L.B.: Martyr envy

Or, Tribulation is a force that gives us meaning.

Left Behind, pp. 418-421

Meanwhile, in the suburbs outside of Chicago, a warm, domestic scene with the remaining members of the Steele family. Newly converted Chloe Steele voraciously reads in her dear departed mother's Bible and her father, immensely pleased, sits watching her. But not at all in a creepy way:

Rayford Steele was a happy as he had been since his own decision to receive Christ. To see Chloe smiling, to see her hungry to read Irene's Bible, to be able to pray with her and talk about everything together was more than he had dreamed of. "One thing we need to do," he said, "is to get you your own Bible. You're going to wear that one out."

"I want to join that core group of yours," she said. "I want to get all that stuff from Bruce firsthand."

Unlike her father, Chloe is at least able to stay awake while reading the Bible. We're not told what it is, specifically, that she's reading. Revelation, one assumes, and parts of Daniel but not the other parts. And little snippets from Ezekiel and Zechariah, the odd-numbered verses of Matthew 24, every third word in John's second and third epistles, and carefully redacted chapter fragments from 1 & 2 Thessalonians. For premillennial dispensationalists, the rest is just padding that doesn't apply to our "dispensation."

The PMD prophecy enthusiasts really would "wear out" a Bible if they tried to read one the way they claim it should be read. All that tearing out and reshuffling and re-editing on the fly would be tough on the binding. It's not really possible to pick up the physical book and read it this way. Even a Scofield Reference Bible, with its footnotes indicating all the arbitrary cross-references, would exceed the capacity of a ten-fingered reader to keep track of all the various and disparate passages it tries to stitch together as an allegedly single, secret narrative.

This is why the authors can tell us about Chloe hungrily reading the Bible, but they can't get more specific. It's also why Chloe herself realizes that she'll never be able to understand the End Times Checklist simply from reading the Bible on her own -- she needs Bruce's help to read it with the PMD decoder ring.

The telling word here is "firsthand." Bruce's interpretive overlay -- "all this stuff" -- is the "firsthand," primary source. The Bible is secondary at best.

It's also strange here that Irene's Bible seems to be regarded only as just another Bible. Here is an artifact of the wife and mother they have lost. It is a thing she treasured, that she held every day. Its margins are filled with notes in her own handwriting. My mother's Bible is not like any of the other Bibles, or any of the other books, I own. it is not merely a sacred text, but a sacred edition. It's impossible for me to read that volume without thinking of the hours my mother spent with it, of the prayers she prayed for me during the years she spent in those pages. To read that Bible is to have the sense, both sad and comforting, that I am somehow reading it with her.

So it's just alien-seeming that Rayford and Chloe seem to be treating Irene's Bible as indistinguishable from some Gideon edition pinched from a hotel room. It's alien-seeming, too, that they can sit together in this house and not be reminded, constantly, of Irene and Raymie. Yet there's no sense here of their presence or their absence.

I can't help but think of John Irving's Hotel New Hampshire when reading these scenes, and of the sadness that pervades that book due to the death of mother and poor Egg.¹ The authors of Left Behind seem to think they've already dealt with that sadness, that this sorrow and loss could be dealt with in a scene or two, allowing their characters and their checklist plot to move forward without ever looking back. There's never the sense here that sadness and loss linger. In Left Behind, sorrow doesn't float.

"The only part that bothers me," Chloe says as she wraps up her vague Bible study, "is that it sounds like things are going to get worse."

That's a major theme of LaHaye's prophecy scheme: "Things are going to get worse." This is the trajectory here in history -- so anyone who says different, or who tries to make things different, is likely evil. And it's even more the trajectory of the post-history "tribulation" period in which Chloe finds herself.

Late in the afternoon they dropped in on Bruce, who confirmed Chloe's view. "I'm thrilled to welcome you into the family," he said, "but you're right. God's people are in for dark days. Everybody is. I've been thinking and praying about what we're supposed to do as a church between now and the Glorious Appearing."

The "Glorious Appearing" is what LaHaye calls the Second Coming of Jesus. He can't call it that because, in his way of seeing things, it's really the third coming, with the Rapture being the second. PMDs have Jesus returning and re-returning to Earth so often that it'd make sense for him to spring for the EZ-Pass.

A pastor thinking about "what we're supposed to do as a church" might not seem unusual, but for LaHaye-types it is. From their perspective, "what we're supposed to do as a church" right now is wait for the Rapture, which could occur at any moment.

It could even happen ... riiiiiight ... now!

...

(Checks watch. Looks around.)

...

No? OK, maybe ... wait for it ... now!

...

Hmm, nope. OK, let's try again. ...

That pretty much is the PMD notion of the church's business agenda between Christ's ascension and the (first) second coming. There's plenty, of course, that the church and its members shouldn't be doing -- dancing, drinking, sneaking peaks at Playboy like the pre-conversion Bruce Barnes did. As their truncated version of James 1:27 reads, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: ... [snip] ... to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." The only thing they have to do besides sit around and wait for Jesus to come back is evangelism -- which as far as they can figure means recruiting others to also, um, sit around and wait.² Not terribly inspiring.

Bruce Barnes, however, knows that the second coming 2.1 won't be happening at any second. He has some time to kill before the (second) second coming, so he has to figure out something for his flock to be doing for the next seven years. At least for those few who manage to live that long.

Chloe wanted to know all about that, so Bruce showed her from the Bible why he believed Christ would appear in seven years, at the end of the Tribulation. "Most Christians will be martyred or die from war, famine, plagues or earthquakes," he said.

Chloe smiled. "This isn't funny," she said, "but maybe I should have thought of that before I signed on. You're going to have trouble convincing people to join the cause with that in your sign-up brochure."

Bruce grimaced. "Yes, but the alternative is worse. We all missed out the first time around. We could be in heaven right now if we'd listened to our loved ones. Dying a horrible death during this period is not my preference, but I'd sure rather do it this way than while I was still lost. Everyone else is in danger of death, too. The only difference is, we have one more way to die than they do."

"As martyrs."

"Right."

Ooooh, martyrs! How exciting!

And here we come to the vicarious appeal of these books for American evangelicals. The perilous Tribulation that Bruce Barnes describes is frightening, yes, but at least it's not as dull as the uninspiring sit-around-and-wait, do-nothing existence they've come to believe is their lot in life here in history.

Here in Left Behind they can reimagine the Christian life as an exciting adventure. It's similar to the speakers we had on youth group retreats back in high school. They would tell these thrilling stories of Christians who were persecuted for their faith -- first century believers or 20th-century Christians in China or behind the Iron Curtain. The stories would reach a crescendo where the persecuted faithful were forced to choose between denying their faith and certain death. "What would you do?" the speakers would ask. And then, with every head bowed and every eye closed, we were given the opportunity to come forward yet again to re-re-dedicate our lives to Christ.³

I don't know whether those speakers realized the secret envy we had when listening to those stories. The lives of those martyrs seemed so much more exciting and meaningful than our own did. Plus there was something weirdly appealing about a one-time, one-question, pass-fail test in place of the tedious day-after-day. In our imaginations, at least, the martyr's egress sounded almost easier than the pilgrim's progress (as somebody once said, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it.) We imagined that, like the grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," we could've been good kids if it had been somebody there to shoot us every minute of our lives.

This is something Christopher Hedges captures in his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning:⁴

The eruption of conflict instantly reduces the headache and trivia of daily life. The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation. War, in times of malaise and desperation, is a potent distraction. ...

War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but also meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning.

Which is quite similar to one of my favorite passages from Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman:

What happens to a man to whom all things seem possible and every course of action open? Nothing of course. Except war. If a man lives in the sphere of the possible and waits for something to happen, what he is waiting for is war -- or the end of the world.

The intended readers of Left Behind are waiting for the end of the world. Or for war. Either one would do. Either one would seem more meaningful than the headache and trivia of daily life that constitutes what they now think of as "discipleship." And Left Behind lets them experience both, at least vicariously.

That sense of excitement, of how much more thrilling this would all be, can be seen in the next paragraph:

Rayford sat listening, aware of how his world had changed in such a short time. It had not been that long ago that he had been a respected pilot at the top of his profession, living a phony life, a shell of a man. Now here he was, talking secretly in the office of a local church with his daughter and a young pastor, trying to determine how they would survive seven years of tribulation following the Rapture of the church.⁵

The "phony ... shell of a man" refers to Steele's life before his conversion, but it's hard not to think of the authors and their readers relating to that as a description of their own mundane lives when contrasted with the thrilling adventure of life as God's guerrillas during the Tribulation.

Bruce tells the Steeles about a new core group he has decided to form (not to be confused with the original core group, of which Rayford is already a member):

"I've also been thinking about a smaller group within the core. I'm looking for people of unusual intelligence and courage. I don't mean to disparage the sincerity of others in the church, especially those on the leadership team. But some of them are timid, some old, many infirm. I've been praying about sort of an inner circle of people who want to do more than just survive."

Here they are, just nine days after the Rapture has caused them to start rebuilding the church from scratch, and already they've begun creating hierarchies and inner circles. Give them another week and they'll break out the robes and funny hats.

"... It's one thing to hide in here, studying, figuring out what's going on so we can keep from being deceived. ... But doesn't part of you want to jump into the battle?"

Rayford was intrigued but not sure. Chloe was more eager. "A cause," she said. "Something not just to die for but to live for."

"Yes!"

"A group, a team, a force," Chloe said.

"You've got it. A force."

Chloe's eyes were bright with interest. Rayford loved her youth and her eagerness to commit to a cause that to her was only hours old. "And what is it you call this period?" she asked.

"The Tribulation," Bruce said.

"So your little group inside the group, a sort of Green Berets, would be your Tribulation force."

"Tribulation Force," Bruce said, looking at Rayford and rising to scribble it on his flip chart. "I like it."

The authors' only regret about this passage was that they couldn't get Tyndale House to bind in pre-order cards for Left Behind II: Tribulation Force right here on this page.

Once you get beyond the overweening self-congratulation and general awfulness of that passage (take your time, I had to go out and run some errands and then come back to it), it's interesting to note that Bruce and Chloe, in searching for "something not just to die for but to live for" settle on "a group, a team, a force" and not a cause, a purpose, a mission. Bruce attempts to imagine a cause or a mission that this "force" would be fighting for, but the best he can manage is to imagine what it would be fighting against:

"When it becomes obvious who the Antichrist is, the false prophet, the evil, counterfeit religion, we'll have to oppose them, speak out against them."

So again they aren't for Christ, they're anti-Antichrist, which again is far from the same thing. The former really could be "something to live for." The latter might be something to die for, but more likely is merely something to kill for. That tends to be the problem when you define yourself in terms of what you're against instead of what you're for. That also tends to be the problem, as Hedges notes,⁶ with relying on war as your source for meaning.

The authors, fortunately, are only tangentially interested in giving readers something to kill for. Their main interest is just in supplying enough of the tantalizing possibility of such vicarious excitement that readers will go out to buy the sequel. And what was that sequel called again? Oh, right:

"You still want to be part of the Tribulation Force?"

Rayford nodded and smiled at his daughter's firm reply. "I wouldn't miss it."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

¹ So much so that I've come to picture a young Seth Green as Raymie. Jodie Foster as Chloe wouldn't work, but Jodie as meta-Chloe would be perfect.

² And, yes, thereby also to escape Hell. If what you're being saved to seems pointless then what you're being saved from has to be especially vivid. My favorite picture of Hell is the gray, isolating London of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. Lewis' vision of Hell is difficult to distinguish from life in the church as envisioned by the PMD crowd.

³ Eventually I started keeping track of the number of times I had done this. It seemed absurd to me and I couldn't help but think it would look the same to God. So I decided that I was done with that. No more re-re-re-dedications. This was considered bad form, since the pattern for these speakers was first to invite the unsaved to get saved, then to invite the already saved to re-dedicate themselves, then to continue gradually widening the invitation until everyone had left their seats and gathered down front. I was never fully able to convince my youth pastor that, for me, not going forward was more important, more meaningful, than doing so for the umpteenth time. He was deeply worried about me every time we had one of those altar calls and I wound up being one of only two people who didn't go forward. (I never asked, and so never learned, what her story was.)

⁴ Thank you, Amanda, for getting me this. If book recommendations come on a scale from one to 10, consider this an 11: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

⁵ I've written before about one of my favorite movie plot formulas -- the Innocent Man Embroiled in an International Scheme. Part of the appeal of that formula is something similar to what Hedges and Percy describe -- crisis shatters, and thus enlivens and gives meaning to, the mundane. That paragraph about Rayford presents what is probably the most inept and least appealing variation of this formula that I've ever seen.

⁶ Seriously, go read War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Comments

[Robb]

"Something not just to die for but to live for."

I think it was Salinger who said: "An immature [person] is willing to die for a cause, a mature person is willing to live humbly for one." Or something like that. . . I have it written down at home.

[Abelardus]

"Martyr's Egress" could make a good band name -- or a book, if one wants to make a direct parallel with "Pilgrim's Progress."

... a black and white tableau of them and us.

But after all, we're only ordinary men.

Killer literary references, Fred; and magnificent as always.

[Froborr]

Hedge's book is good, but it's largely a recapitulation of LeShan's excellent, albeit more clinical, The Psychology of War.

On the other hand, as J. Michael Stracszynski -- and almost certainly many others -- said, "Everything worth saying has already been said. But nobody was listening, so we have to say it again."

[Nobody_Special]

"I'm thrilled to welcome you into the family," he said, "but you're right. God's people are in for dark days. Everybody is."

Short L&J: "Welcome to Christianity. You're still screwed."

[Nobody_Special]

From their perspective, "what we're supposed to do as a church" right now is wait for the Rapture, which could occur at any moment.

Thank goodness they form the Tribulation Force! After following along this far I couldn't imagine the series turning into some Pre-millenial version of Waiting for Godot.

[Jos]

I've also been thinking about (...) I've been praying about...

The authors here seem to be using 'thinking' and 'praying' interchangeably. Of course, I suppose could be made for that sort of thing, but somehow I doubt that's what LH&J had in mind.

So, as it is, I'm just going to consider this creepy.

[Richard Hershberger]

"Here in Left Behind they can reimagine the Christian life as an exciting adventure."

It seems to me that a big part of modern conservative Christianity involves their imagining themselves to be daring adventurers and potential martyrs. I see letters to my local paper from these people at Christmas (or, more accurately, in Advent, or perhaps even earlier) congratulating themselves on their courage in saying "Merry Christmas" and thereby risking persecution for deviating from the mandated Godless "Happy Holidays". (They are, of course, vague about exactly what persecution they are risking, and they also write letters condemning others for saying "Happy Holidays".) It is cheap courage: faux adventure without any actual danger. Expand this a bit and you can have a town dominated by these people, rationalizing anything by the self-image of being a persecuted minority. The vicarious thrill of a Tribulation Force goes a long way toward explaining these books' popularity.

[Robb]

After following along this far I couldn't imagine the series turning into some Pre-millenial version of Waiting for Godot.

A while back, I tossed around the idea of a YouTube sitcom for Right Behind with a friend of mine, that was equal parts Waiting for Godot & Who's on First - the whole thing would have taken place in the office of New Hope Church: just circular discussions of the end of the world.

"We're waiting"
"Waiting for Him that has come"
"Waiting for Him to come again?"
"Yes, waiting for Him to come, but in vengeance this time"
"Vengeance, like, violence?"
"Not just violence, entrails shredded, rivers of bloods, flesh melting."
"Why didn't he do that last time?"
"He's waiting"
"Waiting for us"
"No, we're waiting for him"

With no budget and being 3 or 4 actors short of a proper LB Trib-force core cast, it would never have happened, not to mention would only appeal who find LB fascinatingly ridiculous, and it wasn't very funny except to us.

[Fraser]

The same point has been made about conservatives who want to believe that the Islamofascists are the Most Powerful, Most Dangerous Foe We've Ever Faced—worse than the Nazis! More terrible than the Commies! Because then it's even more exciting for us than the Greatest Generation.

During the naming speech, I kept thinking of one scene in the JLA's origin: "We should form a club or a society of some kind." "A league against evil--to defend justice against whatever threatens it!" But the Justice League is so much cooler than the Trib Force (and Gardner Fox was a much better writer than LH&J)

Of course, I'm not sure what the Trib Force could fight FOR: Speaking out against sexual immorality and gays seems kind of pointless just now, and if they talk about peace and loving your neighbor, they'll sound like Nicolae Matterhorn. And if they just evangelize, that's not exciting, and there's no reason the old sick scared people in the church couldn't do it too, which wouldn't be as cool.

[Lauren]

"Most Christians will be martyred or die..."

Pardon my ignorance, but or? Does Barnes explain at some point that being martyred is remarkably very similar to dying? The martyrhood versus death dichotomy is even wierder than the rapture versus death dichotomy. At least the raptured supposedly skip all the pain.

[Nobody_Special]

Lauren,

Hidden meaning: It's better to die on your feet than die on your knees, even if you're kneeling in prayer to God.

[Jeff Weskamp]

"Seriously, go read War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning [by Chris Hedges]." -- Fred

I certainly will, Fred! I'll order it on ILL before I leave this library.

I'd like to recommend some other books to everyone here:

1. The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark, by Carl Sagan.

2. American Fascists, by Chris Hedges.

3. Kingdom Coming, by Michelle Goldberg.

[Jos]

Well... in fairness, getting martyred means dying for your beliefs, I think. Dying is just... you know... dying.

It's the difference between getting your head chopped off for heresy or getting randomly gunned down in the streets for no particular reason.

'Course, you're still dead either way. But, supposedly, martyrs have an easier time of getting into Heaven. Presumably, some minor sins get overlooked if you're a martyr or something.

[Jeff Weskamp]

Oh, and I forgot #4: Skipping Towards Armageddon, by Michael Standaert. It even has an index which gives synopses of all twelve Left Behind books (about 3 pages per book).

[LMM]

It had not been that long ago that he had been a respected pilot at the top of his profession, living a phony life, a shell of a man. Now here he was, talking secretly in the office of a local church with his daughter and a young pastor, trying to determine how they would survive seven years of tribulation following the Rapture of the church.5

Maybe True Christians have lower expectations than I do, but the phrasing here is off. "Talking secretly in the office of a local church" is something I could do tonight with a friend if I felt so inclined. (And if someone who was actually *supposed* to be there found us, that would be even more exciting!) "Hiding from the Antichrist's followers in the ruins of a burnt-out local church" would be much more exciting, especially if the church contained the only copy of Bruce Barnes' notes.

[Robb]

supposedly, martyrs have an easier time of getting into Heaven. Presumably, some minor sins get overlooked if you're a martyr or something.

Nope - not even close. There's nothing there but personal glory & pride for the Martyr, and potentially some reverence paid to you by future generations. But in the case of the Trib Force, it's just a strange sense of fucked up narcissism. Goes back to this strange desire to die nobly rather than live humbly. L&J clearly view the former as far better/more glorious/important than the latter.

[NewsCat]

Fred I think what Christopher Hedges wrote about war is also true of the appeal of Post-Apocalypse fiction, which I would argue that Left Behind includes. (After all, I *did* start reading Left Behind originally because of my enjoyment of the Post-Apocalyse "future.")

The idea that, while in this life you are a regular white-collar person, but in a post-Apocalyse universe you can be a farmer/general, or live-off-the-land/take whatever-you-want, is great escapist fantasy. Who *doesn't* like to imagine what potential they might life up to, if only circumstances demanded it?

[Robb]

Oh, and I forgot #4: Skipping Towards Armageddon, by Michael Standaert

Seconded - GREAT book.

[Abelardus]

'Course, you're still dead either way.

The bad part about being a martyr is that someone always has to die.

It even has an index which gives synopses of all twelve Left Behind books (about 3 pages per book).

Like Left Behind Fridays: The Abridged Series?

[Cerberus]

I can see how this rapture obsession is formed given their views on the purpose of Christianity and leading a Christian life.

I mean, if becoming Christian is as easy as saying the magic words, but remaining in their Deity's favor is extremely difficult and, as Fred points out, intensely boring, then it makes sense that the end would have to come quickly so that they can get into their idea of Heaven before they lose their faith.

Given also that the people most excited about a "magic words, then bam heaven" view of the Afterlife are also likely to have the weakest faiths if they have any at all to begin with, there must be a strong sense of needing something not only soon but dramatic to make it worth it.

And voila here comes the Rapture which not only makes life exciting, adds a war, and vents their hatred and jealousy of those who aren't truncating their life. Now, they just need to hold on a little longer til Rapture and the idea of Tribulation means that they don't feel cheated by the idea that others can say the magic words closer to Rapture and thus live their lives a little longer. Now, if they waited too long, they have to go through virtual Hell before their reward. This way they can be smug that they've hedged their bets.

Of course, what does one expect? When one's worldview is based on the idea that the world is corruptive, inherently sinful, and that all things flesh-based are bad, death certainly becomes far more romantic than a good life. I mean, if life is a constant minefield and temptation, death becomes an obsession.

[Jos]

Nope - not even close. There's nothing there but personal glory & pride for the Martyr, and potentially some reverence paid to you by future generations.

What? Damn. Clearly Islamic martyrs have it better.

Depending on interpretation.

[logopolis]

We all missed out the first time around. We could be in heaven right now if we'd listened to our loved ones. Dying a horrible death during this period is not my preference, but I'd sure rather do it this way than while I was still lost. Everyone else is in danger of death, too.

I find it strange that the characters make a distinction here between "going to heaven" and just plain "dying". After all, isn't dying just an intermediate step between the material world and heaven? Or does the painless death of the recently raptured not count?

Now that Rayford and Chloe are among the converted, why should they bother looking for a reason to live? By the authors' logic, if they get killed by the Antichrist or swallowed up by a fissure, or whatever, don't they now have an automatic ticket to heaven?

[Bruce in South Florida]

I like the Buffy quote better when Dawn says it to Buffy in "Once More With Feeling." It's easy to give advice to others and tell others how to live; much harder to follow your own advice...

[Danel]

I've never read 'War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning', but I did read his other book 'American Fascists' - it specifically focuses upon the Christian Right and its more extremist wing.

But yes, there does definitely seem to be something in the Martyr Envy some seem to feel - another aspect of it is attempts to (rather absurdly) reframe modern-day secular humanists as somehow equivalent to the Roman Empire, moments away from having brave Christians fed to the lions. Also, there's the 'War on Christmas' - attempts to convince themselves that they really are being persecuted just like the heroic old-timey folks were.

[rizzo]

It seems like Hedges has written a book based on a very common trait I've noticed over the course of my life: Many people say they want peace and quiet, but few actually do.

[Reverend Ref]

Here they are, just nine days after the Rapture has caused them to start rebuilding the church from scratch, and already they've begun creating hierarchies and inner circles. Give them another week and they'll break out the robes and funny hats.

As an Episcopal priest living through our own current "interesting and exciting times" in the church, I found this to be exceedingly funny.

Thinking about the martyrdom angle, if Fred dies suddenly, it could be claimed that LB killed him and, therefore, he was martyred for the cause.

Thanks for yet another good LB post.

[JadarX]

He was deeply worried about me every time we had one of those altar calls and I wound up being one of only two people who didn't go forward.

Glad I'm not the only one to think this. I can remember one youth event where I saw, via the Jumbo-tron 'interview', the same girl re-dedicate two nights in a row.

My turning point against these acts came after a big youth conference. We were asked to write letters to ourselves, which would be mailed a year later. I wrote how I was re-dedication and was going shape up those non-RTCs. One year later, I read the letter and thought, "man, I'm an asshole.", and threw it away.

[Jeff Weskamp]

"If book recommendations come on a scale from one to 10, consider this an 11: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning."

Here the 1-to-10 scale for my book recommendations:

Demon-Haunted World: 10
American Fascists: 10
Skipping Towards Armageddon: 9
Kingdom Coming: 9

[Michelle]

About our preference for a "one-time, one-questions, pass-fail test in place of the tedious day after day," remember Cassie Bernall?

There was a lot more to Cassie's life and spirituality than her alleged martyrdom, yet for many, something she may or may not have said just before she died was the most important thing about her.

[Dan]

Way back when I read this book, there were a number of places that made me want to throw it out into the street where it would be destroyed by rain and heavy trucks and such. Some points (sorry for stating the obvious) are just so odious that they defy explanation. This 'creation of the trib force' scene was one such moment. I suddenly felt like I was watching an episode from the Hardy Boys, or a cheapened version of The Goonies. It's all so. . .cheesy, self-absorbed, juvenile. And yet I could just see L&J laughing in glee as they crafted this literary masterpiece, believing they'd just written the next Force 10 From Navarone. In the end, this scene alone proves these are the Worst Books Ever Written.

Oh, and this. One of the things that worried me about these books was the underlying theme that it would almost be MORE exciting to be Left Behind. Who wants to go up to Heaven and sit around waiting, when you could be part of the Tribulation Force!?!? Adventure, intrigue, world travel, super-secret spy phones, hanging with the anti-christ, secret decoder rings and all. Maybe we should all denounce Christ until the rapture, and then recommit afterward, so that we too may join in the coolest mystery game of all time.

[paulf]

One of the oddest of the strange brew of dispensationalist beliefs is the glee in which they take in asserting that the world is continually getting worse, and that is evidence that the end is near. They can take references in the epistles to the end times and -- instead of seeing the obvious, that it describes the observations of a first-century writer living in a calamatous time when Christ followers were struggling amongst themselves and with Jews, who were involved in a terrible war with the Romans -- somehow know the passage is referring to us today.

Not only is it not true -- was the world better with slavery and Jim Crow and during the Civil War and World Wars and on and on -- but itgives them reason to denounce everything they don't personally like as being especially bad.

[alec]

To pimp my own blog:

http://www.itisdancing.com/archives/35

This actually hits on the martyrdom subject just as you do, albeit from a different angle: I was never an evangelical and to me and every other little Popish boy martyrdom was a sort of bygone glory, and we had as much chance at it as we did of fucking a damsel in a tower. Fun to read about, sure, but . . .

[Nobody_Special]

Way back when I read this book, there were a number of places that made me want to throw it out into the street where it would be destroyed by rain and heavy trucks and such.

Dan,

It's a good thing you didn't follow through. The EPA has laws against dumping toxic waste.

[Praline]

"So your little group inside the group, a sort of Green Berets, would be your Tribulation force."

"Tribulation Force," Bruce said, looking at Rayford and rising to scribble it on his flip chart. "I like it."

Oh boy.

First of all, does anyone else notice that if they're going to form a group, the only kind of group - not the favoured kind, or the best kind on reflection, but the only kind that even occurs to them - is a military one?

Nobody's talking about the Underground Railroad. Nobody's talking about vigils. Nobody's talking about open-air meetings, wandering teachers and preaching. Nobody's talking about the Red Cross. Nobody's talking about groups that involve trying to help some people without hurting others. In times of crisis, there are many kinds of heroism, and the people who try to keep decency alive in the face of horror surely deserve more respect.

Of course, if you run shelters and medical care and secret prayer conclaves, you don't get to play with neat guns. And, as we've already seen, they have difficulty imagining a world without guns.

Second, 'sort of an inner circle of people who want to do more than just survive'?? An inner circle? Isn't Christ supposed to love everyone equally? L&J's minds immediately leap to the thought, 'Oh goodie, we can be an elite!' But Christ was pretty firm on the subject of elites, especially elites of people who consider themselves spiritually superior. Again, the instant assumption runs in an entirely unChristian direction.

Third, they've got a flip chart. A flip chart. At a meeting of three people. Which they use to memorise a two-word phrase. A flip chart. And this is supposed to be inspiring? I have a vision of Sojourner Truth presenting a little Powerpoint display, clicking back at regular intervals to a flashing screen that reads 'I = A WOMAN'.* These people have been to too many business meetings and too few, well, anything else.

Fourth, how is it that anybody who tries to make peace when there's wars and rumours of wars is thwarting the Divine Plan and must DIE, but anybody who tries to get together a Green Berets Elite Commando Team to 'do more than just survive' the coming Apocalypse - which, I've got news for you, nobody's going to survive, that's kind of the point of an Apocalypse - is a True Blue hero? Both are refusing to accept 'They also serve who only stand and wait'; both are trying to use human agency to improve matters. If anything, the RTCs are being stupider. They know that God's will can never be thwarted: they've just seen all the disappearances and understand what they mean. God's gonna do what God darn well feels like doing. Faced with a God who's so heavy on the predestination, standing and waiting should look like the sensible option. But no, they're just as active as the heathens. What's up with that?

I can only think of two differences. One is that one side are RTCs and others are Imaginary Liberals - but that doesn't work as an explanation, because you define who's an RTC and who's an IL based on which part of the Divine Plan they're trying to thwart. RTCs accept war and form a Tribulation Force because they're RTCs, and you know they're RTCs because they're in the Tribulation Force. It's a circular argument.

The only other difference I can think of is a return to point one. The good guys have guns. The bad guys are offering to take the guns away. When you cut out the rhetoric and strip it down to actions, the main thing the goodies have to prove their virtue is a love of violence.

These people have a problem.

*(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_I_a_Woman%3F, in case anyone doesn't get the reference; everyone should read that speech anyway.)

[Praline]

By the way, if people are interested in American proto-fascism, this is good: http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismi.php

It's about the similarities between far-right rhetoric nowadays and the early days of Fascism in other countries. Check it out.

[Joolya]

the martyr's egress sounded almost easier than the pilgrim's progress

That is a great phrase. Is that your own, Fred, or am I missing a reference? Anyway, I like it. Remind me again how the PMDs are different from the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade or the 9/11 hijackers?

We don't need to go overseas to study and understand the psyche of the jihadists. All we have to do is go to a Bruce Barnes church: (1) Life feels meaningless, trivial, futile? Check. (2) Put upon and/or oppressed economically and/or socially but shadowy uncomprehended forces out of your control? Check. (3) Smugness at being more righteous than annoying neighbors (especially those uppity Goldsteins)? Check. (4) Desire to inflict vengeance on annoying uppity neighbors and observe commupance of shadowy overlords, and let them see who's got the last laugh now, ha ha ha? Check. (5) Not so much with the critical thinking? Check.

So again they aren't for Christ, they're anti-Antichrist, which again is far from the same thing. The former really could be "something to live for." The latter might be something to die for, but more likely is merely something to kill for.

This is also very well put. A lot of people are looking for something to kill for. Sometimes I have little fantasies about my husband being attacked in a bar so I would have an excuse to glass someone with my beer bottle - ever since I saw Trainspotting - which is obviously something I would never, never really do unless I had a super compelling reason, i.e. the life of my loved one.

So, add to the above list: (6) Really compelling reason to justify acting out violent urges? Check.

[alec]

Praline: You're really surprised? The main thrust of modern Christianity, especially in America, is that having things is really, really great.

Mr. Clark himself wrote quite a bit on just that subject - that is, of the conflict between Christianity and the desire to own things being won by the latter. In that case, the things were Africans, but the same basic concept is there.

I'd just like to point out that the best part of this is the unintentional reference to the masterpiece of miswrought propaganda _The Green Berets_, which opens with the sun rising in the west. There's no beating that. The best thing about people like LH&J is that they always fuck it up and reveal their cruel hungers. Always. No exception; they're not talented enough to avoid it.

[Geds]

Eventually I started keeping track of the number of times I had done this. It seemed absurd to me and I couldn't help but think it would look the same to God. So I decided that I was done with that. No more re-re-re-dedications.

Ugh. I hated those things.

Although the last one of those I was around in convinced me that I was quite literally going insane and, looking back, was the key to my loss of faith, so, um, good for that guy...

Also, I recommend reading American Fascists and Skipping Towards Armageddo together. Hedges makes some claims in Fascists that are basically indefensible, but a lot of his claims that seem indefensible make a lot more sense in context of what, exactly Tim LaHaye has been doing for the last forty years or so.

[Tonio]

From the outside, it hadn't occurred to me that the phenomenon would be martyr envy instead of martyr guilt. It had seemed like many RTCs thought of martyr stories as corrollaries to "Jesus died for your sins." Like they owed it to the martyrs to combat secularism, like it's one small step from "Happy Holidays" to Christianity being illegal.

[zzyzx]

"The same point has been made about conservatives who want to believe that the Islamofascists are the Most Powerful, Most Dangerous Foe We've Ever Faced—worse than the Nazis! More terrible than the Commies! Because then it's even more exciting for us than the Greatest Generation."

I see the same thing in housing bubble groups. It's not that we're in a housing bubble. It's not that it can lead to a recession when it bursts. Nope. We're heading towards the Greater Depression!!!! The 1930s will look like the tech bubble! THEN EVERYONE WILL KNOW WE'RE RIGHT!

[Fraser]

Praline: Well put. There are obvious alternatives for dedicated Christians to contribute,but they're not as cool as a (drumroll) Tribulation Force!
And frankly the name sounds like they're among the Tribulators or that this is some kind of weapon equivalent to Darkseid's Omega beams ("Look out! Nicolaie's unleashed a bolt of Tribulation Force upon Bruce's church!").

[aunursa]

The "Glorious Appearing" is what LaHaye calls the Second Coming of Jesus. He can't call it that because, in his way of seeing things, it's really the third coming, with the Rapture being the second.

Wouldn't that actually make it the Fourth Coming ... the resurrection being the Second Coming?

Fraser: conservatives who want to believe that the Islamofascists are the Most Powerful, Most Dangerous Foe We've Ever Faced—worse than the Nazis!

In some ways the Islamofascists* are more dangerous than the Nazis. It's not a matter of excitement. It's a matter of facing reality.

Of course, I'm not sure what the Trib Force could fight FOR

Well, supposedly they're to spread the Good News about Jesus, and try to protect the saved and undecided -- in that order.

* Not ALL Muslims, just those who wish to implement sharia law and prohibit any criticism of their religion. Just as not all Germans were Nazis.

[Praline]

Praline: You're really surprised?

I wish to remain permanently surprised. I don't want to give up expecting better of people. Low expectations of human nature are only likely to make me be mean to everyone, reasoning that it's probably a pre-emptive strike anyway. That's a path I don't want to travel down.

[Geds]

In some ways the Islamofascists* are more dangerous than the Nazis.

But mostly in the way that Islamofascists still exist and Nazis really don't (beyond isolated, impotent skinhead groups who are generally living in societies that have laws against doing what they want to do).

[Praline]

And frankly the name sounds like they're among the Tribulators or that this is some kind of weapon equivalent to Darkseid's Omega beams ("Look out! Nicolaie's unleashed a bolt of Tribulation Force upon Bruce's church!").

Yes, there is that, isn't there? The Devil gets all the best tunes, so they're going to sound as much like him as possible. In effect, they get to be the good guys without having to wear that dorky white hat when there's all that cool-looking black leather around.

The 'Tribulation Force' really sounds like they're the ones imposing Tribulation on everybody else. But why not? It's all lovely, lovely violence after all. And being a violent person, in this universe, in no way prohibits you from being right with the Lord.

[patb]

My evangelical desire is to finish Fred's conversion to atheism. Here he gives us three key realizations of every atheist that grows up in a theist world.

1. Ritualistic worship is absurd: "Give them another week and they'll break out the robes and funny hats."
2. Altar call conversions and re-dedications are a psychological ploy to get people to feel like they belong. My southern church had revivals every summer and this was the standard practice. Why wasn't this a weekly ritual? We only needed our faith re-charged when it's too hot outside, I guess.
3. The multi-generational trap of ritual worship: We can all love our families and respect them while realizing that there aren't invisible gods playing creator, tempter, and redeemer with our little planet.

Fred, I'd like to see you use your talents to post an equally critical look at "The God Delusion." Tell us how you can believe in fairy tales after having obvious taken a rational look at your beliefs. I would not feel so strongly if you (unlike most current Christians I know) hadn't reflected on science, morality, and your own beliefs.

[Robb]

The main thrust of modern Christianity, especially in America, is that having things is really, really great.

Not quite - the main thrust of Christianity in America is to have things. As has been pointed out by a number of scholars (our host among them), this is nowhere near what Christianity preaches, and is in fact an American mindset that has some Christian justifications grafted onto it.

[Jenny Islander]

Yesterday NPR ran a story about a country where Christians really are a persecuted minority and really are being martyred--that is, being killed because they are attempting to live up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Most of the people in religious authority are dead or fled. The remnant live in seclusion, a tiny group that is . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

. . . opening their property to any local family that needs shelter. None of whom happen to be Christian. They have helped over 400 families so far. Their convent is so close to the fighting that a roadside bomb blew a hole in the outer wall the other day.

But, you know, they're three Catholic nuns, little old ladies, and on top of that, they're native-born and never did anything glamorous with their lives. They do not even occupy the same conceptual universe as the Tribulation Force. So I guess they don't count.

[MikhailBorg]

"When it becomes obvious who the Antichrist is, the false prophet, the evil, counterfeit religion, we'll have to oppose them, speak out against them."

Because God can create the universe, part seas, move mountains, bury fake fossils, and Rapture a huge chunk of humanity in a twinkling; yet He can't handle an Antichrist (which, again, is his own creation when all is said and done) without the help of an airline pilot, a college student, and a recently re-converted pastor.

[Tonio]

the only kind of group - not the favoured kind, or the best kind on reflection, but the only kind that even occurs to them - is a military one?

In the later books, is the Tribulation Force a military outfit aimed at toppling Carpathia's one-world government?