Michele Bachmann and other conservative Christians were outraged after President Barack Obama mocked their predictions that he was hastening the end of the world.
Bachmann, a former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, spoke at length about her apocalyptic concerns in a radio interview earlier this month with a Christian broadcaster.
The president joked about her comments Saturday during the White House Correspondents Dinner.
“Michele Bachmann actually predicted I would bring about the biblical end of days,” Obama said. “Now that’s a legacy -- that’s big. I mean, Lincoln, Washington -- they didn’t do that.”
Bachmann stood by her remarks, although she assured Christians that the end of the world wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
“The Bible is filled with exciting information about living life today and in the future, both in this life and in the life to come,” Bachmann told World Net Daily. “Any message that brings people closer to God’s wonderful plans for our lives is a good thing. God’s word is true and brings freedom and wholeness to all who read it and believe in Him.”
Janet Markell, host of the “Understanding the Times” program where Bachmann made her predictions, defended the retired lawmaker.
“What is there about a godly Christian woman that is so offensive to so many today when they are simply telling the truth as Michele is?” Markell said.
Other religious conservatives were less diplomatic in their response.
“Rarely has this nation witnessed the kind of hubris, arrogance and callousness as we did at the President’s Correspondents Dinner,” said Joel Richardson, an end-times author and filmmaker. “President Obama and his left-wing supporters in the media think it is absolutely hilarious that his policies could have fostered in an apocalyptic atmosphere in the earth.”
He said the end of the world had already arrived for Iraqis suffering under Islamic State cruelty – which he blamed on Obama.
“Instead of laughing and mocking, our president and his supporters should be weeping because of the unfathomable agony and chaos that his foreign policy through the Middle East has produced,” Richardson said.
Another apocalyptic author, Carl Gallups, said he appreciates a good joke as much as anyone – but he said Obama crossed a clear boundary.
“I am rarely offended by good humor, especially upon consideration of the context in which it is spoken, but I think what is unnerving about Obama to so many Christians is his consistent mocking of Christianity, the scriptures, the basic Christian message, and even the Judeo-Christian heritage of America,” Gallups said.
