I drove Darin to work the other day and ended up listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross as a result. She was interviewing Tim LaHaye, one of the authors of the apparently unreadable Left Behind series, which has reportedly sold 58 million copies. (Slacktivist is a better person than I, subjecting himself to those books.)
You have got to listen to this interview; it is unreal.
If LaHaye and Co.—and their millions of readers—actually believe this stuff…I am aghast. I really didn’t know this kind of nonsense was out there. In the interview, LaHaye spouts what can only be generously termed “garbage” about Christianity and the Apocalypse and the End of Days. And this is, I am sure, the sanitized version, suitable to share with the “unbelievers” on NPR.
These guys want the world to end. They want us all to die. Of course, they’ll be fine, having been saved in the Rapture.
Other than the obvious warm fuzzies of superiority, what do these people get out of believing this shit? And that’s what it is: shit designed to turn off the critical thinking, to turn believers into bleating, fleeceable sheep who pray for death—not theirs, of course, but the evil ones, like Catholics and Jews.
Gross had on another author after LaHaye, Gershom Gorenberg, author of The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. What Gorenberg had to say about the Left Behind series, along with Fundamentalism in general, made me immediately sign up to get his book at the library. I’ll report back after I’ve read it.
I know I’m anxiously awaiting the rapture but not for the same reasons they are. I’m just hoping it comes before the election in November.
You know, I started reading these and the first one was good. Then they took a big ol’ nose dive and got marketed up the wazoo.
Now? Now I think the whole pile of it is absolute crap.
There was another interview later with some Israeli journalist who writes about religious/political issues, and has reviewed the books. It was a really good juxtaposition.
Is it fearmongering, so that people give up some of their rights in order to be “protected”? Or do “these people” actually believe what they write? Or is it attention-seeking at the highest (and scariest) levels?
I’m still waiting for a religion to spring up based on Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”. Then I’ll be all into it. 😉
Actually, the first few books were loaned to me from a guy I worked with. I wouldn’t have picked them up except for the fact that he thought they were rather good reading, so long as you skipped over the various prayer sessions they included. It was a rather novel idea, that “What if alot of us are wrong?” sorta thing. I don’t know if i’d mind too much if half the population was suddenly gone though. Less rush hour traffic…
Try Joe Haldeman’s Forever Peace and see if you note the parallel.
It is an amazing thing that salvation permits you to define other humans as essentially not people.
The rapture as described in those books is also fortold in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible tells us over and over how this is all going to happen. This is not nonsense but truth. You can read all about it in Pauls letters to Corinth or in the Book of Revelation. The reason you didn’t know this was going to happen is quite obvious. you’ve never read a Bible. It’s clear through the Scriptures! The fundamentalists don’t want everyone to die. Jesus don’t want everyone to die. But if you choose not to accept his plan of salvation that is exactly what will hapen to you. The wages of sin is death. Romans 3:23
Woohoo, I’m going to hell. I laughed at a comment on here.
Tammy: You are wrong on both counts. In fact, I have read the Bible, both Testaments, a number of times, and in addition I have read commentaries of all stripes on Biblical history and interpretation.
And what you describe is not in the Bible. It is primarily one man’s interpretation of what is in the Bible. His name is John Darby, and you might want to look him up.
Save yourselves…the trouble of actually READING those atrocious books. Rent the movies instead!
As a Bahai I believe that Christ (as well as Muhammad and the other major profits) has already “returned” in the form of the next profit sent to mankind to reveal the truths relevant to this age, this is called progressive revelation and it is something many christians are missing out on. So in my opinion you could say that the end of the world as we know it;)is already happening or has happened, just look at the level of higher understanding humanity has begun to exhibit and of course I am not talking about those still plugged into inane cultural dogma.
People like you, YES YOU, reading this right now. Don’t you feel smarter and more aware than the typical average american? You should. You know, I can tell right now, you wouldn’t be reading/writing this unless you were questioning the world around you. You are a beautiful and inteliigent creature searching for truth and understanding and you wouldn’t be searching unless the answers ARE NOT staring at you from behind your television screen or even your radio station although they can sure be informative, entertaining and sometimes even enlightenning. That’s because it’s us humans who are creating these forms of expression and as I said before we are beautiful and intelligent. The flip side to this is all of the destruction, pain and suffering being initiated and felt by millions. This is much like that end of the world idea, it is because the world/society/culture is in a process of disentigration and rebirth like all living things. Think of a butterfly, or a star or a flower. It is THE pattern for everything.
If you’d like to find out more about The Bahai Faith let me extend a welcome to contact me. Thanks for Reading. And don’t forget that no matter where you are, where you’ve been or where you’re going, you can always start over.
As a well-versed individual in biblical studies and history (graduate from Harvard Divinity if you need credentials), I have to say that everyone seems to have a hint of accuracy, but mostly a whole lot of spoonfed bullshit. The comment that originated this whole script amongst you all, was obviously written out of (understandable) rage. I too, Diane, experience great frustration with these Left Behind series books that have been circulating and victimizing the uneducated, my own mother being of this crowd.
You may be interested to know that one of the authors (his name escapes me at this moment) is not even a believer, which in and of itself proves the books to be a total joke. (Can anyone say “Da Vinci Code”??)
But to place names, deeming Catholics and Jews evil . . . what is that? You automatically discredit yourself by displaying such a bias and generalizing such a large population. You are, therefore, doing exactly what you are accusing the “holy rollers” of — pointing fingers, standing on a soapbox of superiority and instead of becoming educated on what it is you are so quick to speak of, you just make judgements on the little that you know.
As for the biblical references later named, there is relevance, but you cannot communicate this through a few verses. One must know, for example, in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, the historical context, the grounds on which he was speaking, and where the Christian movement was in that time (FYI: it was non-existent, there were no “Christians” until a much later time, think Council of Jerusalem and Council of Nicea). Paul was indeed speaking of this “end time”, but not in the way commonly interpreted; he was NOT speaking to the 21st century! Paul thought that Jesus was coming soon, in his time. We must must must keep these things in mind when reading such delicate material and trying to apply it to our own lives. Not to say it is not applicable in some way to today, but one has to research everything from history, to Greek, to the apocolypse to truly discern something so complex.
What am I getting at you ask? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover . . . and I mean that on many levels, whether it be a denomination, a book, even the Bible (which isn’t a book, but rather means collection of books). Read the “book”, become knowledgable and well-versed, THEN and only then can you make a sound critique.
Just keep these things in mind, so we can achieve some sort of peace and acceptance for each other even if we don’t agree with their views . . .