L.B.: Rapture Ready

Daniel Radosh stumbled into what he calls "the parallel universe of Christian pop culture," and I for one am glad he did.

Radosh's wonderful book Rapture Ready chronicles his travels through this strange land with a generous spirit and a perceptive eye. He sees things as they are and understands what they mean. Much of what he sees is awful, misguided or unintentionally hilarious, but Rapture Ready is marked less with scorn and ridicule than it is with a sincere affection and desire to understand the strange citizens of this oddball subculture.

In one early chapter, Radosh visits the CBA -- the annual trade show for what used to be called the Christian Booksellers Association. The CBA is always a vast and appalling spectacle, acres of tasteless merchandise and absurdly inept "witnessing tools" -- from Testamints to the latest offensive T-shirts. Just about every year somebody writes an article cataloguing the absurdities of the CBA and just about every year it seems like the same article -- the same condescending tone, the same easy shots at these fish in a barrel. "Get a load of these freaks" is the general idea. Radosh doesn't recycle that article or that attitude. He recognizes that 95 percent of what he's seeing is crap, but he remembers Sturgeon's Law -- "95 percent of everything is crap" -- and keeps his eye out for that other 5 percent.

Radosh's comments on both -- the sea of crap and that sometimes well-hidden 5 percent -- are insightful. When he stumbles across something called the "Smiling Cross," for example, he notes:

This was, as it sounds, an anthropomorphic cross with its horizontal beam bent up into a cheery smile. Apparently the traditional symbol of Christ's agonizing death by torture was just too depressing. For the first time, I had the experience of seeing devout Christians embrace something that I, as a non-Christian, found sacreligious. It wouldn't be the last.

Radosh's wincing discomfort there will be familiar to anyone who has spent time living in America's evangelical subculture. And he identifies the source of that discomfort precisely: the embrace of tasteless sacrilege as the symbol of devotion. Yes, the Smiling Cross is tacky. But it is also worse than tacky. Being tacky is the least of its problems.

In the course of his book, Radosh also examines every nook and niche of Christian pop culture he can find, from Christian rock and music festivals to Christian skaters and Christian fiction. Throughout his travels in this parallel universe, he manages to locate and interview some of the sharpest and most insightful critics of the subculture. At this point it becomes hard for me to be objective, since we used to publish those same critics regularly back in the day at Prism magazine. For those of you who remember those early years of Prism, let me say that Rapture Ready seems almost like the book that Dwight Ozard always talked about writing some day. For those of you who don't remember Dwight, let me say that I mean this as a very high compliment.

And I hope you won't discount that compliment when you learn that it's reciprocal. In discussing the realm of "Christian fiction," Radosh of course had to grapple with the Vegas Elvis of the genre, the Left Behind series. And in addressing that subject, he had some nice things to say about this blog:

But there are more concrete problems with the series as well. Evangelical blogger Fred Clark has written one of the most effective (and hilarious) critiques of Left Behind, a page-by-page dissection of the first book that has taken him, at the time of this writing, about four years. The level of detail gives Clark space to build a devastating case that the book's glaring absence of sympathy for anyone other than its main characters is not just a failure of imagination on the part of the authors but a form of hatred. The heroes of the book, Clark declares, are sociopaths. They are men who arrive at an airport an hour or so after billions of people have vanished without a trace -- with countless hundreds or thousands more dead or dying in the wreckages of suddenly pilotless planes -- yet who make no attempt to help, or even inquire about the feelings of, a single person they meet. Instead, they focus relentlessly on their own travel plans, jobs and lives.

If nothing else, you might think the sudden disappearance of every child on earth would have some implications for society, or at least for their parents, but LaHaye and Jenkins can't concern themselves with this, because John Nelson Darby said that once the tribulation begins, certain events must happen on a fixed timetable, and damn it, they're going to follow that schedule. "The authors behave as they imagine God behaves," Clark writes. "They have a plot that must move forward, and they will advance that plot even if it means causing, then callously disregarding, the suffering of billions of people. Plot trumps -- and tramples on, and violates -- character. Here, once more, Bad Writing and Bad Theology intersect."

That's very kind, and I quote it here because I am, of course, an egomaniac. But there's actually another very perceptive passage about Left Behind that I want to bring to our attention here, because I think it touches on why I want to continue with LB Fridays, plowing on through the books and the movies and -- if the Lord tarries -- the whole wretched series.

Radosh notes that while the series continues to be phenomenally successful and influential, it has also been quite a while since the first book was published:

While the political and theological influence of Left Behind will be felt for many years to come, its status as a pop-culture icon has largely come to an end. The first book came out in 1995, long enough ago that some of the real people who make cameo appearances in its future world are now dead in the real one, and some of its futuristic technology is obsolete. As I discovered when I asked Christians about it, the secular world's continued fascination with Left Behind is seen as a sign of how out of touch we are with evangelical culture. ...

All true. And a good argument, perhaps, for why we might consider moving on to some more recent, more current trend. But I don't think we're done yet with the World's Worst Books.

For one thing, as Radosh points out, these books "political and theological influence ... will be felt for many years to come," and I don't want to allow that influence to go unchallenged. These books are responsible for leading many evangelical Christians to embrace sacrilege as a form of devotion, and as long as that continues to happen, I want to argue against it. And while the political influence of End of Days theologies may not be at its highpoint, this dangerous and disastrously irresponsible outlook continues to shape the politics of millions of Americans and so there's still plenty of work to be done countering that as well.

But I don't think of LB Fridays as being only about "evangelical culture." The Left Behind books are an American artifact, and as such they provide a window into many, many aspects of American life. Their unfailing, bottomless awfulness remains fruitfully instructive and continues to serve as a platform for peering into a vast myriad of America's mistakes, misfits and misapprehensions. As long as working our way through these books continues to be so fruitfully instructive, then I'm all for forging ahead.

If that makes me a bit "out of touch with evangelical culture," well, I'm OK with that.

So next week, then:

Comments

[Jake]

*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* new LB Friday!!!!!

I actually came *thisclose* to making that noise before I stopped myself for the sake of my poor thesis-writing labmate. Okay, now I'll go read it.

[Boze]

Huzzah!!!!

[aunursa]

Browsing in a bookstore a few weeks ago, by chance I happened to come upon Kirk Cameron Williams' autobiography published earlier this year. This is my recollection of the relevant portion...

He mentions that one night several years ago, he was awakened around midnight by his wife, actress Chelsea Noble. She was reading the most amazing book -- about the Rapture. "This would be perfect to be made into a movie. You would be perfect for the part of Buck Williams. And I could play Hattie."

"That's nice, honey" Cameron replied, and fell back asleep.

Several weeks later he got a call from his agent, who told him that he was wanted to try out for a part in the movie "Left Behind."

...

Cameron found that, among the actors and other workers, on the entire set who was a RTC besides his wife and himself. He was surprised that during the entire production, the actors didn't actually discuss the theological issues in the movie during breaks.

Finally, on the last day of shooting, Cameron stood up and gave a short speech about Jesus Christ and that his audience should consider whether they want to be Raptured or Left Behind. After he finished, you could hear a pin drop from the uncomfortable silence.

[aunursa]

Cameron found to his dismay that, among all the actors and other workers, there was perhaps only one other person on the entire set who was a RTC besides his wife and himself.

Fixed.

[Barry]

Thanks, Fred! Once more into the Valley of Death^H^H^H^H^H Really Bad Fiction rode Fred's Hundreds of Posts.........

[Tonio]

an anthropomorphic cross with its horizontal beam bent up into a cheery smile.

Why didn't Kevin Smith think of that for Dogma? That would have been great for Buddy Christ.

[Boze]

That's depressing, if only because you would expect people who were committed to doing a movie like that to be committed to the faith that the movie espoused.

And they're married? I had no idea! You wouldn't have known from the acting...

Incidentally, I think "Left Behind II: Tribulation Force" is a far, far more delightful movie, except that it cuts out anything of importance (such as the epic ending, ala "The Golden Compass").

[Tonio]

there was perhaps only one other person on the entire set who was a RTC besides his wife and himself.

Wow. I had assumed that not only was the production company an RTC-run outfit, but that most of the actors and crew were RTCs.

[damnedyankee]

The trailer ends with "Seeing is believing." Which should make anybody who's seen a professional magician in action snicker a bit.

And I had to Google it: The Smiling Cross. What is it that compels some people to reduce everything to the level of bland Precious Moments-type cutesiness?

[SchrodingersDuck]

Fantastic!

Left Behind may be past the peak of its popularity, but it's still very culturally significant, if the Tim LaHaye authored remake of the films is anything to go by...

[cjmr's husband]

Yay! Meta-LB-Friday!!

[Cory]

A few years back I read an article in "The Lutheran" - the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's magazine - decrying the cross' loss of terrifying significance. One example it cited were chocolate crosses, a new Easter confection. How ridiculous and blasphemous, I thought.

Not long afterwards, it being around Easter, I visited my parents. My mother, who is not so much a Christian as an occassional visitor of the nice people's social club, graced me with a present: a tin of homemade chocolate crosses. After all, I'm a Christian, seminarian and lover of candy, so why wouldn't I appreciate such a thoughtful gift? Thankfully she eventually calmed down and melted them back down after I explained how I couldn't possibly eat them.

I'm already dreading that, once I'm ordained, the only presents I'm ever going to get are going to have Jesus emblazoned on them (as opposed to, say, Doctor Who). I'm sure I'll appreciate every one, but I hope that, at least, they'll be more tasteful than tasty.

[cjmr]

an anthropomorphic cross with its horizontal beam bent up into a cheery smile.

And here I thought it couldn't get any tackier than the Santa Claus delivering Baby Jesus statuettes. (That's delivering as in gift, not as in labor.) Or the rubber ducky/teddy bear/puppy nativity scenes.

[damnedyankee]

That's depressing, if only because you would expect people who were committed to doing a movie like that to be committed to the faith that the movie espoused.

Why? Actors need to eat, and there are worse projects out there (on paper)than "movie adaptation of a New York Times bestseller starring Kirk Cameron" out there.

[McJulie]

The idea of LB being very much of their time and quickly outdated is interesting, given that one of their mentors is Hal "Late Great Planet Earth" Lindsey. That book is hilarious now, as he natters on about things like the role of the USSR in the end times...

Anyway, I always wondered why people like Hal Lindsey (and Jeanne Dixon for that matter) could for years make very specific predictions that did not in fact come true and their followers never even seemed to notice.

Dude, if you call yourself a prophet (or a psychic) and the stuff you predict doesn't happen, you're a false prophet.

I will be interested to see how much traction the Obama-as-Antichrist idea has among these people in the coming years...

[damnedyankee]

I'm already dreading that, once I'm ordained, the only presents I'm ever going to get are going to have Jesus emblazoned on them

My former department head was also a Calvinist minister. Shopping for his Christmas gift was much easier once I realized that he preferred something to do with his beloved German shepherd rather than anything religiously-themed.

[Vermic]

Oh my goodness, Smiley the Cross is adorable. It would probably be fun to be nailed to him. Oh, Smiley the Cross, you have so many lessons to teach us about love and tolerance and dental hygiene!

Did you read the poem? It's half a blood orgy away from South Park's Woodland Critter Christmas.

[Dylan]

Speaking of offensive t-shirts, I've seen stands of Christian t-shirts in my local Walmart and Goody's that are just bizarre. Has anybody else seen these? There's something about the shirts that rubs me the wrong way, and that's coming from someone who at one point had a "Life Without Jesus? Not!" shirt as a kid. It's like they go so far to make a clever joke they forget the message that I cann't consider them Christian t-shirts--they're Jesus-Brand Merchandise.

A friend of mine (also a Christian, but with a similar reaction to these shirts) wants to get the "I'm With Jesus!" shirt and wear it ironically.

[Geds]

absurdly inept "witnessing tools" -- from Testamints to the latest offensive T-shirts

A guy I knew and I had a running joke once about Testamints. We created a competing product known as "Covamints" and planned to sell them in a tasteful gift box known as the "Ark of the Covamints."

Sadly, it probably would have sold like hotcakes...

you would expect people who were committed to doing a movie like that to be committed to the faith that the movie espoused

By that same logic, you would expect all porn starlets to simply bend over every time the TV repairman showed up and randomly find themselves in girl-on-girl-on-girl orgies every twenty minutes or so.

[Geds]

Did you read the poem?

I'm without speech. I used to work in a Christian bookstore and was offended by some of the crap that it sold. Nothing came close to the Smiling Cross, though.

[Abelardus]

Bravo, Fred, bravo! Squee and all that. Insightfully snarky and beautiful as always.

[Tonio]

I always wondered why people like Hal Lindsey (and Jeanne Dixon for that matter) could for years make very specific predictions that did not in fact come true and their followers never even seemed to notice.

That's like the Psychic Friends Network not foreseeing their own bankruptcy. How was it a network, anyway? Do members stop in the middle of conversations and say, "Just a second, I'm receiving a message from a Psychic Friend..."

[Vermic]

A guy I knew and I had a running joke once about Testamints. We created a competing product known as "Covamints" and planned to sell them in a tasteful gift box known as the "Ark of the Covamints."

The Wrath of a Vengeful God: curiously strong.

By that same logic, you would expect all porn starlets to simply bend over every time the TV repairman showed up and randomly find themselves in girl-on-girl-on-girl orgies every twenty minutes or so.

I do, and don't you dare try and take that away from me.

Is it possible that what Kirk Cameron meant is that there were other Christians in the Left Behind crew, just not his and Chelsea's kind?

[aunursa]

Vermic: Is it possible that what Kirk Cameron meant is that there were other Christians in the Left Behind crew, just not his and Chelsea's kind?

IIRC, he used the word "Christian", as in "Besides Chelsea and me, there was perhaps one other Christian in the entire cast and crew."

According to Wikipedia Clarence Gilyard is Catholic. I haven't found out religious information on any of the other actors.

[Jessica]

Hoo-ray for the return of LB Friday. Did anyone notice Hattie's shoes? I bet they were sensible AND comfortable. What a slut.

I wonder, if the election had gone the other way, whether Fred would be in such good spirits as to continue his analysis and keep us all entertained?

[The Amazing Kim]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

[damnedyankee]

I wonder why Chelsea Noble wanted specifically to play Hattie? I really can't picture an actress looking at L&J's tissue-thin characterization and utter lack of physical descriptions and seeing a juicy role.

Maybe she wanted to be Meta-Hattie.;)

[Geds]

I wonder, if the election had gone the other way, whether Fred would be in such good spirits as to continue his analysis and keep us all entertained?

Probably. He managed to keep it going after the 2004 election, after all...

[aunursa]

Remember, Hattie was described on page 2 as drop-dead gorgeous.

[damnedyankee]

Did you read the poem?

And then the cross smiled a little wider as it told the little animals that they had no souls and all they had to look forward to in God's plan was decay and oblivion...

I am not a good person.

[car]

Oh, Fred, is there anything we can do to help give you strength through this next trial? I am sooo happy for the return of the LB Fridays, but worry for your mental health wading through more.

As for the smiley cross, I've noticed that although RTCs are more than happy to rip heathens apart, they are loath to give any criticism to other Christians, lest they be thought of as not supportive. That lets an awful lot of crap slip through.

[Rev Dave]

Let me echo the general "yay!" for the return of LB: Friday, but also add a nostalgic yaaay for Dwight Ozard and the ol' days of Prism...[sigh]. That was one of my first encounters with Christians really focused on justice issues; they taught me a lot. And, of course, Fred still does. I'm continually amazed how many people in my otherwise mostly thoughtful, educated, and justice-oriented congregation uncritically read LB. I hammer away at the uncritical part whenever I can.

Also: @Cory: "occasional visitor of the nice people's social club" = +1. Very, very good. So sad how many self-identified Christians see church in just that way. Or at least treat it that way regardless of how they see it. Tony Jones posted something along these lines today; a delightful clip of Peter Rollins talking to a small crowd at a church in Connecticut. I'm a techno idiot so I wont try to link but you can see it at: blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/. It's short and funny. In spite of it being on beliefnet.

[chaos_engineer]

As I discovered when I asked Christians about it, the secular world's continued fascination with Left Behind is seen as a sign of how out of touch we are with evangelical culture. ...

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. In most fandoms, there are two different kinds of "big things". There's the disposable kind...it gets a big marketing push, and everybody's reading/watching it and talking about it, but it's just mediocre and after a year everybody's moved on to something else. Then there are the classics, that stay in print for years or decades and get used to introduce new fans to the genre.

Now, if I'm part of a fandom, and I see an outsider enjoying a classic work, then I'm not going to think he's out-of-touch. I'll want to talk to him about it, and recommend some other classics to him. (And I won't waste his time pushing him towards the latest ephemeral hit.)

The only way the "out-of-touch" accusation works is if we assume the whole genre is disposable...there are no classics, and anything that's a couple years old gets pushed off the shelves to make way for something new. Is that what's happening here? I guess the Bible is still considered a genre classic, and maybe C.S. Lewis, but are there any others?

[SueW]

Did you read the poem?

Augh! Why did you make me read that?! *runs away screaming*

[CombatQueer]

Yay for more LB Fridays! One more reason to hope the Rapture waits a few more months!

[Ruby]

Wooooooohoooooo!!! LB Fridays are BACK, baby!

And I have my very own copy of Left Behind: The Movie so I can follow along at home (rummage sale, $0.25) :D

[Turcano]

The CBA is always a vast and appalling spectacle, acres of tasteless merchandise and absurdly inept "witnessing tools" -- from Testamints to the latest offensive T-shirts.

My Lord and Savior has a creamy peanut butter filling... God bless us, every one.

[Roadstergal]

I watched the trailer, and the bit I liked the best:

"It's in the Scriptures. Trust me."

Not "It's in the Scriptures - look for yourself!" No, he sounds less like a priest and more like a used-car salesman. "You won't get a better deal anywhere else, trust me!"

[Cerberus]

Wow, it is kinda weird to see Prism was the name of a good Christian magazine. I'm quite a bit younger, so my only connotations with a Prism Publishing Company would be this one, which is a whole different thing.

[Jim]

The CBA sounds like P.J. O'Rourke's description of Heritage USA, the Christian-themed amusement park that Jim and Tammy Bakker were connected to.

[Jim]

a tin of homemade chocolate crosses

Surely a hollow chocolate tomb (without filling, of course) would be more appropriate for Easter. Unsweetened chocolate crosses may work for Good Friday.

[Cowboy Diva]

Jim, but what you are suggesting...why that's taking the highway to the Danger Zone!

*giggling*

[Robb]

every time the TV repairman showed up

Despite having been a teenage boy a decade & a half ago, I'm apparently woefully unfamiliar with porographic film, and I'm curious: is that a common "plot"? I've seen that as the typical stereotype that appears when mocking porn (have yet to see Zack & Miri, though), but does that happen? I'm suddenly tempeted to A: find out first hand then, B: edit together some random porn with the LB movie so we could [ahem] literally have some Pre-trib porno to throw up on Right Behind.

*makes mental note to casually ask fundie friends if anyone has copy of LB teh Moovy on DVD that I could rip & remix*

*****

(warning: this joke won't make sense unless you've spent years watching Jeopardy!)

"This African American journalist turned Christian kitch media icon has a long history in both public broadcasting and in religious paraphenalia."

"Who is Tavis Smiley the Cross?"

"Correct, pick again"

"Let's stick with Before & After for $1000, Alex"...

[YetAnotherKevin]

Hm. Apart from the music, it's not a bad trailer.

[Sarah Jane]

Chaos Engineer, you make an interesting point about the lack of fannish classics within the canon of the evangelical subculture. I think that's because a work of art becomes a classic through the reverence of its readers/viewers/listeners/watchers -- a deep respect for the art form as powerful, meaningful, and potentially life-changing.

But the evangelical church doesn't believe that art can function in those ways, and so its "arts" are reduced to shallow propaganda. They are nothing more than ever-changing disposable packaging for the the prescribed message. Having delivered said message, they become worn-out and redundant; no poring-over, no re-reading, no teasing out of subtle nuances required.

[spinetingler]

If you haven't read "Rapture Ready" you need to do so post-haste. It's very entertainung, not nearly as snarky as you might expect, and the website has bonus material that is not in the book.

[Kit Whitfield]

You know what I actually liked about the trailer? Just under thirty seconds in, Buck is running for shelter with an elderly friend as stuff explodes overhead - and Buck is holding on to the guy's arm, trying to help him. He trips over a second later, but before that, he's putting some effort into the welfare of another human being.

I already like this Buck much better than book-Buck. (He also cries rather than strikes deals, bless him.) He seems almost like a nice person.

And Fred, I shall much look forward to hearing your insights, laughing at your comments and generally enjoying your fine work. Thank you for all you've done so far, and I hope you're well. :-)

[lonespark]

He's gotta mean they weren't RTCs. There's plenty of nominally Christian and mainline Christian people in the entertainment industry.

On the horrible Jesus slogan t-shirts: I can't remember specifics, but my local mail store when I lived in Mesa, AZ, carried a ton of these. Spoofing the Coke logo and anything else widely recognized and corporate. Lots of sayings and jokes involving blookd and rulership. Eccchh. I used to like some Christian-themed t-shirts, even snarky ones, when I was young gung-ho UCC member, but these were just awful. It was a good mail store, but it made me want to start an all-Heathen establishment. I mean, what does Jesus have to do with my mail?!? (They also sold merchandise with fairies on it. They were RTCs, but apparently their clientele was just generally into kitsch.

[lonespark]

Sarah Jane has a good point. Also fans relate to their media by engaging with it, participating in it, analyzing and re-telling it... I don't get the impression this is something encouraged amongst RTCs. Or are there communities of LB fanficcers and cosplayers and wikimaintainers I don't know about?

[Erl]

Oh man that poem is terrible. There's a piece of Jewish liturgy that I think is really great for that sort of thing, the Unetaneh Tokef:

"Let us proclaim the sacred power of this day, it is awesome and full of dread. For on this day your (i.e, God's) dominion is exalted, your throne established in steadfast love, there in truth you reign . . . this is the day of judgement, for even the hosts of heaven are judged! As all who live on earth stand arrayed before you."

If the crucifixion and the Passion is about anything, it's gotta be about that. Not judgement per se, but the same sort of weighty emotion. Sacrifice, and awe.

I like to think of myself as a laid-back kinda guy, but man. Some shit is serious.