When I was a kid I knew The World was going to Hell in a hand basket. I didn't know what that phrase meant, still don't really, but I knew that it was one of the only times I could get away with saying hell, because it wasn't swearing. The World was actually going there.
Perhaps a couple definitions are necessary here at the outset. In my conservative, evangelical-before-we-knew-what-evangelical-was upbringing, Hell meant that very literal -- perhaps underground -- place where real flames burn real, bad people forever. And The World meant non-Christians, as in "be in the world, but not of it." Evangelicals often refer to any not-usses, any thems, as The World.
So, The World was on a steady decline to the pits of Hell, which began, well, when it all began, when the literal Adam and Eve ate the literal apple, handed them by the literal snake who literally was Satan in disguise and sin entered into the previously pristine world. The thing about this decline though, is that we were all okay with it. It's not that we wanted to live in a world that was getting worse; it was just that we didn't want to live in The World at all. And though there are many variations of this belief, typical evangelical eschatology says that in order for Jesus to come back the world has to get so bad that the only solution is to scoop up his followers, burn the whole place down and start again.
This being the case, we knew that what we were seeing around us, the fact that more and more swear words slipped through the FCC's slackening grip and made their way into our homes via our televisions, that more magazine covers revealed more skin, that PG movies were more like PG-13 movies, that a Democrat got elected, and then had a public affair, and then stayed in office; these were all signs that things were going according to plan.
The only problem, as far as my 8-year-old self was concerned, was that things weren't moving along quickly enough. My parents used to tell me stories about how in the 1970s they were certain that it was all coming to an end. But then Reagan became president and, I guess, things started looking up again for the good guys. I had to do something to help speed up the process.
My solution came in the form of one of the greatest evils of the 80s: MTV. I wasn't allowed to watch music videos, not even the harmless VH1 variety. Clearly, I concluded, the more viewers MTV had, the sooner Armageddon would happen. Therefore I resolved to make any and all of my non-Christian friends tune in often, and sometimes, even, when I was sitting on the couch beside them. I would hand a friend the remote to my family's old JC Penney television set, tell him to type in 3 and 6 and when MTV blinked on the screen and Axl Rose screamed "Take me down to Paradise City..." my friend would turn to me with a horrified look on his face and say something like, "But we're not allowed to watch this." To which I would respond, "I'm not, because I'm a Christian, but I think it's okay for you."
Diabolical, wasn't I? In the end, all this accomplished for me was a few spankings and an uncompromising love of popular culture.
Certainly this is religion as seen through a child's eyes, but it is also emblematic of the kind of Christianity I grew up in -- one so concerned with individual salvation that its very standards of morality are a means toward that end. This is the same morality that cares nothing for the earth because it will eventually be destroyed, or for those who are not receptive to evangelism as their fates are sealed.
This morality really is amorality, a void where actual care and concern for what is right should be -- rules and regulations in place of grace and virtue. If there is a list of activities that one must do or not do in order to achieve personal salvation, this list must necessarily trump everything else. I must do whatever is necessary to secure paradise for myself. My morality matters most; yours, very little.
As much as the people in my church hated the idea of relativism -- which they saw as a kind of ultimate evil that, if ever it were to take hold, would assure that there would be no ultimate evil - the relative nature of the preferred evangelical morality seems to have gone completely unnoticed.
But, Christianity is not really about personal salvation. As a Christian, my life should matter less to me than the lives of others. In this way, too, my sense of morality must reflect this understanding: it is not what I can do for myself that is of value, but how I can make life better for those around me. Or, as Hegel prescribes in his Lectures on the Philosophy of History, striving toward spiritual perfection in one's own life is not enough, rather the Christian believer must actively transform the physical world into a place more habitable for "free, spiritual beings."
This shift fortunately corresponds to a larger shift that is taking place among evangelicals, or post-evangelicals as many of us who have walked away from the warehouses and former department stores that served as the evangelical churches we were raised in are often identified as now. If evangelicalism was concerned, first and foremost, with personal salvation, we must make a conscious effort to shift our attentions outward; not to police the morality of others but to mind how our own actions help or hurt them, to ensure our motivations are right.
Granted, this outlook isn't going to speed up the onslaught of the Apocalypse, but it might make the time between now and Armageddon that much more pleasant for everyone.
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"The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad."
For me, the End Times do not seem to be the kernel of Jesus. Rather, the Kingdom of God is the most compelling thing. And it doesn't require that the Earth end (although it WILL when the Sun expands), but just that we treat each other as we wish ourselves to be treated, and that we take care of God's creation, in this case, the Earth.
Beyond that, all that Medieval stuff doesn't jibe with what we observe of the Universe. What does jibe is that those creatures that cooperate to preserve their niches tend to survive more and that those who compete to destroy their niches do not.
There.
BZ.
What better perspective to seize the moment, reject evil and make the world a better place.
Working to make the world a better place is a great idea, but an apocalyptical view just makes things worse.
BZ.
http://www.ajc.com/lifestyle/billboard-campaign-claims-jesus-771570.html?cxtype=rss_news
BZ.
freeing him from our sins for the month of December
celebrating his life and his works
putting down the guns of war at him for the period in which we claim to celebrate his birth.
Treating him the way we treat the blessed and good...
you cannot harm him
you cannot cripple him at his knees and wrists and ankles
you cannot inflict the headaches of a cross of thorns on him
he did nothing wrong
you cannot give him the pain of muscles being stretched out
over long periods of time
he did nothing wrong.
Where are the people who actually own these afflictions
the people who have thrown their sin on Jesus?
I read with interest your column on Chinese Christians because my parents were missionaries in mainland China from 1932 until 1949, when the revolution forced them out.
I'd love to discuss the present state of Chinese Christians with you.
BZ.
The fools keep believing it's going to happen when it's not. And they keep wishing/allowing the world to get worse thinking they will be the chosen ones to be saved. It's so childish and egocentric that it is laughable. That these people can call themselves adults is a travesty.
"Representative John Shimkus (R-IL), who said he opposed cap and trade legislation because God would not allow the Earth to be destroyed by global warming, is seeking the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"I do believe in the Bible as the final word of God," Shimkus told Politico Wednesday. "And I do believe that God said the Earth would not be destroyed by a flood."
During a congressional hearing in March of 2009 on a proposed cap and trade bill, Shimkus quoted Genesis, saying, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done."
"I believe that's the infallible word of God, and that's the way it's going to be for his creation," he added. "The Earth will end only when God declares it's time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood. I do believe that God's word is infallible, unchanging, perfect."
Convenient way to continue to be able to use up the earth's resources and not take responsibility for the damage.
I actually cut it and a few other things out of my copy. I am kind of a Jefferson in that.
BZ.
If there is no reason to think that Jesus will come again then there is no reason to think he was God to begin with. If the apocalypse seems silly and unscientific to you then why not also reject the ressurection, or the virgin birth, or the miracles jesus performed? I realize that the end times propecies sound farfetched to modern readers...but so does most of the Bible.
If you're going to call yourself a Christian and claim to believe in the teachings and power of Jesus, then you must be consistent and also believe in his future Second Coming.
I do not adhere to this belief but I'd appreciate it if more an more people took up your challenge of recognizing the futility of waiting around for something that clearly won't happen.
denvergoat