Not the Messiah, not the Antichrist

During the long, loooong election process, I’m thankful that the spam filter on my e-mail box prevented me from getting most of the Internet rumors, gossips, slanders and other informational tidbits about the candidates. For example, I did not get — but I did hear about — the silly e-mail that circulated around inboxes claiming that now-President-elect Barack Obama is “the antichrist.”

In the aftermath of the election and the celebrations by Obama supporters, two columnists have warned people against going to the other extreme — hailing Obama as a savior or Messiah.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, in his column at his Windows & Doors page at BeliefNet, takes liberal-left religious folks  — particularly his co-columnists at The Washington Post’s On Faith blog on religion –  to task about their comments on Obama. Hirschfield says:

No rational person can claim that Barack Obama is the Messiah, literally God’s anointed. The fact that many religious leaders on the left, including my fellow panelist at the Newsweek Washington Post OnFaith project, Susan K. Smith, can even suggest that is pretty disturbing. How can she, or anyone else, assert that “God brought this nation to this day”?

Unless Rev. Smith and those like her, means that God brings us to every day and that they would make the same claims about a McCain victory, they are in very dangerous territory. It’s precisely the kind of talk that scared a lot of us when it came out of Sarah Palin’s mouth. If the only distinction between the religious left and the religious right is the political conclusions which they reach, and not the degree of humility with which they reach them, then a pox on both their houses!

Likewise, at Religion Dispatches, Edward J. Blum warns that setting the president-elect on a pedestal so high as to be near-divine, Obama’s enthusiasts are setting themselves up for a potentially nasty fall:

In many ways, Senator Obama has been transformed into a symbol. He has become a totem, representing hope, change, and even salvation. During my interview with NPR, one caller exulted as he referred to Obama as a “sublime mystery.” The caller was right. Mysteries can be wonderful. They can be exciting. They can be comforting. “The body and the blood” of Christ have led billions to feel connected to God and to other Christians; Our Lady of Guadalupe inspired (and continues to inspire) Christian faith for so many. The narrative of the deathless state of Guatama Buddha has led countless to seek enlightenment. I do not believe President-Elect Obama is a mystery, but I am certainly frightened by those who do and those who want a mystery to have control over the United States army and have access to nuclear weapons.

Obama’s election is indeed a historic moment. But, both columnists write, that moment is best followed by an era in which respect and the hard work of all Americans — and not only Obama and/or his followers — shoulder the tasks of democracy, and to remember that the message of the Obama campaign was not “Yes He Can,” but “Yes We Can.”