BBC News | EUROPE | Cardinal: Antichrist is a vegetarian: A leading conservative candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II has warned that the Antichrist foreseen in the Book of Revelations is already among us. Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 71, said that the modern Antichrist, identified in the Book of Revelation as a seven-headed beast, was most likely now disguised as a philanthropist supporting creeds like vegetarianism, animal rights or pacifism, or advocating dialogue with Orthodox or Anglican believers.
... A vegetarian. Well. Who knew? Who knew that advocating not eating animal flesh, for whatever reason, was in the book of Revelation somewhere as a sign of the antichrist?
Mind, the way they've been behaving lately, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to visualize PETA in that role. Either the antichrist, or a front for the beef industry. They have had an impressive streak lately, what with
- an impressively relentless attack on KFC,
- persecuting children a little (most unwise, that one),
- advertisements linking impotence and meat-eating (said ads having been rejected by CBS for the Super Bowl ... and how on earth does PETA afford that sort of ad time, anyway?)
- and getting use the beef.com domain free for a month (which, to be sure, strikes me more as clever work than anything so nefarious as their usual work) to deliberately confuse people who might think that the beef industry site would be beef.com (and why on earth didn't the National Cattlemen's Association buy beef.com way back when)
Somehow, thinking of PETA as the antichrist doesn't seem that as far fetched as it would have back in, say, October.
It is impressive that advocating dialogue with the Orthodox and Anglican faiths would be a sign of the antichrist, though. Really, who knew that just talking to other faiths would be enough to bring on the end of days? Apparently, an open mind -- or at least a willingness to give a listen -- is a sign of the devil. The devil!
(Purely a side note: the College of Cardinals may theoretically be looking to replace a 79-year-old pontiff with a 71-year-old cardinal. And, unless il papa drops dead, like, today or next week, or next month, it's likely that they'll both be notably older when the whole replacement issue finally comes up. One would think that his Eminence Cardinal Biffi would perhaps be a bit long in the tooth by the time his chance arrives. Unless they're aiming for the same sort of placeholder pope that John Paul I was supposed to be, and we all remember how well that particular foray worked out.)
Posted by iain at January 22, 2004 12:23 AM
