Slacktivist and Left Behind

Fred Clark over at Slacktivist has completed his detailed review of Left Behind.

Left Behind is a novel written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins set in the time following the Rapture of all the true Christians. The book and its sequels have sold 65 million copies. Given how well this book has sold and given the nature of its contents, it is disturbing that many non-evangelicals are not even aware of the book’s existence.

The book and its sequels are full of misogyny, hatred and ignorance.. They portray a world where anyone desiring world peace does so merely to help promote a New World Order ruled by the Antichrist. Anyone who does not accept Jesus as their personal lord and savior burns in hell for eternity. The authors have so little understanding of how the world functions that they seem to believe that the UN decides who each country sends as an ambassador. And there are many more examples. [1] This is before we consider that the writing is just awful. To understand the extreme aspects of modern evangelical Christianity you should read this book. To get much of the same material with a lot more amusement, read Slacktivist’s review.

Clark has gone through the entire book, summarizing and commenting throughout so you don’t need to damage your brain with this book. He is a moderate evangelical with substantial experience with the more fundamentalist and extremist evangelicals. This gives him an insightful perspective on Left Behind. His review is long, but extremely amusing and erudite. In commenting he quotes such luminaries as William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, and Joss Whedon. Clark’s work is similar to my discussion of Stel Pavlou but written by a much more erudite and funny fellow. Also, unlike Decipher, this is about a book that actually matters. Go. Read. Now.

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[1] Yet another example: In the writers' world, Israel expands its borders to include all the territory claimed by the Palestinians and yet somehow is at peace with all its neighbors.