With Obama’s recent re-election, the Obama “cult” of personality is bigger than ever. Obama even seems to be moving up from pop star status to a sort of religious icon.
Some recent examples:
Obama Crucified
Artist Michael D’Antuono’s painting “Truth” depicts Obama wearing a crown of thorns, arms outstretched as if he were hanging on a cross. The painting is currently on display at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Boston. [ref]
According to D’Antuono, “The crucifixion of the president was meant metaphorically. My intent was not to compare him to Jesus.”That is a funny statement. A metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them” [ref] If D’Antuono didn’t intend to compare Obama to Jesus, then he shouldn’t have created his crucified Obama painting.
During the 2012 Soul Train Awards show, actor Jamie Foxx told the audience to “First of all, give an honor to God and our Lord and Savior Barack Obama”. [ref] Foxx later tried to dismiss his words by saying he was joking, but there was no humor in what he said. Judge for yourself:
Barbara Thompson recently published a book titled “The Gospel According to Apostle Barack”. The book description as found on Amazon describes why Thompson wrote the book. Here is an excerpt from it:
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I felt God’s (His) Spirit beckoning me in my dreams at night. Listening, cautiously, I learned that Jesus walked the earth to create a more civilized society, Martin (Luther King) walked the earth to create a more justified society, but, Apostle Barack, the name he was called in my dreams, would walk the earth to create a more equalized society, for the middle class and working poor. Apostle Barack, the next young leader with a new cause, had been taken to the mountaintop and allowed to see over the other side. He had the answers to unlock the kingdom of “heaven here on earth” for his followers. [ref]
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Here is a disturbing video montage of people adoring and worshipping Obama:
The examples cited above are primarily of a religious nature. But worship isn’t restricted to just religion. Here is the definition of worship from Dictionary.com, my emphasis added:
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1. reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.
2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning. 3. adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success. 4. the object of adoring reverence or regard. 5. ( initial capital letter ) British . a title of honor used in addressing or mentioning certain magistrates and others of high rank or station (usually preceded by Your, His, or Her). [ref] |
We’ve witnessed reverent honor and adoring homage being paid to Obama in many unusual forms: Books, paintings and pundits comparing him to Jesus Christ or Biblical prophets. Formal gatherings where he is called upon and praised as if he were deity [ref, ref]. Multiple instances of schoolchildren singing praises to Obama [ref, ref, ref, ref]. The examples I’ve given are just the tip of iceberg.
What’s the Big Deal?
I personally find all displays of adoration for a human being to be absolutely deplorable. Watching people scream, faint and swoon for rock or movie stars disgusts me. But it’s a free country. People can believe what they want. They can worship who they choose.
Doubtless there have been people who have idolized previous United States presidents, although it hasn’t been nearly as widespread or to the scale that we see with Barack Obama. So what’s the big deal?
The President of the United States is a servant of the people. He is a man (or perhaps one day a woman) just like you and I, flawed and human, but with a great mantle of responsibility that is best carried out with humility. Unfortunately, rather than humbly lead our nation in a bipartisan way, Obama is an arrogant leader who seeks to divide, and the result on one side is fanaticism and blind loyalty towards him. He appears to relish and advance this iconic status, rather than discourage it, as a truly humble servant of the people would do. I believe that he actually sees himself as a sort of Savior of certain classes of people, just as other historical figures before him have also seen themselves: Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, to name a few.
Before you start screaming at me for comparing Obama to three of the most evil men the world has ever known, let me say that I know Obama isn’t completely like them. I also believe he will never be fully like them, because of Constitutional checks and balances that stand in his way. Nevertheless, there are many similarities. Economic crises and vast promises of hope and change. The desire to centralize power. An orchestrated and overblown cult of personality. Names and images everywhere. Songs written about them for the indoctrination of children. Fanaticism of adults. That is how they all began. That is the danger, and for everyone’s sake, I pray that it goes no further than it already has with Obama.