The Billiken's Bluff

Your average NY Times reader probably thinks that Mr. and Mrs. Middle American don’t read, that if they do read it’s Reader’s Digest or a week old copy of USA Today. This simply is not the case. The Red States are reading voraciously, and one of the top-seller’s in the Mid-West and South is the prolific “Left Behind” Series.

“Left Behind” is a series of 12 books released over the past 9 years by co-authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The series enthusiastically depicts Jesus returning to Earth to slaughter everyone who is not a Born-Again Christian. Every Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Agnostic, and Catholic is killed in this Armageddon. The Antichrist turns out to be the secretary-general of the United Nations.




The title of the Left Behind series suggests that the focus of these novels is not on those saved by Christ, but rather on the non-believers, the infidels (to use some fundamentalist jargon). This type of negative-Christianity that focuses on the punished brings to mind some of the issues that critics had with Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Both productions choose to ignore the fraternal, loving message of Christ, and instead dwell on the corporeal, the visceral images.

Some of the titles of the "Left Behind" books-

Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind (Left Behind #2)

Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides (Left Behind #4)

The Mark: The Beast Rules the World (Left Behind #8)

LaHaye and Jenkins aren't exactly practicing The Golden Rule, and "Loving their neighbor as thyself".

Fine it’s fiction you say. I don’t doubt that part of the appeal is the end of the world doomsday/sci-fi aspect to these books. I really enjoy films like Independence Day and reading books like War of the Worlds. But "Left Behind" goes beyond science fiction and feeds off of religious fervor. And a LOT of people are reading these books.

71 percent of the readers are from the South and Midwest, and just 6 percent from the Northeast. (Hence Tyndale's sponsorship of a NASCAR racer, with the unlucky logo LEFT BEHIND.) The "core buyer" is a 44-year-old born-again Christian woman, married with kids, living in the South. This isn't the "Sex and the City" crowd—which helps explain why it took so long for the media to notice that one in eight Americans was reading all these strange books about the end of the world.
[Via MSNBC]

God is phenomenally popular. These books are phenomenally popular and big business. So it’s no surprise that the authors of these books which celebrate the painful dismembering and death of non-Christians have been questioned about their questionable message. LaHaye and Jenkins say that they are simply giving the Bible (or more specifically, selected passages from the Bible, namely The Book of Revelations) a literal read in the 21st century. They claim they can’t mince words and won’t apologize or water down God’s message. Jenkins says:

“We can’t read it some other way just because it sounds exclusivistic and not currently politically correct. That’s our crucible, an offensive and divisive message in an age of plurality and tolerance.”

Plurality and tolerance. What cockamamie ideas. LaHaye and Jenkins have company in another group of fundamentalists that has been known to give close readings to religious texts. A lot has been written about the Koran suggesting that there is no way around the fact that it is a violent, racist, and misogynist text.

Fundamentalist Christians like LaHaye and Jenkins aren’t quite as radical as their Islamic counterparts. While the latter are working towards the downfall of Western Capitalist Civilization, the former are firmly entrenched in it. The Left Behind website sells every imaginable spin-off from the series, a plethora of products related to the End of Days. Left Behind children’s books. A graphic novel. Left Behind Prophecies sent directly to your mobile phone each day. A Left Behind Trivia Game. A Prophecy Club ($6.50/month). Screen Savers. Messageboards. Chatrooms. And a special section labeled America in the End of Times: Four Possibilities. NBC’s hit sitcom Friends didn’t even license that many products.



LaHaye and Jenkins also conduct polls of their reading audience, maybe a bit of market research-

In a recent poll on leftbehind.com, we asked the question "Are you ready for Jesus to return?" Website polls are not statistically valid surveys, but they can be illuminating. Here's how the responses broke down:

-More than 50 percent of respondents said "I'm anxiously expecting his return."

-Nearly 3 in 10 either had unfinished business or didn't want to end their earthly good times just yet when they said "I hope he comes in my lifetime, but not yet."

-Under 2 in 10 said either "I need to get ready" or "I'm afraid I'll be left behind."

-Another small group, about 3 in 100, said "I know I'll be left behind, but I don't know what to do."

LaHaye and Jenkins make it quite clear that they expect that The Second Coming will occur during their lifetime. So if America’s Born-Again Christians are assumed into Heaven, let’s say sometime in the next 4 years, and the rest of us Americans are Left Behind, then… well it doesn’t look like the Republicans will have that 4 million vote mandate in the 2008 election.