Vanity Fair on Tim LaHaye and Left Behind
Several of you upstream on this blog have expressed curiosity about what the Left Behind series is all about. I refer you to this excellent recent Vanity Fair article about "co-author" Tim LaHaye (Jerry Jenkins reportedly does the actual writing), a fire-breathing pastor and co-founder of the Moral Majority who views the Renaissance as a turning away from God and who, at various points in his career, has denounced such evils as Catholicism, secular humanism, Dungeons & Dragons and oral sex. He leads apocalyptic tours of the Holy Land, where he and his followers look forward to the slaughter of their enemies, as they believe is foretold in Revelation. "Can you imagine this entire valley filled with blood? That would be a 200-mile-long river of blood, four and a half feet deep. We've done the math. That's the blood of as many as two and a half billion people."
I myself share Martin Luther's dim view of Revelation: "Christ is neither taught nor known in it." Thanks, Amy, for reminding us of that.
I myself share Martin Luther's dim view of Revelation: "Christ is neither taught nor known in it." Thanks, Amy, for reminding us of that.
posted by Andy Duncan at 7:47 AM
3 Comments:
I have to confess that I have read the Left Behind series, and they are very entertaining. However, I could not bring myself to finish the last one, so I'm not sure how the triumphant blood bath turns out.
I have read all..including the last, they really kept me into things...kinda like with HP, one more chapter is never enough. Though for non-Christians it probably wouldn't be quite so much, with all the Christian overtones.
The blood bath, as I remeber, wasn't quite as dramatic as this quote, something the characters thought about once or twice and then something that pretty much poof happened...the killing of the Christians/martyrs was much more horrifically displayed throughout the books, in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to criticize the series at all! That wasn't my intention; what I had set out to do was focus my attention moreso on the extremist(s) who put full stock into a series of books that, might I remind you, are classified as fiction, just like Harry Potter. I have heard wonderful things about the series, and intend to read it some day! I tend to play devil's advocate sometimes a little too well, and end up siding against my own beliefs (or at least leaving that impression). Haha, I just get a little perturbed when people try to force their beliefs on another. Telling everyone that their beliefs are wrong is definitely not the way to win my favor...
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