"THE SMITH COLLEGE SOPHIAN" The student Press.

[golddigger]

"I WILL FOLLOW HIM": OBAMA AS MY PERSONAL JESUS
By Maggie Mertens
Issue date: 9/18/08 Section:Opinions

Obama is my homeboy. And I'm not saying that because he's black - I'm saying that in reference to those Urban outfitters t-shirts from a couple years ago that said, "Jesus is my homeboy." Yes, I just said it. Obama is my Jesus.

While you may be overtly religious and find this to be idol-worshiping, or may be overtly politically correct and just know that everything in that sentence could be found offensive, I'm afraid it's true anyway.

As with many spiritual enlightenments, mine came in the middle of a bleak, hopeless period of my life. The innocent, idealistic world of politics that had shaped my childhood, the one that taught me how the president is a good guy, one who makes you feel safe, gives a speech on TV every once in a while and one you'd feel honored to shake his hands with, had been slowly whittled into a deep rooted cynicism to anything politically related.

The crush of the Bush victory over Gore was only the first mar on my previously consummate ideal of the American administration. And the tragedies just kept continuing: Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, the tax cuts for the rich, the downward spiral continued squashing my scant hope that the political world and state of our country could me saved.

More at link: http://tinyurl.com/3f7rf2

[aikoaiko]

1. Scary shit: "Obama is my Jesus"

Followed by:
"I've officially been saved, and soon, whether they like it or not, the rest of the country will be too."

[LeftishBrit]

2. I have great respect for Obama and very much want him to win...

but no politician is Jesus.

[trof]

3. OK, but was Jesus a politician?

:shrug:

[LeftishBrit]

4. No. But the author of the article seems to confuse the two..

Mind you, there have been far more people who seemed to think Bush is Jesus or God or something.

And Blair sometimes seemed to think *he* was.

[trof]

6. Is she seeing Obama as a (her) 'savior'? Like Jesus?

Interesting take, anyway.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Jesus was the "politicians' politician", in that he read their hearts and souls

like a book, and knew exactly what they were up to. It's why he was crucified. His kingdom is not of this world, but they feared it was. End of story. Or rather, not end of story! Fortunately for us.

It's not so surprising that a young agnostic should be impressed by what Christians might call, a plausible "figure of Christ". The Church Father, Origen, referred to it as typology. To this young lady, on a deep level, Obama was a type of Christ. Of course, she doesn't understand the difference between "another Christ" of Christian typology (which, in some degree, all Christians should be), and the only Son of the Father. But she evidently sees a parallel in the hope and idealism Obama evidently inspired in her and that inspired by Christ in his followers.

Good luck to her! I expect some day she'll be a more than usually devout, formal Christian. May Obama always try to live up to the hopes and expectations of his many admirers, young an old. We, as formal Christians, while finding such talk odd, don't need to be defensive of Christ's prerogative as the Son of God. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Christ said was the unforgivable blasphemy - which is generally held to be a deliberate rejection of the truth, as the Gospel context in which the matter is discussed, indicates.

Of course, I may have completely misjudged her, and she's a bad lot. But I haven't read anything that persuaded me of it so far.