> Dr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins did not invent fire and brimstone. But some
> scholars who study religion say that the phenomenal popularity of their
> "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic thrillers - now the best-selling
> adult novels in the United States - are part of a shift in American
> culture's image of Jesus. The gentle, pacifist Jesus of the Crucifixion
> is sharing the spotlight with a more muscular warrior Jesus of the
> Second Coming, the Lamb making way for the Lion.
This stuff matches what I'm seeing out here in Kansas City, in both my family and in the churches around here. The upside of this is that it might become easier to develop a secular anti-religious movement in opposition to this nonsense. I know that the tolerance towards "progressive" religion that I had adopted over the years has basically evaporated since I moved back to Kansas City. All religion has to go, because it maintains conservatism, ignorance, blind obedience to authority and the state, and all kind of other social ills.
What strikes me about this purported shift in the American image of Jesus is that is parallels the bloody arrogance of the American state. Perhaps we can tie evangelical Christianity to the American state and work towards eliminating both diseases.
No gods, no masters,
Chuck0