Yet an unhealthy obsession with predicting the end of the world has long been a powerful undercurrent in Christianity. Late twentieth and early twenty first century Americans seem particularly prone to a fascination with "the end." It is primarily the province of Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, but I fear that more than a few Catholics have gotten swept up in the hysteria.
Just last week I came across a pertinent book entitled Have a Nice Doomsday. The description on the back cover definitely aroused my interest; I my have to go back to the bookstore and buy it.
In Have a Nice Doomsday, Nicholas Guyatt searches for the truth behind a startling statistic: 50 million Americans have come to believe that the apocalypse will take place in their lifetime. They're convinced that, any day now, Jesus will snatch up his followers and spirit them to heaven. The rest of us will be left behind to endure massive earthquakes, devastating wars, and the terrifying rise of the Antichrist. But true believers aren't sitting around waiting for the Rapture. They're getting involved in debates over abortion, gay rights, and even foreign policy. Are they devout or deranged? Does their influence stretch beyond America's religious heartland—perhaps even to the White House?
Journeying from Texas megachurches to the southern California deserts—and stopping off for a chat with prophecy superstar Tim LaHaye—Guyatt looks for answers to some burning questions: When will Russia attack Israel and ignite the Tribulation? Does the president of Iran appear in Bible prophecy? And is the Antichrist a homosexual?
Bizarre, funny, and unsettling in equal measure, Have a Nice Doomsday uncovers the apocalyptic obsessions at the heart of the world's only superpower.
3 comments:
Father Charles,
You are a Priest, however I don't believe your vow of obedience compels you to "express your obviously feminine feelings" to the entire world.
Your rants are an embarrassment.
And your characterization of Father Trosch as a "loon" is simply unacceptable commentary - especially from a supposed brother Catholic Priest.
Do all of us a big favor, STOP the carnage. Your writings are nothing but mind numbing platitudes and the tree hugging, chairs in a circle, guitar strumming, I'm ok, you're ok mentality that is the reason thousands of Catholics are losing the faith and running for the door.
A little less writing and a lot more praying young "Padre".
Yes, well I think this is a fairly large problem, which comes directly from a Christian world view.
It's a large problem because, what is the point of working hard to avoid meteor strikes, detrimental human effects on the environment or anything else, if God has a plan, and is about to destroy the world. This teaches us to ignore all that.
It comes from a Christian world view, because the Bible clearly states that although one can't know the day of the hour, the end is coming SOON! In fact, within the lifetimes of some witnessing the prophesy. Since that was said 2000 years ago, and we're fairly sure all those present are now dead, it was obviously a false prophesy, and should be discounted.
My wife runs a mentor program for kids, and she asked me tonight to research the saying, "To those that much has been given, much will be expected." She and I have both pretty much run our lives on that quotation, but she's wondering if any other major world religions besides Christianity have any kind of scripture that expresses the same idea. She wants to use that idea to help recruit mentors and motivate current mentors, but neither one of us knows much about other religions. If you know something, please go to my blog and send me a message about this.
Oh, and read the current "Commonweal" article about priests. I think you'll find it right on target.
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