Left Behind Cult are not Conservative Christians

Why are we letting the Radical Republicans co-opt us into accepting the religious radical right as Conservative Christians?  They are no such thing!  They are a radical doomsday cult expecting the rapture to take righteous fanatics into a naked ascension with their clothes neatly folded where their ascension begins.  The series of best selling books called "Left Behind" is at the core of these crazy beliefs that are not conservative at all.  They believe there is no future to conserve.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852 Bill Moyers discussed the doomsday cult that begins with President Bush in a NY Review of Books article.
The Airforce Academy is rife with complaints about the fanatics who harass anyone who doesn't share the beliefs of this apocalyptic cult.
The Left Behind scenario has a very short shelf life in historical terms.  Now these fanatics are successfully highjacking US policy, media, politics and education.  In a generation or so when the world is still here in whatever shambles they may have left it without discernible loss of the righteous to rapture their children are going to have to return to reality.  

•  Here's an idea

  We need to get it into the media that God has called for the Rapture, and to prepare, all his true believers must start the process by going to be with God....

  by UndercoverRxer on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:38:44 AM PDT

•  The Second Coming

  Now I am no longer a believer, but I recall in the days when I was a popular end of time film called A Thief in the Night.

  The point of the title was to convey that all efforts to understand when the Rapture was coming were futile, that Christ would return when no one expected, like a "thief in the night".

  Add to that the historical perspective that ever since Jesus's crucifixion there have been followers who were convinced that his return was imminent.

  by baldandy on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:40:42 AM PDT

•  Doomsday cults...

  .. that's exactly the right frame.  The question that should be asked loudly and often is, " when did the Republican party change it's motto from 'morning in America' to 'the end is near'?

   Call them Doomsday Cultists at every opportunity.  That's what they are.

  by therion on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:46:19 AM PDT

  •  Agree Completely

    Being a real sci-fi fan, I have often thought about how absurd it would be if a large group of politically powerful people started talking about the day when they expect the aliens to return.  I mean, since "God" seems to be somewhere in the heavens, how far removed is this scenario from that being proposed by the "End of Times" devotees?  

    But, if a group of the politically powerful started talking about the return of the aliens, we would treat them like the lunatic cult they certainly would be.  We would not find these people being interviewed quite seriously by Chris Matthews on "Hardball" nor would we find them being highlighted on "Meet the Press."

    I don't understand why anyone gives these people credibility.  They are as wacked out as all the other lunatic cults we have seen emerge over the years.  "Doomsday cultists" is precisely the right term.

    by Getreal1246 on Mon May 09, 2005 at 01:13:21 PM PDT

•  Precisely, k.s.s.t.

  The gap between the 'rapture fetish cult' and traditional conservative Christianity is at least as large as the gap between traditional conservative Christianity and liberal Christianity. I think many old-line Roman Catholics and old-fashioned Evangelical protestants would be surprised to learn the theological underpinnings of the Dominionist & Christina Reconstructionist beliefs that appear on the surface to emphasize family and personal responsibility like they do.

  I do my best to inform traditional Christians of how out of step the 'rapturists' are when the subject is convenient. Many, like my grandmother, are quite shocked and don't even think these folks could really believe this stuff. But then she talked with some of her wing-nut descendants and found out that they really do see the world in a way far stranger to her than my worldview. Yeah, they may share her stance against abortion rights and her desire for prayer in school, but what they pray for now concerns her.

  by pHunbalanced on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:47:58 AM PDT

•  Sad...

  I'm not the best Catholic in the world (I'm trying though)... but somewhere in the bible, it says that people shouldn't get caught up on predicting the end ot time. It's sad how some people pick and choose what they want out of the bible.

  People sculpt there beliefs out of anything these days. I spent some energy on that in my last blog entry. Sorry, shameless plug

  by killerB on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:52:03 AM PDT

  •  Left Behinders are anti-Catholic

    And Tim LeHaye has been openly anti-Catholic. Sure the church has major problems but gotta say the fundies scare me much, much more!

    by akeitz on Mon May 09, 2005 at 12:11:48 PM PDT

•  why the Left Behind series is so attractive

  One word. Excitement.
  From listening to those who are using these books and Revelations to guide their lives, I get the impression that ordinary people think they are going to be star performers on the Armegeddon stage.  
    Enviromental concerns? Nah. Things are going to be mighty different around here, and soon. Same with the national debt. Chances are, the four horsemen will be trotting up before we need to worry about paying that off.
    They use world events as tea leaves. Upcoming war? A natural disaster? Could this be...a sign?
    True story- sitting in a college art class, I heard a woman speaking cheerfully about nuclear war.  It'd be a good thing! Hey- she and her husbnad and daughter were saved, so it would be a direct flight to heaven. Creepy.
     There's a Left Behind website that deserves a look-see.  If this is driving force behind people's actions, one needs to see what makes them tick.
     Personally, I don't think we need any supernatural help for end times to occur. Just look who got elected...
     

  by offred on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:54:26 AM PDT

  •  I agree...

    but I also think people believe in Left Behind stories because it mystifies the religion that they abadoned on previously. Seeing fancy special effects, like in NBC's Revelations, makes their religion more compelling and powerful...more wonderful.

    These people point at false prophets madly... except at the ones that have brain washed them.

    by killerB on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:04:38 AM PDT

    •  and highway tunnel Virgin Mary's

      and cheese sandwich Jesus...the list goes on. I'm surprised some liberal pranksters haven't started "crop circling" Mary and Jesus fakes around the country. Time them during elections and other related times of year.

      by Crazyj on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:09:25 AM PDT

    •  But a God who brings about such a scenario

      is evil, not good.  If one believes this stuff, why should one want to be on God's side?

      by lysias on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:43:47 AM PDT

      •  Evil is seductive

        Setting aside theological arguments aobut whether God desires to bring on a violent end time and whether God being all powerful and all good is possible and whether prophecy is being reliably and accurately construed by mainstream Americans (whether fundies or agnostics) ...

        Evil is seductive. Evil tempts one with the belief in one's own moral superiority, the belief that one is on the side that will win or the belief that one can comprehend the mind of God.

        It is a human frailty that we wish to align ourselves with percieved power. We like to jump on the bandwagon.
        

        by pHunbalanced on Mon May 09, 2005 at 12:03:06 PM PDT

        •  amazingly well put...

          I mean that

          by killerB on Mon May 09, 2005 at 12:14:35 PM PDT

  •  and it excites me too

    to think that these nutters will be spirited away and leave us in peace.

    by white blitz on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:23:10 AM PDT

  •  Abso-frickin-lutely true

    I get the impression that ordinary people think they are going to be star performers on the Armegeddon stage

    That's exactly what has been bugging me about them... granted, most don't seem to have decided whether they want to vanish immediately & get good seats for Armageddon: The Reality Show, or whether they've cast themselves as action-hero doubters for the tribulation, but in either scenario, they don't seem to be particularly concerned with living a civilized life & dying peacefully, with multiple generations to follow.  It figures that in a country that entertains itself by filming non-actors acting-- badly-- & calling it "reality", people would decide that the End of Days is imminent.  
    

    by latts on Mon May 09, 2005 at 12:21:36 PM PDT

•  End of the World

  and collapse of civilization scenarios are attractive to "small men" because they can fantasize about using chaos and their "manly" skill to come out on top.

  Sad really.

  by Benito on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:12:15 AM PDT

  •  You hit the nail on the head

    In the 80's I had a boss that showed up to work one day driving a 4x4 Blazer.  He was a Mercedes man.  We made the mistake of asking him what was going on.  He informed us that the world was coming to an end and he had to prepare.  His group would be the ones that would rule when the end came.  Everyone in this group he belonged to had to buy a 4x4 vehicle, along with camping gear, etc.  They would be notified when to start out for some mountain they were to meet up on.  

    He would get faxes from the head chief and he began making copies of them and leaving them on our desks.  When the fax came saying the time had come, he and his family took off for the mountain.  When he finally came back to work, he was driving his Mercedes again.  He refused to talk about it.

    He came back and got back into his old routine.  He went to the Post Office in the morning, stopped at the comic book store for a couple of hours, got back in time to go to lunch and came back to repeat the Post Office and comic book store routine.  He would be the last person that I ever would have wanted in charge of anything.  It was too bad that we had to work our butts off to make him look good.  He got the bigs bucks and we got barely enough to get by on.  While he was gone, we were all hoping that some space ship would come along and take him with them.

    by CD in TX on Mon May 09, 2005 at 01:05:22 PM PDT

    •  LMAO

      Well, as the saying goes... you can never have enough stamps and...err... comic books if the end is nigh.
      

      by killerB on Mon May 09, 2005 at 04:16:41 PM PDT

      •  Obsession

        This guy didn't buy them to read.  He never opened one of them.  The minute he bought one, it went into a plastic cover and then into a file cabinet for his collection.  He beat the hell out of his young son one day.  He had forgotten to lock the file cabinet and his son took out some comic books to read.  The father had to throw them away and buy new, untouched one to replace them.  The man who owned the store knew of his obsession for unopened books.  He always kept those he thought my boss would want under the counter so no one could open it.  If a comic book he wanted badly, was on the shelf, and he could tell it had been opened he wouldn't buy it.

        by CD in TX on Mon May 09, 2005 at 05:30:50 PM PDT

•  Dominionists

  LaHaye was co-founder of the Moral Majority and has lots of other ties.
  http://www.joelp.com/americanfundamentalists/cast/lahaye_t.html

  LaHaye held the position of paid chairman with Sun Myung Moon's now defunct Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF).  Tim LaHaye, author of the popular Left Behind novels, is a member of Dominionist group, Coalition on Revival (COR).

  Info on the COR is here:
  http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/cor/

  For more on the Dominionists:
  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7235393?rnd=1113062695995&has-player=true&ve rsion=6.0.12.857

  by foolrex on Mon May 09, 2005 at 11:13:46 AM PDT