Now We're Waiting for the Third Coming

Wednesday White of Science Fiction Blog (who, incidentally, designed the Beatrice logo a decade ago) alerted me to the fact that Slacktivist briefly resumed his close readings of Left Behind for a few days late in December.

"Peace is a pretty major theme in the Bible [he notes]. But none of this matters to the prophecy nuts who are convinced that the Antichrist will be a man of peace. And since they believe that the most important thing for Christians to do is to be on the lookout against the Antichrist, and vigilantly opposed to his evil ways, they believe that Christians must oppose anyone who speaks of, pursues, or tries to make, peace. This is one of the most astonishing and dangerous aspects of the popularity of the End Times heresies promoted by people like LaHaye and Jenkins. It is one of this biggest reasons why this matters--deeply, truly, seriously matters."

NYT columnist Nick Kristof hit a similar theme last November, criticizing Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins for the inherent bigotry of their apocalypse porn. But nobody I've seen has gone after these guys with the thoroughness of the Slacktivist. See for yourself, encourage him to do more--though the site itself is going great guns, the Left Behind well hasn't been touched for over a month--and if you're in the media, write about his work.