Why I am Not Afraid of being Left Behind.
-Will Hunter (Ruefio da Rat)

Well, when the Rapture does happen, 144,000 people (According to the Book of Revelations) will be called up to heaven to serve God and His Son. It is safe to say that I will not be one of them. No, it is not the fact that I am not a Christian (And I am not, by the way, by choice). It is not the fact that I am not, to my knowledge, a member of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the simple fact that I am definitely not pious enough. Be that as it may, I am worried about the message that the new Movie "Left Behind" and the books that spawned it may be passing along to the youth, and Christians, of America.

In a recent review by Tom Keogh of Film.com, Mr. Keogh makes the statement, "Left Behind commits the sin of pride." (See www.film.com/film-review/2001/10014328/23/default-review.html for the full review) Unfortunately, this may not be as far fetched as that statement suggests. The Sin of Pride in this case however, could have very far reaching, and disastrous, consequences. Throughout history, self named "Christians" have committed very grievous acts of violence and degradation against multiple peoples of the known world. Readily accessible examples would be the treatment of indigenous societies in the Americas, the attempted eradication of the Jews in Europe during WWII, and even as recently as the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by Christian militants in the late 1970's. The commandment "Thou shall not kill" was suspended during those times, and in some cases these "Christians" murdered whole societies. Were these truly the acts of the true sons of Israel, or were these the acts of people using the religion, and it's call for "Ministry" as justification for acts they truly knew was wrong.

I would like to believe that the later is the truth, and that monsters, and not thinking and feeling humans, committed these evil and hateful acts. Unfortunately, that belief requires a bit of naivety than I no longer enjoy. Instead, the modern form of the men, and women, that committed horrible acts in the name of Christian Ministry, may be who is behind the repackaging and popularizing of a new form of Christian faith.

Now, let me stop here for a moment, and establish a little common ground. I am not trying to target all Christians, nor everyone that follows and truly believes in the Christian faith and ideas. I have, in my travels and experience, have met quite a lot of wonderful and caring Christians that I not only respect but would be honored to have them as my friend. It is those followers of Christ that I hope will be allowed into Heaven, as that would be their just reward. But for every one of those good and faithful Christians, I have encountered daemons that call themselves Christians, but are nowhere near faithful to the principles that Christianity teaches. Those are the self styled Moral Majority that worries me so much.

Those of the later are the ones that will not stay out of people's personal lives. Those are the "Christians" that try to impose their beliefs on the general population by way of laws and excessive, forceful ministries. They are the far right evangelical ministers that control the Christian Coalition. Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and even President George Bush are excellent examples of the type of person I am talking about in this essay. They would have us believe that God and Christ do not want us to accept and love our fellow man because of choices they, and we, have made. The homosexuals, abortion doctors, Jews, Muslims, other non-Christians, S&M practitioners, swingers, and even evolutionists are just a small cross section of the "Unredeemable" we should not tolerate and judge as inferior, even though the Bible itself tells us "Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself."

And now, we have the "Left Behind" series of books, and soon, movies. In the following weeks, I will read the books, and possibly see the movie, just to make sure that my fears are unfounded, and that those popular works are nothing more that a devote minister and his co-author celebrating their faith in a way that I can definitely understand. Since I do pray to my Creator, I will be asking that the books and movie are not propaganda, because if they are, I will have to draw the line, and vocally denounce them, and their followers for being, however glibly, hate-mongers in the guise of good Christian worshipers.

This will be continued.