President Obama Not the Antichrist, but Could Be Seventh King? North Carolina Newspaper Issues Correction to Bizarre Letter
UPDATE: 2:44 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2015
Chad Killebrew, executive editor of The Dispatch, responded to criticsm stemming from its decision to publish Thomas' letter.
"The Dispatch publishes almost all letters to the editor that arrive. ... "Some folks would like me to censure letters and have a stricter threshold for what publishes," he said. "But I believe in allowing as many people to voice their opinions as possible, whether I personally agree with their position or not. I do my best to make sure their points are accurate and edit out anything I know is wrong. Sometimes a person will take a fact and then interpret it in a rather odd way, or they will use what I consider dubious sources to support their position. Those can be challenging to deal with."
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A North Carolina newspaper sparked an uproar earlier this month when it published a letter to the editor calling President Obama the "Antichrist;" however, it issued a slight correction over the weekend.
The scathing letter, penned by Davidson County resident Boyd Thomas, appeared in The Lexington Dispatch on Feb. 6 and was originally titled "Is Obama the Antichrist?" but has since been changed to read "Is Obama the seventh king?"
The newspaper issued a correction over the weekend to clarify that Thomas, who heavily criticizes Obama's leadership in his 500-word piece and alludes to the end times being near, does not actually believe that the president is the Antichrist, but that he could in fact be the seventh king mentioned in the book of Revelations.
"Boyd Thomas' letter Saturday contained an error in the headline. He does not believe President Obama is the Antichrist, who will come after seven kings, according to Revelation. He thinks Obama could be the seventh king," the paper noted.
The correction raised eyebrows and drew widespread criticism, with one writer at the Houston Chronicle calling it "one of the nuttiest corrections of the year."
In his letter, Thomas slammed Obama as "evil" and even accused him of supporting terrorists.
"Who and what is Barack Obama? Obama claims nobody can stop him or change anything he's done. This evil must come to pass before the Lord's return and the rise of the Antichrist, but you better know what evil you're dealing with," he wrote.
An overwhelming number of critics on Twitter mocked and dismissed Thomas' letter as outlandish but reports show that he is not alone in his judgments about the president's faith.
Since taking office in 2009, Obama has spent just one Christmas morning in church, which for some concerned critics like Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has been enough to warrant heavy assumptions about his commitment to Christianity.
In December, Obama's two closest spiritual advisors said his Christian faith has "deepened" during his second term, despite him rarely attending church on Sundays.
"The president's faith has deepened in the second term; he's said as much," Joshua DuBois, a longtime spiritual adviser to Obama, told reporters last year, according to Politico.com.
He continued, "The president's Christian faith is not connected to or dependent upon anyone else's beliefs about him, any particular policy issue, any moment in the news cycle or anything else. The president's faith existed long before the While House and will continue after he closes the door to the White House for the last time."
Both The Lexington Disptach and the White House did not immediately respond to CP's request for comment.
