America has long had an "end-times" subculture that seeks the Antichrist in every new American conflict. It was inevitable that some lowbrow demogogue from rightwing fantasyland would publish a book blaming a religious figure from Islam. Over at barthsnotes, Richard Bartholomew has been exposing the idiocy of one Joel Richardson, who has written a book called Antichrist, Islam's Awaited Messiah, which purports that Islam's Mahdi will be Christianity's antichrist.
Why waste time excoriating such obvious absurdities? Well, the most recent example of great political consequence from ignoring seemingly obvious absurdities was Sen. John Kerry's silence in response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. It will take a long time for the country to recover from that mistake.
Bartholomew has posted several times now (here,here, and here) in deconstructing the claims of Richardson and Walid Shoebat, his co-conspirator in demagoguery. Barth's latest post contextualizes Richardson into the long history of American enemy formation by identification with the Antichrist. He also posts images from other books published during prior American conflicts that declared Saddam Hussein and Mikhail Gorbachev(!) to be the Antichrist.
Barth references Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession a well-reviewed book by Robert Fuller that looks at the significance of the Antichrist libel in US political and social history. Publisher's Weekly writes of it:
While the word "antichrist"-the figure who ushers in the apocalypse of Christian end-time-appears but briefly in the Bible (1 and 2 John), the term has been all too frequently used throughout history by one group as a means of vilifying another group that appears to threaten the accusing group's worldview. Fuller, professor of religious studies at Bradley University, argues that naming the antichrist became a prevalent custom in the U.S. first because of the Puritans' apocalyptic tradition and subsequently because of feelings of vulnerability fanned by Native Americans and later by waves of immigrants who seemed to threaten the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. Fuller robustly explores the writings of those who at various and sundry times have railed against Catholics, Freemasons, and Jews (and even rock music and bar codes, for that matter) and seen them all as signs of the beast from the sea.
Another reviewer writes, "Given the growing political influence of conservative and fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. and the continued influence that naming the Antichrist has on their politics, this is an especially timely work."
Thanks to Richard Bartholomew for taking the time to deconstruct and destroy this libel and the reputation of the people giving voice to it.
