The Religious Right’s Apocalyptic Visions of an Obama Presidency  

As the election nears its final days, the fevered imaginations at Focus on the Family Action—the political action arm of Dr. James Dobson’s multi-million dollar media ministry—are working overtime to demonize Senator Barack Obama. Posted on October 22, a “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America” plumbs the depths of the religious right’s worst collective nightmare.

“Reporting” back after four years of an Obama presidency which has allowed “Liberals [to] … dominate the government in a way they haven’t in decades,” this portrait of liberal bogeymen gone Lord of the Flies is, for conservative Christian evangelicals, a bleak one:

“Far-left liberals could hold a 6-3 majority on the US Supreme Court.

“The nation’s highest court could rule same-sex ‘marriage’ is a constitutional right—in all 50 states.

“Preaching from the Bible could be banned from radio and television.

“States may not be able to restrict abortion, and taxpayers could be forced to fund abortions.

“In several states, it could be illegal to own a gun.”

“Proof” that these events could happen is contained in the 15-page letter from an anonymous author known only as “a Christian from 2012.”    

In its introductory note to the “Letter,” Focus on the Family Action points out that “the most reliable way of predicting people’s future actions is by looking at their past actions,” concluding: “So here is a picture of the changes that are likely or at least very possible if Senator Barack Obama is elected and the far-left segments of the Democratic Party gain control of the White House, the Congress, and perhaps then the Supreme Court.”  

While FFA is savvy enough to call it a “‘What if?’ exercise,” the organization does warn that the “Letter” is not merely “empty speculation,” noting that “every future ‘event’ described here is based on established legal and political trends that can already be abundantly documented and that only need a ‘tipping point’ such as the election of Senator Obama and a Democratic House and Senate to begin to put them into place.” This caveat doesn’t appear to account for the letter’s ruminations about the situation in Iraq, terrorist bombings in the homeland, or Russia’s renewed militancy.

“Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America” builds, to a great extent, on the author’s own predictions as to whom President Obama will appoint to the Supreme Court. Here is the abridged version:

One month after he spoke “eloquently” at his inauguration, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens “announced they would step down” and President Obama replaced them with “two far-left, American Civil Liberties Union-oriented judges,” who were confirmed quickly by the Democratic Senate. In June, Justice Kennedy, having “grown weary of the unrelenting responsibility” of being the swing vote on the Court, resigned. Obama replaced him with another “young liberal.”

Two months later, a “tipping point”; Justice Antonin Scalia “unexpectedly announced his resignation due to health reasons, and by October 2009 another Obama left-wing appointment took his oath and joined the Court.”

Now, with complete control of the Supreme Court, all heck broke loose for conservative Christians: In early 2010, the Court rules “that homosexual marriage was a ‘constitutional’ right”; the Boy Scouts “no longer exist as an organization,” choosing to disband rather “than be forced to obey the …  Court’s decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys”; elementary schools “now include compulsory training in varieties of gender identity in Grade 1, including the goodness of homosexuality as one possible personal choice”; Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant adoption agencies in the United States close down rather than adhere to a Court ruling forcing “these agencies … to place children with homosexual couples or lose their licenses.”

Companies doing business on the local, state or national level “now have to provide documentation of equal benefits for same-sex couples”; “The Bible can no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such ‘offensive’ doctrines as homosexual conduct or the claim that people will go to hell if they do not believe in Jesus Christ.”

Doctors “who refuse to provide artificial insemination for lesbian couples now face significant fines or loss of license to practice medicine…” and lawyers that “refuse to handle adoption cases for same-sex couples similarly now lose their licenses to practice law”; any professionals, including social workers and counselors working for church organizations, that are “licensed by individual states are now also prohibited from discrimination against homosexuals”; Churches are forced at allow their building to be used for same-sex weddings and they “no longer are free to reject homosexual applicants for staff positions.”

An executive order signed by Obama does away with “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and supports “actively recruiting homosexuals,” going so far as offering “bonuses [to homosexuals] for enlisting in military service.”

Students are no longer free to attend “‘see you at the pole’ meetings where students pray together, or [participate in] any student Bible studies even before or after school”; public schools are no longer allowed to rent meeting space for small churches; Christian organizations on campuses “have shrunk to mere skeleton organizations, and in many states they have ceased to exist”; the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer led by public school teachers, and the phrase “under god” is ruled unconstitutional.

After President Obama signs The Freedom of Choice Act, abortions abound: “hundreds of state laws that had created even the slightest barrier to abortion” are nullified; with the Hyde Amendment reversed, “the government now funds Medicaid abortions for any reason”; the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is “reversed”; nurses are forced to participate in providing abortions under threat of losing their jobs; doctors “who refuse to perform abortions can no longer be licensed to deliver babies at hospitals in any state”; overall, “the number of abortions have increased dramatically.”

Everywhere in America, men, women and children are likely to be confronted by, or exposed to, pornography. When the Federal Communications Commission lifted all “restrictions on obscene speech or visual content in radio and television broadcasts,” it freed television programmers to show “explicit portrayals of sexual acts” any time during the day.

Gun ownership is outlawed in eight states and “the number is growing with increasing Democratic control of state legislatures and governorships.”

Home schooling has been “severely restricted” thanks to the lobbying efforts of the National Education Association.  

Anonymous points out that although President Obama “expressed strong personal disapproval” of many of the Supreme Court decisions that have brought about these changes, he said that “he had no choice but to uphold the law, for these decisions were now law of the land.”

The aftermath of the U.S.’s withdrawal of all troops from Iraq by 2010, saw a flooding of that country by Al Qaida operatives from Syria and Iran: “A Taliban-like oppression has now taken over” the country, and “hundreds of thousands of ‘American sympathizers’ have been labeled traitors, imprisoned, tortured, and killed.”

At home, Obama directed U.S. intelligence services “to cease all wiretapping of alleged terrorist phone calls unless they first obtained a specific court warrant for each case.” Captured overseas terrorists are no longer given military tribunals but are “now given full trials in the U.S. court system.”

The relaxing of the Bush Administration’s rules of engagement with terrorists has led to the explosion of “terrorist bombs in two large and two small U.S. cities, killing hundreds, and the entire country is fearful, for no place seems safe.”

Testing President Obama, “as Vice President Joe Biden had predicted.” Came in the form of Russia “occupy[ing] and retak[ing] several Eastern European countries,” staring with Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.” Lack of action by the United Nations subsequently led to Russia’s occupation of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.

President Obama “deepen[ed] U.S. ties and U.S. trade with Communist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia.”

In the Middle East, “in mid-2010 Iran launched a nuclear bomb which exploded in the middle of Tel Aviv, destroying much of that city.” Israel was forced to “cede huge amounts of territory to the Palestinians,” and now “its future remains uncertain.”

Finally, there is a “single provider” health care system built along the lines of those in the United Kingdom and Canada; taxes have skyrocketed for most Americans (only those not paying income taxes have received relief); unions are once again “intimidat[ing] anyone that stands in [the]… way” of their organizing; gas costs $7.00 a gallon, no nuclear plants have been built, and off-shore drilling has been stymied; conservative talk radio hosts have been “silenced”;

Christian publishers have been censored; and dozens of former Bush Administration officials have been prosecuted and are now in jail or bankrupt.

The Christian from 2012 writes that “Christians share a lot of the blame” for these events, by not realizing that voting for Obama in 2008 would result in a “far-left agenda [that] would take away many of our freedoms as a nation, perhaps permanently.”  

Nevertheless, Christian from 2012 maintains his faith that “we are going to get through tomorrow.”

One final note: The Christian from 2012 neglects to mention the upcoming 2012 presidential election. Despite the far-left Supreme Court appointments, rampant abortions, same-sex marriages, terrorist bombs, Al Qaida in Iraq and renewed Russian militancy, will Obama be reelected? Stay tuned; perhaps there’s a post-election letter being composed as we speak!  

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