Left Behind Politics

Bush is trying to tie up the religious vote.

He hasn't succeeded and his strategy appears unwise.

Ryan Lizza reports on MYTHICAL EVANGELICALS, SKEPTICAL CATHOLICS, and Missing Religious Blacks and Jews.

Since we are on Left Behind, slacktivist has been blogging about this funny series and movement.

You want "biblical literalism," look at St. Francis -- a man who literally turned the other cheek, walked the extra mile and sold all he had to give to the poor. Of course, if you ask a premillennial dispensationalist like Tim LaHaye about such literal biblical imperatives from the mouth of Christ, he will explain that such teachings do not apply to our current "dispensation." The Sermon on the Mount, like most of Jesus' teachings, applies only to some future millennial kingdom, he will tell you -- it's one of those passages that those of us living in the present age are free to dismiss. This is what passes for "biblical literalism"?

As a Christian, I believe that our best indicator of the character of God comes from the example of Jesus Christ, and I have a rather hard time picturing Jesus roasting pagan babies on a spit.

This so-called-theology precisely parallels the plot of many an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Zealous fanatics loyal to some secretive prophecy try to bring about the signs that will summon their master and bring about the apocalypse and the death of nearly everyone on earth. (Buffy and the gang, contra the Apostolic Congress, regard this as a Bad Thing that should be stopped.)

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," Jesus said. So where is L&J's newfound treasure?

Then the fateful day arrives. In the twinkling of an eye, his teammates and opponents vanish. He is confronted with stark, incontrovertible proof of the existence of God. Life, he realizes, does have meaning -- there is a basis for faith, hope and love. And so he kills himself.

Slacktivist has a lot of good non-Left Behind posts too. Thanks to Off the Kuff for pointing my way.