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.

Hurtfew Abbey

Elizabeth's link reminds me that one of the many significant names in the novel is the name of Mr. Norrell's house, Hurtfew Abbey. This nicely echoes Norrell's cautious attitude toward magic (or vice versa). It's akin to the doctor's adage: "Above all else, do no harm."