For over a year, John (not his real name) has been a colleague of mine at work. Five days in a week, we meet every morning. Usually, I will be in front of the television watching the news when he walks in. Because political discussion is discouraged at work, we often do not talk politics. During the presidential campaign, I could see he was uncomfortable with the direction the campaigns were going. He could not help himself sometimes. I had him say several times that he did not trust Barack Obama. Then, he would quickly say that all politicians were untrustworthy. I could see that he was not sure of my politics and would not want to upset me.

John’s background is this: middle-aged, without college degree, white, of Italian heritage, and lives in the suburb of Long Island. He is a Christian and talks about missionary work to Latin America and Africa, so I assume he is a fundamentalist or at least a borderline fundamentalist. We chitchat about everything but religion and politics, except for the time we talked about the Jehovah Witness members and he had a hearty laugh over their 1975 wait for Armageddon.

The day after President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, he came in as usual. I was in front of the TV catching up with the analysis of the speech.

“That guy is the anti-Christ,” he said, pointing at Obama on the TV.

I was taken aback. I have never heard him call Obama president. He had never called him Obama, to my hearing. Or even the one those who love slurs like to call him, Hussein.

“People like him all over the world,” he continued. “He is the anti-Christ.”

I did not know how to respond. I did not know much about Christ to talk of the anti-Christ. So I simply smiled. It was not a smile of agreement. It was one of those smiles to save your protagonist from embarrassment. It was also a smile that says, “Now I know where you belong.”

I went online to search for anti-Christ. For all you know, I may be an anti-Christ without knowing it. I was surprised to see that there are websites dedicated to proving that Obama is the anti-Christ. Many of the sites were started before Obama won the election. So those people had their visions right.

I read many of them. They were quite interesting. Many have seen the signs. They are hundred percent sure that Obama is the anti-Christ and that we are in the last days and that Obama will bring this whole journey to an end. They get words from here and there, mix them up, take out few words every now and then and come to the conclusion they had set out to prove. One of their wonderful proofs was that the number 666 won the Illinois lottery the day Obama won the election. So the beast is here.

There will always be nut cases. The conspiracy theorists will always propound new conspiracies. It gets worse when conventional wisdom is shaken to its cure. What happened in these United States is simple – a lanky black man with a foreign father and a strange name and with big ears has taken over at the White House.

He must be the anti-Christ. It must be the end of the World.

Yes, John. And to think you laughed at the Jehovah Witness members for waiting for Armageddon in 1975 makes it more ironic.

In recent days, we have heard that “Obama is a great teacher,” that “Obama is like a god,” that “Obama is a false prophet.” And what did Obama say about all this? He said that “contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger.”

That proves that Obama is the antichrist -because if he isn’t, he would have been born in a manger, like all of us.