{"id":27033,"date":"2012-11-13T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=27033"},"modified":"2012-11-12T23:00:43","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T06:00:43","slug":"rod-dreher-apocalypticism-is-a-narcotic-among-millions-of-american-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2012\/11\/rod-dreher-apocalypticism-is-a-narcotic-among-millions-of-american-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Rod Dreher: “Apocalypticism is a narcotic among millions of American Christians”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On the Sunday before the presidential election, Texas megachurch pastor\u00a0Robert Jeffress used \u201cObama\u201d and \u201cAntichrist\u201d in the same sentence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I want you to hear me tonight, I am not saying that President Obama is the Antichrist, I am not saying that at all. One reason I know he\u2019s not the Antichrist is the Antichrist is going to have much higher poll numbers when he comes.\u00a0President Obama is not the Antichrist. But what I am saying is this: the course he is choosing to lead our nation is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which prompted this rather pointed response<\/a> from The American Conservative<\/em>\u2018s Rod Dreher:<\/p>\n

I am a conservative Christian who believes that Obama\u2019s re-election is on balance a bad thing for American Christians, for a number of reasons. I see no reason why a pastor shouldn\u2019t have given a sermon warning about the threats, as he saw them, of returning Obama to the White House. But invoking the Antichrist, and working the congregation up into thinking that this election was an apocalyptic choice (even if you non-credibly disavowed that this is what you were doing, e.g.,\u00a0I\u2019m not saying that Obama\u00a0is<\/strong>\u00a0the Antichrist, but\u2026<\/em>)? Come on.<\/p>\n

If I had been in that congregation and listened to that sermon, that would have been my signal to find another, more spiritually sober church. Apocalypticism is a narcotic among millions of American Christians, and it makes us drunk, ruining our political judgment and making us prone to say things in public that make ordinary people think Christians are crazy.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Come on, Church, be better than this. Again, I\u2019m a conservative Christian who believes in traditional eschatological views on the End of Days, and who believes that this is an important topic of study and serious discussion among Christians. Just to make that clear. But the wildly disproportionate interest that popular American Christianity has with the End Times not only makes us look stupid, it also makes us\u00a0actually stupid<\/em>, insofar as it corrupts our prudential judgment with emotional hysteria.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know, if Jeffress were a regular\u00a0Christ and Pop Culture<\/em> reader, he\u2019d have known that we settled the Obama\/Antichrist debate four years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher responds to a Texas megachurch pastors’ comments regarding Obama and the Antichrist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1484,15],"tags":[1602,121,1603],"class_list":["post-27033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ofthemoment","category-politics","tag-antichrist","tag-barack-obama","tag-rod-dreher"],"yoast_head":"\nRod Dreher: "Apocalypticism is a narcotic among millions of American Christians"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rod Dreher responds to a Texas megachurch pastors' comments regarding Obama and the Antichrist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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