From the Radford Files archives:

A recent poll by Harris interactive found that 14 percent of Americans suspect that President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. Nearly a quarter of Republicans, and 16 percent of Democrats, responded this way. Forty percent said they think Obama is a Socialist, and just under one-third believe he is Muslim.

If the statistics are valid, the number of people who believe that Obama is the Antichrist is alarming. For many people—especially religious fundamentalists— “the Antichrist” is not a metaphor. It’s not meant as a joke or hyperbole. They really, literally mean they believe that the President of the United States may either be evil incarnate (Satan), or the entity who fulfills Biblical prophecy as the adversary of Jesus Christ.

Yet a close reading of the Bible reveals an interesting discrepancy: According to Scripture, the Antichrist will try to deceive the public by claiming to work on God’s behalf. He will be a so-called wolf in sheep’s clothing, a duplicitious man of God pretending to do God’s work while instead furthering his own diabolical agenda.

President Obama has never implicitly nor explicitly claimed to God’s work. Though he has invoked God and religion on occasion, his presidency has been fairly secular. (Those people who believe that Obama is both a Muslim and the Antichrist have some mighty confused and contradictory theology.)

George W. Bush, on the other hand, repeatedly invoked God during his presidency. He was quoted in The Faith of George W. Bush as saying “I’ve heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for President.” Bush also said, “The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. This confrontation is willed by God who wants this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a new age begins,” and that “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.”

Of course George W. Bush is no more the Antichrist than Barack Obama is. Yet if what the Bible says about the Antichrist is true, Bush is a far more likely candidate than Obama. For the majority of Americans who are pretty sure that President Obama is neither a Muslim nor the Antichrist, it’s easy to mock such outlandish beliefs. But beliefs have consequences; in early April, nine self-proclaimed paramilitary “Christian warriors” were arrested in Michigan. They had been preparing for a battle with the government—and, ultimately, perhaps the Antichrist.

This piece originally appeared in the Briefs Briefs column in the June 2010 Skeptical Briefs newsletter.

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