinMI]

SoonerG already has a good diary that points out aptly and astutely that John McCain's latest web attack ad is really a not too subtle code to the Christian Right Wing that Barack Obama is the literal Anti-Christ as foretold in the Book of Revelations and popularized in "non-fiction" books like "The Late Great Planet Earth" and Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" novels.

Well, as if we needed confirmation that this is the violent, dangerous meme the McCain is attempting to spread, WorldNetDaily has published a screed by Hal Lindsey, entitled "How Obama Prepped World for Anti-Christ".

Who is Hal Lindsey? In right-wing Christian Evangelical and Dominionist Circles Hal Lindsey is a Big Deal. In the late Seventies Lindsey helped popularize the modern, Fundamentalist Christian interpretation of the Book of Revelations and the Apocalypse with his book "The Late Great Planet Earth". This is the grand-daddy of the violent, homophobic, racist apocalyptic fiction of Lim LaHaye's "Left Behind" books and scores of other works attempting to interpret The Book of Revelations for our times.

Hal Lindsey is largely responsible for the modern Fundamentalist Christian view of the Anti-Christ as a world leader who can unite the world and bring a temporary peace before the End of the World. The very same imagery and sophistry that McCain's The One ad plays up.

So I sincerely doubt it is mere coincidence that the same day McCain's Campaign puts out an ad with images of Barack Obama as a messianic figure Hal Lindsey writes:

Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of the reception he can expect to receive. He will probably also stand in some European capital, addressing the people of the world and telling them that he is the one that they have been waiting for. And he can expect as wildly enthusiastic a greeting as Obama got in Berlin. The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist. And it seems apparent that the world is now ready to make his acquaintance.

The lifetime Agnostics and Atheists, even the sane Christians, among us may find it easy to write this off as pure silliness, but no one should be quick to dismiss this new line of smear attack. Why? Because what seems silly nonsense to the rational is deadly serious to the true believers and the un-balanced. Having grown up in the Evangelical Church I can tell you that the Dominionist view of the Book of Revelation is real. Real to them as surely as the laptop you are reading this diary on and means nothing short of the End of the World.

So put yourself in their heads, and ask what would you do to stop The End of the World?

The chill that just went up your spin is what makes the McCain Campaign's hamfisted attempt at smear something more than smear, something more than a attempt to rally his base. This is something incredibly dangerous. To compare Obama to the Anti-Christ, whether by implication as in McCain's Ad, or by direct accusation as with Lindsey's screed, is to invite violence against Barack Obama and incite every nutcase with a God Complex to take matters into his own hands.

Think it can't happen? Today the FBI released the name of a Doctor at Fort Dietrich, Bruce Ivins, who is possibly if not probably, responsible for the 2001 Anthrax attacks, who was both mentally unstable and a strict Catholic with Christian Dominionist predilections.

For the sake of decency McCain should pull his "One" Ad, and decline anymore attempts to prey on the End of Times delusions propagated by the Christian Fundamentalist movement. But, given McCain's current campaign, decency seems to be among the things found lacking.