Skipping Towards Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire

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This is an investigation and critique of the Christian right in America via "The Left Behind" series of novels. Protestant Evangelism in America is a potent cultural, historical and political force. It is an inseparable part of the national character. As a religious denomination, the personal faith of Evangelicalism brings hope to millions of followers, just as other forms of religious belief enrich and give meaning to the adherents of these faiths. But, below the surface, there is a more dangerous, ominous and cynically manipulated message bent more on enforcing a political ideology in the United States and around the world than any type of religious belief. In reality, this political-Evangelicalism could be compared to what some call the takeover of the Islamic faith with a form of virulent political-Islam. The core objectives of each are to control minds, markets and resources. Where one uses barbarous terrorist tactics, spiteful propaganda and violence to achieve its goals, the other uses flashy and pervasive television, radio, savvy publishing and technological propaganda as means to deliver its message. The most effective message, yet found by the people seeking to hijack. Protestantism is the "Left Behind" series, described in a marketing report commissioned by Tyndale House (the series' publisher) as one of the most widely experienced religious teaching or evangelistic tools among adults who are not born again Christians, and that books reached a larger unduplicated audience of nonbelievers than most religious television or radio ministries draw through their programs. Above all, what the book reveals is that the "Left Behind" series is not a harmless series of thrillers written from an evangelical Christian perspective but the primary tool of a man of whom none other than Jerry Falwell has remarked: "He has set the agenda for evangelicalism more than any other person." This agenda, by its very own admission, seeks to bring about the end of the world. With no end on sight to the series, with other large publishers issuing "me-too" series (most notably Bantam), we trivialise these books at our peril.

Author Bio

Michael Standaert has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Review, Maisonneuve (Montreal), Far Eastern Economic Review, Reason Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal Europe, and Salon.com. He received an MA in European Journalism from Cardiff University.