So Is Obama the Anti-Christ?

Wait, don't answer.

Amy Sullivan, a divinity school graduate herself and the most respected reporter I know on the relationship between religion and politics, says this in Time:

"It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it.

That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain's campaign did in an ad called "The One" that was recently released online. The Republican nominee's advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a "creative" and "humorous" way of poking fun at Obama's popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio, political blogs, and in widely-circulated email messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

The ad was the creation of Fred Davis, one of McCain's top media gurus, as well as a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and the nephew of conservative Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. It first caught the attention of Democrats familiar with the Left Behind series, a fictionalized account of the end time that debuted in the 1990s and has sold nearly 70 million books worldwide. "The language in there is so similar to the language in the Left Behind books," says Tony Campolo, a leading progressive evangelical speaker and author. "

As a native of the Bible Belt, I am particularly outraged---though hardly surprised---that this kind of BS would be spewed by McCain & The Rovians. That's my new nickname for the seemingly shameless candidate and his slimeball handlers. Unfortunately, while the songs they are singing ain't pretty, they are clearly divisive at a very dangerous crossroads in the life of our nation.

John McCain should pay a bit of attention to wiser young heads in his party-- like Governor Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee--- who are making the case that the Republican Party must stand for something---and offer the American people a real choice again.

End of occasional rant.