Anti-Christ: In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist has come to mean a person, image of a person, or other entity that is the embodiment of evil and utterly opposed to truth, while convincingly disguised as wholly good and a bringer of truth. (THANK YOU WIKIPEDIA)
Ah, the good ole Anti-Christ. A quite harrowing fellow as depicted in wonderful family films like the Omen Trilogy. For me, the most wonderful depictions of our devilish friend, who might come knocking on our door via any number of means (including a laser show that beams all across the world-yes, I did read this once), came through the celluloid pleasures of Christian film in the 70's. Let's see, "Thief in the Night" was the most popular, then we had, "The Beast," and a slew of fearful horror flicks that ended with a nice, warm family oriented invitation to accept a free ticket to avoid such horrors such as the inability to buy food, not being able to die even when you wanted, and my favorite, hellish torture.
Then there was the great happy feeling of Christian urban legend. This came in the form of some pretty creative stories. The one I recall most was some 78th party or so removed depiction of how one time some guy was preaching at church. He sensed evil in the sanctuary, rebuked it and told it to "get out in Jesus name." Then the 78th party or so removed character in this story heard the back door of the church closing, he turned around just to see a devil's tail sliding out the door. Whew. That's some scary shit.
As I walked through my childhood, I never really could square the Anti-Christ with reality. I thought I did, and I believed it, but it really just caused a bunch of confusion that I didn't understand at the time.
For instance, after my family abandoned me on a nice Saturday during an "unexpected" visit from Pastor J.D. Cooper, I was scared shitless into the conviction that I should walk the aisle the following day and accept Christ. I really don't know who initiated this "happenstance" visit, but I do have my ideas. I can't really remember anything Pastor Cooper said, but what registered in my mind was, "You are going to hell, get with the program and get saved." Pretty nice lesson for an 11 year old.
You see, I was late. All of my brothers had already accepted Jesus. Most of them during the ceremonial, southern baptist walk of the aisle where you can get "2 for 1" by joining the church and accepting Jesus at the same time. I remember the walk. I was included. But being the youngest, I had no idea what was going on. No one sent me the memo. Therefore, I just followed along. But I knew that something was wrong. I was different. Something that happened to everyone else did not happen to me. The entire environment of our home changed. My oldest brother enrolled at a baptist university in Oklahoma. My parents dumped the liquor cabinet down the sink. My brothers joined youth choir, and everyone went to church Sunday morning, evening, and sometimes Wednesday night (sidenote: I actually liked Wednesdays for a while. It was Royal Ambassadors night where we got to do cool things like bring our football card collections. And the guys who taught it weren't always teaching some canned script from the vatican, I mean the southern baptist quarterly).
Those crazy looking girls on "Laugh-In" were replaced by the Mott Sisters. Even at a young age I knew that Paula, the oldest of the Mott sisters was the hottest. Herb Alpert and Hank Thompson were joined by Evie.
My mortally-coiled soul was embroiled in a puzzle of sin at age 11. More importantly, I was not one of the club. And even more importantly, if other kids my age, pillars of faith like John Ellis, Danny Farmer and Scott Seyfert had already accepted Jesus, why hadn't I. And to take it one step further, little Timmy Suttle and Ben Wedge walked the aisle and accepted Jesus. THEY WERE ONLY 7. What was wrong with me for not accepting Jesus yet.
Pastor J.D. Cooper's vist to "discuss" my eternal future didn't register as an offer of Jesus's peace, love, and guiding light for life, but basically as a membership to a club that would save me from hell, and the furies of the Anti-Christ. Couple that incident with period films like, "Thief in Night," "The Omen, (which was much better than any of the Christian films), and just the fact that every night Walter Cronkite was showing us graphics of how many more bombs the Soviets had than the U.S.A., and one might understand why a 10 or 11 year old would want to avoid these situations if there is a way.
Top this wonderful dish with the feelings of exclusion and not fitting in, and one can see how accepting Christ might be a good move for a little sinner such as I.
Well, to make a long story short, I accepted Christ the next day. Everything changed. Not! I want to say that the decision to walk the aisle changed everything, and I have believed that it did for most of my life. But the reality is it didn't. NOTE: For those of you worried about my soul, please don't. You see, when I think of Jesus, I see nothing but peace and love. And, according to the southern baptists, once a person is saved they are always saved. Therefore, I should be alright in the end.
God is not a scary God. Selling fear and paranoia in the name of God is not holy. It is confusion. Today we still see the same things: Fear, paranoia, and the good ole attitude of "You better get ready, cuz the train is comin'".
I believe that we are witnessing one of the closest resemblences to the spirit of Anti-Christ as described in the bible, today. It is exhibited not in just one man, but a philosophy and ideology. I am not saying that this one person is the Anti-Christ incarnate. But, if one takes seriously the bible and these stories, the general description of the philosophy of Anti-Christ is arguably present in our western world.
Earlier today as I felt the fury of nature rip through middle-Tennessee in the form of tornadic storms, I read some e-mails from differing family members. These notes stemmed from an e-mail someone sent out that reported an incident in Texas where an outreach to Katrina victims, an offer for gainful appointment did not produce any results or response.
The responses to these e-mails were mixed, but mainly a "don't blame Bush," approach.
My thought response to this dialogue follows. Enjoy:
WHY I HAPPILY BLAME BUSH:
I’ll be the one to protect you from your enemies and all your demons I'll be the one to protect you from a will to survive and a voice of reason I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices son They're one in the same, I must isolate you…Isolate and save you from yourself … (Lyrics from "Lullabye" A Perfect Circle)
Personally, I will happily stand up and blame Bush, and every person who voted for him because, "He's a Christian," "He's a good man," and "He's a great leader" and "He has the country's best interests at heart" or any other reason that has turned out to be absolutely diametrically opposed to his actions while in office. Oh yeah, my favorite is "He represents conservative family values." And I can't resist: "He's fiscally responsible." One more: "He loves Jesus."
Here's why I blame Bush: He is the figurehead of an anti-Christ mentality that from day one has used ideology to push an agenda that is much deeper than any one person can enact. It has nothing to do with his personal decision making authority or about how the government works. From the bottom line of decision making (the voting booth) to the top (Bush himself), this administration has been riddled with insanity. It also doesn't have anything to do with him being, or not being "a good man." The aftermath of Katrina is just one small example of this administration's ineptitude.
To be fair, every administration since the inception of our Country has exhibited some sort of craziness. This administration has gone over the edge, representing not the people, but an ideology. Bush endeared himself to the minority of voters (which I still haven't figured out how a minority can elect the power in a democracy. But my new friends who live in Tehran have been shedding some light on the subject for me), by speaking direct and manipulated language to a specific belief system. He has linguistically attached meanings to words that push this agenda. Iraq=terrorism, Jesus=republican, democrat=unpatriotic, bring our troops home = unamerican, christian=patriot, muslim=terrorist, etc..., etc....
As a result, Bush (which I am using simply as a title for the white, republican evangelical thought complex) is able to do whatever the hell he wants with no accountability. And, any time the pressure gets a little high, he pulls out his famous trump card of 9/11.
I'm sick of people pointing out those who abuse the system, such as some displaced Katrina evacuees, as representative of everyone. OH, my God, only 1 person looked for a job in Austin. WERE YOU FREAKING THERE? And what if that is the case (that only 1 person showed up for a job fair). I mean what the hell are you saying?: "Oh, those hurricane victims are nothing but black, lazy ass democrats who support Ray Nagin!"????> I mean come on. WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SAYING BY POINTING THESE THINGS OUT?????
TELL ME! WHY IS IT SO DAMN IMPORTANT TO POINT THAT STUFF OUT?
And we wonder why there is divisiveness? It's because everybody that was impacted by Katrina isn't like that. And folks are tired of this extreme pigeonholing. That extreme pigeonholing is a classic example of this administration's TRACK RECORD. It is a classic example of how ideology survives only when there is a side to make WRONG. And when people are continued to be told they are on the side of wrong, knowing full well that they aren't, they will fight back.
I don't have anything against people who believe differently than me. But to say that because you believe differently from me, you are wrong and it should be pointed out as so, is ideological. And that is exactly why I blame Bush. Democracy does not survive on ideology.
Bush and his movement convinced people that he was one thing, while he is very much something else. If any one still holds a shred of belief that some of the bible stories are true, please think back to those stories in Revelation about the Anti-Christ. The end times come and lies are presented like the truth. Well, those stories are ringing a bit too familiar to me with the continued lies, manipulation and obvious actions of this administration. I am grown up now, and am beginning to recover from childhood domestication.
The whole Bush mentality is a quite valid dream that anyone on the earth has the right to live (unless you live in Nigeria). It doesn't mean it's right. And the cornerstone of the Bush mentality is that IT IS RIGHT. There is no flexibility, no room except to make an opposing view wrong. This is why people like myself speak out on this subject. Not to say that the Bush mentality doesn't have a place, or that a person isn't free to subscribe to it. But the issue with it is it's requirement to be right and everything else that doesn't square with it is wrong. That is not how the universe works. This type of ideology causes the wars of the world (Once again, if you would like to have a good example of this, I would be more than happy to connect you with my friends who live in Iran), disappointment, and the ultimate last action of great civilizations: bankruptcy (or financial failure).
Therefore, I blame Bush. When we were domesticated as children, we were shown films and told very scary stories about how in the end times there would be a "mark of the beast", and the anti-christ would come. I saw movies where people had to take a "666" just to purchase bread. Later, there were frantic fears about the UPC code being the mark. Well, I remember that weird, awkward feeling as a kid in Salina, Kansas. It was scary. And, the only time I have ever felt that feeling again, was over the past couple of years. I get that feeling everytime I see a black square on a car window that surrounds a big white "W" Thank You. Enjoy Life!
