Today in Sunday school we continued our discussion of church and state. Afterwards a church member came up and said that he saw a billboard while jogging that says “NObama” and the Bible reference Matthew 24:24. For those who may not immediately recognize it, the verse in question says:
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.
This really has to stop. Supporters of both of the major parties in the United States are demonizing one another. The irony of this can probably only be seen clearly by people who have lived elsewhere. In any European country, our Republicans and Democrats would be two highly similar parties in the vicinity of the center right and would make common cause to keep extremists on both sides out of power.
As a result of each depicting the other as stupid or as in cahoots with Lucifer, we have a polarization when in fact most Americans agree about far more than they disagree about. This is not to say that the difference do not matter, just that there is an irony about how difficult it has become to see how much we agree on (at least in theory), about other things that matter too. And when we demonizing half the country, simply because they disagree with “us”, we stop standing for liberty and justice for all.
This can only end badly. If Obama is elected and people who think they believe what the Bible says are persuaded that he is the antichrist, then there will be a growth in militia groups and presumably assassination attempts.
Those committed to Biblical values like justice and American values like liberty and justice for all need to speak out against the current mutual demonization that is likely to lead to far worse things than either an Obama or a McCain presidency.
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