False Sense of Maturity

I recently discovered RaptureReady.com - which proudly announces that it’s “your prophecy resource for the end times” - via this Newsweek article. Rapture Ready is the brainchild of Todd Strandberg, a man who is constantly on the lookout for signs that the world is ending. One of the hottest topics over on Rapture Ready is what impact Barack Obama will have in bringing the Rapture, and if he is indeed the Antichrist. Even the most circumstantial of evidence is considered:

Already Barack Obama had drawn the attention of apocalypse watchers after an anonymous e-mail circulated among conservative Christians in October implying that he was the Antichrist. Former “Saturday Night Live” ingénue Victoria Jackson fueled the fire when, according to news reports, she wrote on her Web site that Obama “bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ.” Now Strandberg was receiving up-to-the-minute news from his constituents in Illinois. One of the winning lottery numbers in the president-elect’s home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast (also known as the Antichrist). “It is very eerie, and I take it for a sign as to who he really is,” wrote one of Strandberg’s correspondents.

That’s some horrible logic. John Cusack is also from Illinois, so maybe he should be suspected of being the Antichrist. Even some Rapturists who don’t think Obama is the Antichrist respect the position that he could be:

Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University’s law school, says he does not believe Obama is the Antichrist, but he can see how others might. Obama’s own use of religious rhetoric belies his liberal positions on abortion and traditional marriage, Staver says, positions that “religious conservatives believe will threaten their freedom.” The people who believe Obama is the Antichrist are perhaps jumping to conclusions, but they’re not nuts: “They are expressing a concern and a fear that is widely shared,” Staver says.

No wonder Liberty University is consider a fourth tier institution by US News and World Report.

If you feel like visiting Rapture Ready, don’t miss the Rapture Index, where factors like drug abuse, liberalism, and volcanoes are used to calculate the chances that the Rapture is near. Or, if it’s your style, you can troll the forums. Of course, I would never advocate that.