Occult Leanings

Occult Leaning

For the record, this post is not about Trump. It's about some of his more unhinged supporters. Specifically, it's about some end-times prophesying preacher named Tom Horn, whose website sells a lot of Bible and apocalypse paraphernalia and who appears to be conspiracy minded. He went on the Jim Bakker show yesterday to talk about the end of the world and the Time magazine cover (above).

Don't get me wrong, I love prophesy-filled fantasy. I read Tolkien and Piers Anthony and the Belgariad series by David Eddings as a teen. I love the Star Wars movies as well as The Lord of the Rings and I just watched the second episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones. What I'm trying to say is I love a good fantasy story, and it's really interesting to see how fantasy deals with prophecy.

But, let's be clear: all those writings by supposed seers, symbols to be deciphered, and strange characters uttering bizarre statements are literary devices, part of an author-engineered plot. It's a lot of fun, but it ain't real.

For a certain group of Christians, like Jim Bakker and Tom Horn, prophesies about the apocalypse are a particular obsession, and what is interesting is the way they weave conspiracy theory (Illuminati and New World Order) into their Christian mythology. Eschewing Mark 13:22 which says not even the angels or the Son knows when the the earth will pass away (I'm not sure how that works since the Son is supposed to be one with the Father, but I digress into the vagaries of the mystery of the Trinity...), these people scour the landscape for telltale signs from Yahweh that the end is near.

This week the symbol comes from the cover of Time (above), which to me looks like a symbol of the 45th president  destroying Washington and the mechanisms of government. But no, it is actually Trump (who is apparently "god's chaos candidate")  breaking an obelisk (symbol of the Illuminati). Horn says, "That was a very subtle and telling message about who this war is against. This is a battle against supernaturalism." Who was sending this message? The editors at Time? God working through the editors at Time?

For Horn, there has been "supernaturalism" "at work behind the scenes," that America has been "under the control of the occult" and that the founders (through Free Mason symols) prophesied "a coming global leader... that is going to lead the United States into a new world order."

Really, this whole mindset strikes me as bizarre from the idea that architectural choices are symbolic of purported prophesies to the notion that there is the occult has been operating anywhere at all much less behind the scenes of US politics to a choice of cover for a popular news magazine. And the whole scenario becomes laughably ridiculous when you consider that these are people who reject the theory of evolution because there's no way that natural selection could account for the diversity of life. But there's some occult that no one has ever seen or experienced that can be inferred from bas-reliefs and monuments chosen to symbolize American democracy?

Clearly, as an atheist, I don't buy into all the end times blathering. Sure, one day humans as a species will cease and our world will have an end, but as far as I can tell, it will all be due to things that happen in the natural realm, not the supernatural. As far as I can tell, there is no supernatural realm with cosmic wars being waged against the forces of the occult. And if you want to convince me, I need something more than because some guy read a Bible verse and then saw the cover of a magazine. Anyway, they all can't seem to agree on when the worldis/was supposed to end, and if you listen to several people, their interpretations all diverge.

Granted, Jim Bakker's show is pretty much just one big argument from assertion. He said last fall that "having one God is a hatecrime in America." What now?!? He also said that the world is "comingapart," so why don't you buy his food for the end times?? (If the world is ending, why on earth would you need food?)

All of this would be amusing if these people didn't have a platform to sway others. If these people were really preaching Christian love and forgiveness and self-improvement, you wouldn't hear a peep out of me. And Tom Horn, like Michele Bachmann, sees Trump as being ordained to do god's work.

I get that Trump has pandered to them and allowed himself to be prayed over by a group of preachers. I get that he has talked about putting minorities back in their place, killing the evil Muslims, making sure we have laws that allow the bigots to discriminate against groups like LGBTQ and Muslims under the guise of religious freedom, and of course stigmatizing or even abolishing abortion. I get all that.

But when I see Trump speak, like he did at the Boy Scout Jamboree, I don't see anything that ressembles a Christian. I see boasting. I see kicking his opponents. I see telling inappropriate stories. Sure, there were some perfunctory words about Boy Scouts, but overall the speech was another cringe-worthy product by this president. Oh, but I guess we can all say Merry Christmas again. Surely, the world is a much fairer place now.

(Via RightWingWatch)