Millenialism, Childhood Trauma and Barack Obama: The Sad Case of Molly Kagan
It's been a trend among some local newspapers to offer their readers the opportunity to create blogs attached to the papers' websites for some time now. Doing so probably garners these bloggers a larger number of local readers than they'd otherwise get. The Tallahassee Democrat offers such "reader blogs," one of which belongs to Molly Kagan. There are two things that can be safely said about Kagan; she hates Barack Obama and she loves Jesus. OK, three things. She's obsessive and paranoid about both, and this is pointed out particularly well in her most recent blog article. In it, she reveals that the Gospel of Matthew is trying to warn us not to vote for Obama whom, she says, "will play a major part in prophecy" — and not a good one.
Obama and Biblical ProphecyIn my more than seven years of experience with blogging, I've found that it's a good rule of thumb that anything that starts off with a Bible quote in red font is followed by a torrent of crazy. Molly, for her part, reveals to us the origin of her disorder. She was traumatized in a church, with the consent of her parents, no doubt, by a film designed precisely to frighten the credulous little children. She's like a casebook example for those who maintain that religion is child abuse. I don't think that's a necessary connection, but what was done to Molly Kagan certainly qualifies. It's sad to see someone later in their lives who was subjected to such abuse as a child and is now manifesting the kind of paranoia that follows in what she's written about a Senator from Illinois.For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. MT. 24:24I was raised in church and I remember seeing a movie when I was little about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It scared the hell out of me. People woke up and their husbands, wives and kids were gone. People driving were suddenly gone and cars crashed. Many people remaining knew what had happened and some ran to church. Jesus Christ had returned for believers.
What does that mean? It means that you have repented to God and admitted that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus is the son of God and he died for your sins, and that you confess your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord.Ah, Millennialism, that reeking pile of mental degeneracy that leaves its believers waiting for the cosmic hitman to come and start the beheadings. Can you imagine taking a little girl to see a film in which others were tortured and beheaded for not believing the right things? If I were to take my four year old niece to the kind of gory zombie movies that I enjoy on occasion, if I were to expose her to such blood and violence, people would rightly think that there was something wrong with me. They'd likely call me a child abuser and they would be correct in saying so. But apparently if I show her movies about the return of one particular living dead individual that results in death and dismemberment, it's excused as "religious education." This is sick and depraved stuff without question. This is emotional abuse, and the fact that a movie is shown in a church shouldn't exempt it from the same standards that would apply if it were shown in a theater. Both are public places, and small children shouldn't be exposed to this kind of violence in either place. Kagan's paranoia is testimony to the emotional impact and damage that results from such exposure.
Sounds easy, huh? Well, in the movie their were a lot of people who had not done that and they were left to suffer quite a bit. They had to hide their faith and some were beheaded, etc. In today's world it is the same. The gospel has been told to many people who have turned their back on the Lord. No one knows exactly what will happen to the non-believers, but those of us who believe know the end is near.
Obama falls right into Jesus' plan for his return. Everything he says is subject to his whim, or polls, or his advisors. He was the most liberal Senator prior to his Presidential candidacy. Now, he has become more of a moderate. His wife is being given advice to soften and be less vocal. They are both deceptive and it is very obvious that although Mr. Obama is not the anti-christ, he will play a major part in prophecy. He is the epitome of the aforementioned bible verse.Wait... I thought True Believers wanted Jesus to return. Kagan now seems to be worried that he'll show back up if Obama is elected. This strange sort of ambivalence is typical of people who have suffered childhood trauma. It's a psychic dissonance that crops up time and time again. These people have been scared shitless by their own religion all their lives and they don't understand that the condition exists because it's all they've ever known. As human beings, they're frightened of the ramifications of their own faith — as well they should be if they aren't complete sociopaths. The Christian Tribulation is a terrible thing, a holocaust of the greatest scale.
If Molly Kagan truly believed that the return of Jesus was something desirable, and that the election of Barack Obama would hasten that Second Coming, she would logically be Obama's biggest fan. A vote for Obama would effectively be a vote for Christ. As it stands, she sees the return of the Nazarene as a reason not to vote for Obama.
There are a good many reasons for which one might be concerned about an Obama presidency, but reading him into a text written nearly 2,000 years ago is not one of them. Seeing a modern individual in such a text is a kind of paranoia. The astounding bound beyond the confines of rational thinking required to arrive at such a conclusion defy the definition of a sound mind. Whoever wrote Matthew doesn't demonstrate any knowledge of there even being a continent that we now call North America or a country called the United States let alone that there would someday be a Senator from a state called Illinois who would run for president of that country. The Bible is replete with overt lists of nations of which the authors of its various books were aware, so the assumption that one of them would cloak the identity of some other nation to whom he was giving advice (which is precisely what Kagan is saying) has no basis in precedent and can be seen as nothing better than wishful thinking. Matthew 24:24 could equally be applied to John McCain, Robert Mugabe or Larry Craig as it could be to Barack Obama. It could be applied, in fact, to almost any politician from any period in the history of any tribe, city or nation. Politicians have always been deceptive to an extent, particularly in times and places where they relied on the good will of citizens to hold office. Politicians who require the ballots of the people — whatever people we might care to name — spend a certain amount of their energy on telling the voters what they think will appeal to the greatest possible majority. Kagan goes into her Bible-fueled, fear-saturated rant already thinking that Jehovah has picked a candidate (who just happens to be the one whom Kagan herself supports), so she applies the verse she's selected a posteriori to the one she doesn't like in order to connect with other True Believers on an emotional basis, to inspire fear of punishment. Essentially, Elohim are watching over your shoulder in the voting booth and will hold you accountable if you don't vote for the person whom Kagan says the God says to vote for. God the wrathful busybody is speaking to you through a blogger in Tallahassee, and you'd better listen up or you'll wind up beheaded while the righteous and prophetic Molly Kagan smiles down on the bloody scene from her vantage point in the clouds.
Does it get much loonier than this?
Please think about your vote. Think about Obama's constantly changing words. Think about what will become of our beloved nation. Repent and be ready.Gee, it's a good thing that we have Molly to remind us to think about our votes. We would have forgotten to do that without her scary, scary reminder of religious violence and the end of the world and how the streets will someday run red with the blood of the infidels. I hadn't taken into account that I might have my head lopped off if I didn't cast my ballot for John McCain in November. Let me think about that for a moment...
Hmmmm.
Nope, I don't see it as a valid reason to vote for dogcatcher, let alone president. It still seems like a bunch of crazy nonsense cooked up in a roiling kettle of mental injury. She further reinforces her own outcome of childhood trauma with an appeal to another gibbering paranoiac; Kagan links to an even crazier article written by Michael Bresciani which, amongst the many bizarre contentions made, includes this following gem:
In thirty five years of teaching the Bible tenants of the second coming of Christ (eschatology) I have heard the question 'do you think he could be the Antichrist' asked thousands of times about dozens of people. Now I see the question being asked about Sen. Obama on blogs and websites and in fellowship halls more than any other name to date.Sound familiar?
I don't believe that he is the Antichrist because according to scripture the Antichrist comes from and rules over Europe. But since the false prophet who aids the Antichrist comes from a completely different nation I am watching Obama's meteoric rise with that fact in mind.
We who love America and its constitution and original purpose are disgusted beyond measure with what is happening to our nation. We who love God and trust his word are seeing prophecy unrolling right before our eyes. It doesn't make it any easier to swallow but we are always thankful that warnings were part of Gods grace to us so we wouldn't be easily deceived or overcome. Christ comforted those who were to see the ugliness of the last days bring the world to its knees with a saying that calls the big cry for change for the sake of change what it really is; a cunningly attractive deception.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. MT. 24:24
This Millennialism or eschatology or whatever other names it may go by is a pernicious influence upon both our politics and our culture, to put it gently. It seeks to make what would otherwise be a very good reason for treatment with lithium and thorazine the basis for legal and political decisions. I hope there will come a day when children are no longer traumatized with the sort of horrific imagery that has resulted in this emotional disorder, resulting in adults like Kagan and Bresciani injecting their madness into the political process. As it stands now, it seems that America is saddled with far too many of these nuts. In the days before the internet and cable television, they would have largely existed as isolated individuals walking up and down the street screaming "The end is nigh!" as passersby rolled their eyes and sought to avoid them. Thanks to the vast worldwide network, they can find one another now. They can support each other's paranoia and take on an undeserved air of legitimacy that helps their numbers to snowball. They would have been given treatment, and treatment they need far more than newspaper-sponsored blogs.
