DISQUS

Pat · 5 years ago

Here here.

David · 5 years ago

What does Jesus have against horses?

Will Wilkinson · 5 years ago

Pagan horses!

David · 5 years ago

Ah, pagan horses, raised by Druids. But of course, they must be smoted.

Andy · 5 years ago

I fully agree, although I wouldn't jump to conclusions about anyone reading them. I could see checking them out for entertainment/mocking value, but I doubt I could sit through one of the books, let alone 12 of them.

Rob · 5 years ago

It's why I hardly contain my disgust (take that Nussbaum!) for the local conservative talk-radio station 870, RKLA -- a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian establishment through which Prager, Hewitt, Laura Ingraham (whom I love), are sydicated in the L.A. region. KRLA ran on-air advertisements ad nauseam for this Left Behind book.

It's important to point out, perhaps, that this type of bigotted, apocalyptic eschatological Christianity exists only among fundamentalist evangelical Christians. Orthodox christianity (Catholocism, etc.) and mainline (dying) Protestant sects have nothing to do with it.

The Left Behind authors and their minions -- along with Hal Lindsay ("The Late Great Planet Earth") -- truly ARE truly repulsive, despicable people.

Will Wilkinson · 5 years ago

Rob, I centainly didn't mean to lump all Christianity in together, which is why I was careful to use targeted, derisive adjectives to pick out the relevant class. That's what I meant by saying that reasonable people may believe falsehoods (orthodox forms of xtianity).

Rob · 5 years ago

Will, of course -- I agree with you. I didn't mean to imply you were lumping all Christians together in that regard. ;)

Excellent post all around.

Rob · 5 years ago

But just a quibble -- do people really "have a political right to express anything they want"? I'm not sure how you mean "political" here. Do you mean in some abstract sense that people have this right? But then this seems to slide right in with the "intellectual/moral" right you speak of. Ain't sayin' you're wrong; I'm just confused here. By understanding of "the political" is that it's synonymous with "the moral."

Rob · 5 years ago

_My_ understanding of the political is that it's synonymous with the moral.

Luka Yovetich · 5 years ago

Rob,

KRLA does have Larry Elder on. That's makes up for some of the other stuff. But not TOO much of it. Elder isn't THAT good. But he's okay.

Rob · 5 years ago

Actually, Elder is on KABC AM790 out here. Met him at the John Stossel book-signing event hosted by Reason last January; he's a terrific guy.

Julian Sanchez · 5 years ago

The political/moral distinction seems pretty clean cut: You have a political right to say racist things, in that the government may not shut you up just becaue you're publishing nasty things about minority groups, say. But it's venal and immoral to do so.

Luka Yovetich · 5 years ago

Rob,

That's right. I just thought of that today. I turned on KABC and realized that Elder's on that one. I got confused for a second.

I guess that means that KRLA is worse than I was saying!

That's cool that you met him.

Chuck · 5 years ago

As far as I can determine, the Left Behind series is bad literature and worse theology. Now it appears that it's also a veritable orgy of sadistic violence done in the name of the messiah; e.g., it's blasphemous. It seems to subvert Jesus's central message of transcendent, universal love in favor of an Apocolyptic slasher flick.

All in all, the books sound shlocky, boring, and repellent.

But am I wrong to want to distinguish between speech-as-ideas and speech-as-action? Look, show me one--just one--example of terroristic violence on the part of an Evangelical and I will yell loudly in protest. But, as far as I can tell, this has not been a Christian tactic. Not the Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, or even Branch Davidians have made it their m.o. to go out and attack in the name of JC. No, in recent times, violence in the name of religion (on this continent and in Europe and the Middle East) has been almost solely the province of another religion that I will decline to mention at this time.

Will Wilkinson · 5 years ago

Abortion clinic bombings?

Chuck · 5 years ago

Point conceded.

Gene Calllahan · 5 years ago

As pointed out by Eric Voegelin, movements like the "left behinders" are Christian in name only. They are reallly Gnostic movements using the name Christian as a cover.

Gene Calllahan · 5 years ago

Whoa, Chuck, one of these Gnostics just attacked a Mideastern country that had never attacked the US, killing thousands in the process. And he said he had "asked God" about this, and so felt fine about it. (A Gnostic characteristic, to have a direct pipeline to God and use it to justify whatever one does.)

John Sabotta · 5 years ago

Boy, Wilkerson, although you are publicly slavering for the day when you can harass people on buses because of their reading material (and what business is it of yours, exactly?) I wonder how often you actually do it? Does the possibilty of someone (quite rightly) punching you in the face in response to your impertinence deter you? It should, you little twit.

Note to Gene Callahan: You are an idiot and you have no idea what Gnosticism is. Feel free to come over to no-treason.com so we can kick you around like a deflated basketball with a Gene Callahan face painted on it. Oh, yeah, and say hi to all your neo-fascist little Confederate-sucking pals over at Lew Rockwell for me.

PS. Kennedy says to say that I am not part of his "posse," whatever that is. He seems appalled by my post.

John Sabotta · 5 years ago

Boy, Wilkerson, although you are publicly slavering for the day when you can harass people on buses because of their reading material (and what business is it of yours, exactly?) I wonder how often you actually do it? Does the possibilty of someone (quite rightly) punching you in the face in response to your impertinence deter you? It should, you little twit.

Note to Gene Callahan: You are an idiot and you have no idea what Gnosticism is. Feel free to come over to no-treason.com so we can kick you around like a deflated basketball with a Gene Callahan face painted on it. Oh, yeah, and say hi to all your neo-fascist little Confederate-sucking pals over at Lew Rockwell for me.

PS. Kennedy says to say that I am not part of his "posse," whatever that is. He seems appalled by my post.

John T. Kennedy · 5 years ago

"Yet people have no intellectual or moral right to think or express whatever they like."

They do have a moral right to do so, which is merely saying it would be wrong to force them to do otherwise.