"antiChrist"

This is less a political statement as it is a spiritual one. However, I imagine the applications may be made in the realm of politics. You will decide and apply for yourselves, as you see fit.

President Obama claimed over the weekend that there are those in the opposing party who think of him as the "antiChrist." I found the term intriguing, especially given the current amount of divisiveness that we are experiencing this season. I thought the term might be an interesting one to examine. What is this "antiChrist?" From whence does the concept come, and how is it to be applied?

The concept of antiChrist comes from the world of apocalyptic literature. Not exclusively biblical in nature, apocalyptic literature promises that the world as we know it will, at some point, be destroyed and a new world, as an improvement to the one that was destroyed, would arise in its place. In biblical apocalyptic, which comprises much of the intertestamental period, between 300 bce and 70 ce, apocalyptic is the realm of an agent, called "Messiah." This Messiah was to usher in an age of ideal human existence, through the process of refinement and purification, where the dross is removed and the valuable fruitfulness of humanity is freed from its base confines.

The agent of apocalyptic destroys what is evil in order to allow the good of humanity to express itself, freely and without opposition. But there is opposition to the world of Messiah. There are those who benefit so greatly from the unjust and inequitable arrangement of the world that they oppose the purification process. They do not want change because they have benefited greatly from present configurations of power and privilege.

In the Christian world, we refer to the agent of apocalyptic with the title, "Christ." The apocalyptic transpires through him and by the actions of those who follow his lead in destroying the injustice, prejudice, greed and hatred of the present age. Those who cling to the systems of advantage, and who work to support those systems, we may then term "antiChrist." These persons wish to retain the evil of the present configuration in order to protect themselves and their interests.

The work of our apocalyptic agent, "Christ," can be defined as the ethical archetype of Crucifixion and Resurrection, where followers seek to embody sacrifice of self in order that others may be exalted. They humble themselves in order to serve others. They work for justice. They strive for equality. They work, tirelessly, for the benefit of all humankind, sacrificing their own benefit in the process.

The antiChrist seeks to protect hegemony, privilege, power advantage, unequal and unfair distributions of goods, position and social bias. The antiChrist cares for himself. (Here I use the male pronoun intentionally, not because all antiChrist characters are male, but because they have enjoyed positions of privilege and power in the current configuration.) The antiChrist sacrifices nothing.

How do apply this short lesson on antiChrist? I leave that up to you. You are very bright. Let me just say that the definition does not apply exclusively to the world of politics or economics. It applies also to relationships, personal and interpersonal. It applies to the ethos that we create in communities, congregations, domestic policies and foreign ones. It is a universal of the human condition.

The bottom line here is obvious, I hope. Human beings can live together in a qualitative condition that reflects the apocalyptic of Christ. We can also live in the social, cultural, interpersonal condition of the antiChrist. It is entirely up to us.So, whether or not we think of President Obama as the antiChrist is irrelevant. It matters whether or not we see ourselves as working for Christ's apocalyptic. It is a matter of choice. What role will we embrace? What title do we embody?