The fact that so many deem Barack Obama to be none other than the Messiah is deeply, deeply disturbing. A Google search will turn up pictures of Obama as a divine being. This mindset on the part of individuals who think of Obama in this way bespeaks a desperation that borders on being psychologically troubled. This is because the Messiah is not just another pretty face. Rather, the Messiah is someone who has none other than the very anointing of God. The Messiah is a measure of divinity in the form of humanity.
No one has pointed to anything that Obama has said or done that comes even close to warranting the reference to him as the Messiah—nothing that would justify attributing to Obama a measure of divinity.
Charisma, of which Obama has plenty, and divinity are not at all same. It is not even clear that having a measure of divinity entails having charisma. And we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a person can have charisma without being divine in any way whatsoever. Hitler had charisma.
In the other direction, we know that Moses, for instance, certainly had God’s anointing. Charisma, however, was not one of his strong points. Indeed, while Jesus, himself, is known to have had close disciples, there is no evidence at all that he was charismatic.
What is more, and most importantly, the mark of the Messiah is that such individual is a manifestly righteous person—not that she or his popular.
What I have just said about the idea of a Messiah is all rather obvious. And this is precisely what makes it so profoundly disturbing that people are referring to Obama as the Messiah.
Now, if people are in any way delusional in referring to Obama as the Messiah, then we have the problem of expectations that Obama simply cannot fulfill. For instance, the American dream is not going to become suddenly realized in the lives of millions upon millions of individuals, be they minorities or not. This is because the realization of that dream has much to do with folks persevering in the face adversity as opposed to having opportunities just handed to them. People who did not have the wherewithal to persevere before Obama are very unlikely to acquire that drive simply in virtue of his being America’s first black president.
Is black-on-black crime going to disappear should Obama become president? That seems highly unlikely. Indeed, what would that say about blacks? It simply cannot be supposed that blacks need Obama in order to start valuing one another.
People are delusional if they think that Obama is going to transform America. Like everyone else, I grasp the symbolic significance of Obama being the first black president of the United States. However, that symbolic significance does not transform into fundamental changes at the day-to-day level. It is delusional to think that the symbolic significance is, for example, going to change for the better the way in which people go to work or the conditions under which they work.
If, by contrast, people are not delusional, but are simply referring to Obama as the Messiah as a way of expressing their admiration for him and their appreciation of the symbolic significance he represents, we still have something that is most disconcerting, namely a most brazen display of irreverence for the many individuals who have great religious convictions.
Now, does all of this talk about Obama as the Messiah say anything about Barack Obama himself? I would suggest that it does. And here I am once again reminded of the words from the book The Color People which points out that what a person does not say can also tell us an awful lot about what individual that person is like.
If you were my dear friend who did many wonderful things on behalf of others, and they started referring to you as the Messiah: I would be very troubled if you did not find a gracious way to express your desire not to be referred to as the Messiah. This one can do even as one expresses one’s enormous appreciation for the intent behind the appellation.
Barack Obama claims that he is a committed Christian. It is unfathomable to me that a committed Christian can be comfortable with individuals referring to him as the Messiah. Why? Because Christianity is unequivocally clear that the one and only Messiah goes by the name Jesus; and, and according to the sacred texts of Christianity, Jesus has already laid claim to that divine reality. At this point, in time, there is no conceptual space in Christianity for any earthly human being to be the Messiah.
I understand that Obama has no control over the ways in which people refer to him. And no doubt he should ignore some of the names that he is called. But not the appellation: Messiah.
Given Obama’s intellectual abilities, he could certainly have found a way by now to indicate to the public that, as we now say, he is not comfortable with that appellation Messiah being used in connection with him.
Many think that there is something troubling about Barack Obama’s character. For some, it is his association with the Rev. Wright. For others, it is his association with Ayers. For still others, it is Obama’s association with ACORN.
Perhaps the most disturbing and revealing of all is the fact that he, one who claims to be a committed Christian, has shown himself to be way too comfortable with the label Messiah. Recently, Obama is reported to have made the following claim:
I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth
If this is the best that he can do to distance himself from the idea that he is the savior of the world, then he failed. In being comfortable with the label Messiah, Obama is toying with the goodwill of individuals. And that, alas, is a form of maliciousness that issues from his own volition—not Wright’s or Ayer’s—but Obama’s own volition.
History shows having there is nothing at all virtuous being have a Messiah complex. Obama will not be the exception to the rule. Nor is anything virtuous about those who embrace someone who has such a complex. Obama supporters who view him as something on the order of the Messiah will not be the exception to the rule.
