POC Blog

The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan

Enlightened Obama OR How to freak out PreMillennials

The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article about the effect of Obama on certain people.  Now those of you know this is not, and will never be a political blog. I encourage people to vote and vote their conscience knowing that there will never be a candidate that perfectly aligns to all of one's political, moral, intellectual or philosophical convictions.  So when November rolls around, vote for the candidate of your own choosing. 

Yet sometimes in the political posturing, commentary and banter some interesting things are said "out there" - On Friday, there was just such a strange article on the San Fran newspaper's web site.  Here is an excerpt from Is Obama an enlightened being? Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain't no ordinary politician. You buying it?

Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul. 

That quote will make premil anti-Christ hunters out there a bit freaked out and will make some political hacks want to puke.  To me it smacks of new age silliness and is another line in the long record of human beings putting their trust in human princes, rather than in our creator.  Kingmakers will soon abound...pundits will urge you to put your hope in McCain or Obama.  It seems everyone will want to be Hillary's very best friend.  Well maybe some will never desire to be bff with Mrs. Clinton.

Yet I am reminded today of the truth of Psalm 146 in light of such outlandish comments about a mere man.

146:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Yes, do vote.  For Obama or McCain or write in Ron Paul or Hillary if it so suits your conscience. Yet do not trust in new political regimes to fix your own heart or redeem the world in the end.  This job belongs to another - and he will come on his own terms, not on the whims of a fickle, self serving electorate.

(HT - Uncommon Descent)