Ripping LaHaye and Jenkins a new Behind

[Elok]

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/index.html

This blog has gained some degree of fame/notoriety already, and it may well have appeared on 'Poly before, but it's worth a reminder. It's from a liberal Christian who's doing a more or less page-by-page review of the first Left Behind book and exploring just why it's not only very bad writing, but also very bad theology, not to mention hateful and toxic propaganda from the nuttiest and most perverse sector of the religious right.

It might seem like beating a dead horse, but he makes some interesting points, he's very thorough, and I thought it might do some good to remind the more zealous atheists on this site that many of us are quite sane, thank you very much.

He can also be pretty funny when he gets wound up.

[DRoseDARs]

The Left Behind series is 12 books long, each comprising several hundred pages. If this blogger is going to continue to review the series at this pace, we might see the final blog entry after the Fourth Coming of Christ. Sh*t, I finished the first 8 books in less than a month in the midst of school and work. Hurry the f*ck up.

[Dis]

So athiests need support from some loon to justify their beliefs?

believe in yourself. You don't need crap like these websites.

I think hardcore athiests and religious fanatics are alike.

[Kuciwalker]

togglecaps: you read them? I made it about a third of the way through the first before returning it to the library, and I didn't know beforehand what they were.

[Q Classic]

I couldn't finish the first book because it was atrociously written; about as bad as the DaVinci Code text, to be honest.

Blech. And the names they had for the Asians! Oy, you've never heard such names!

[Kuciwalker]

I couldn't finish the first book because it was atrociously written; about as bad as the DaVinci Code text, to be honest.

QFT

[Elok]

Originally posted by Dis
So athiests need support from some loon to justify their beliefs?

believe in yourself. You don't need crap like these websites.

I think hardcore athiests and religious fanatics are alike.

...what? This guy's not an atheist, I'm not an atheist, and I find the whole thing refreshing because he criticizes the premilennial whatchamas from the perspective of more-or-less mainstream Xtianity (he identifies as Evangelical, but he admits the idiosyncracies of the Evangelical perspective on some things). He does a good job pointing out the severe departures they make from the NT and all theology prior to the 1800s, where an atheist critic might just take the series as "proof" that all religious people are crazy. If society is going to fight back these nuts (and related nuts of different persuasions), we're going to need more people like this guy who know what they're doing and can rally sane believers against them.

If you'd read the thing (well, part of it...the whole thing is huge), you'd find the guy is hardly a loon. He argues pretty well and ties in his reviews to current events and other works. It's not that we need a page-by-page analysis to see that the book sucks, but rather that a close reading gives you insight into just what's wrong with this particular subculture (beyond the general "they're nucking futs" explanation we all employ). In addition to being pretty funny at times, like I said. See his most recent entry (the one about anti-intellectual trends in PMD), and the image of the main character in a tweed jacket with a pipe babbling PoMo speak about piloting...

Drosey, I don't think he hates himself enough to go through all twelve books at this level of detail. Plus he's accelerated his pace a great deal from the beginning--updates are now every Friday.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Dis
So athiests need support from some loon to justify their beliefs?

believe in yourself. You don't need crap like these websites.

I think hardcore athiests and religious fanatics are alike.

I'm not an atheist by a long shot, you jackass.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
togglecaps: you read them? I made it about a third of the way through the first before returning it to the library, and I didn't know beforehand what they were.

It reads like a poorly-written Clockwork Orange, except any sense of reality is being tortured and murdered with glee. I enjoyed the series and I make no apologies for that. Sometimes the worst writing is the best writing, kinda like how some people looove to watch bad B movies.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Elok
Drosey, I don't think he hates himself enough to go through all twelve books at this level of detail. Plus he's accelerated his pace a great deal from the beginning--updates are now every Friday.

So that means he'll finish by, what, the opening of the sixth seal?

[Kuciwalker]

[Dr Strangelove]

LaHaye is a big supporter of Jerry Falwell and vice versa. He donated a big skating rink to Falwell's university. Like Jerry needed another cash cow.

[DRoseDARs]

Is it a red heifer? What would that meat taste like? What kind of wine goes with it?

[Elok]

It's probably not a red heifer, but the staff of a SeaWorld will soon be donating seven (trained) seals, I hear. They're just waiting while the biblical scholars they hired leaf through the Pentateuch to ensure that their prospective donation is not some sort of Abomination.

[DRoseDARs]

SeaWorld is an abomination. They don't sell any descent seafood.