Kristof has a column today worth reading in its entirety. He’s talking about “Glorious Appearing,” the latest work in the “Left Behind” series. If you’ve had your head under a rock, these books are best-selling novels, widely available – I even saw the most recent one for sale in the downtown SF Costco. In “Glorious Appearing” Jesus finally does return, and not only does he send nonbelievers into a chasm with a wave of his hand, but also the bodies of others are ripped apart and left strewn around the Earth, presumably as a warning to the remaining believers what could happen to them if their faith wavers.
Kristof:
It’s disconcerting to find ethnic cleansing celebrated as the height of piety. If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of “Glorious Appearing” and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit. We have quite properly linked the fundamentalist religious tracts of Islam with the intolerance they nurture.
I’m with Kristof 100% on this. Why do Christians get a pass for this kind of language when Muslims don’t?
Here in America, we’re free to believe what we want and to read what we want. I completely support the right of evangelical Christians to read “Glorious Appearing” and believe that God will cast their friends, neighbors, and even their relatives into a pit of fire (not to mention billions of Hindus, Muslims, Jews and even Mormons). But that doesn’t mean that other people shouldn’t ask hard questions about what kinds of paths those beliefs can take a believer down, and whether actions generated by those beliefs are truly right.
It’s also well-known that the current Presidential administration is a deeply Christian one. We need to ask whether this attitude of “they’re all going to Hell anyway” (aka the James Baker ‘Fuck The Jews‘ point of view) has had a real impact on their foreign and domestic policies. This President, after all, has not been shy about saying Jesus is his favorite philosopher and a more important guide to him than his own father.
Kristof also says:
As my Times colleague David Kirkpatrick noted in an article, this portrayal of a bloody Second Coming reflects a shift in American portrayals of Jesus, from a gentle Mister Rogers figure to a martial messiah presiding over a sea of blood. Militant Christianity rises to confront Militant Islam.
It leaves me uncomfortably wondering where Jews fit into the picture.
Going off on a quick tangent – I sometimes wonder – how, if you’re a deeply devout evangelical, do you live with the sincere belief that most of your fellows on this planet are going to burn in hell? Do you worry about it, pray for them, and hope they see the light? Or do you just pretend to be nice to them and in the privacy of your home, laugh at them all for being doomed to Hell?
I doubt many Christians of that persuasion read this blog, but I would really like to know.