End time delusions

FORD PREFECT: Six pints of bitter and quickly please. The world’s about to end.
BARMAN: Oh...yes, sir, nice weather for it. Going to watch the match this afternoon?
FORD PREFECT: No, no point.
BARMAN: Foregone conclusion you reckon sir. Arsenal without a chance?
FORD PREFECT: No it’s just that the world’s going to end.
BARMAN: Ah yes you said. Lucky escape for Arsenal if it did.
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe

This topic is really big and has been around since the start of Christianity. I was going to say since Jesus died, but I don't think he existed for loads of reasons. Even more certainly, the end times will not come in the way these millenialists claim.

To copy from the Wilderness preacher: "In his warning about the false prophets, Jesus says to these sign-seeking disciples that the events we interpret as signs of the end are always happening and will continue to happen. They are not signs that the end is here, and if some are preaching this, they are false prophets who will lead us astray."

The message that the false prophets of the end times have is that the world is ending, so let’s not only look for the signs of the apocalypse, let’s also hurry things along. Let’s forget about seeking good in the world, making peace in the world, and improving our world. Let’s focus our attention on how quickly we can cause the world to end.

Uh, isn't that for God to take care of, not some idiot human beings?

These people are the Christian Zionists. The people who urge support for Israel. This is because Israel plays a significant role in their bizarre "Christian" end-time theology. Indeed, these prophets equate the modern state of Israel with the Biblical New Jerusalem. They preach that America must support Israel’s desire to hold on to confiscated land in order to be on God’s side, despite the atrocities the Israeli government may carry out against the Palestinians, or even US citizens. Nevermind that Torah Scholars point out that only "G-d" can form the true Eretz Israel, not man. I guess "Jesus's" covenant changes all that.

The prophets of Doom most egregious theological error is that the world will end in an apocalyptic battle in the Middle East, when Muslim nations will attack Israel and the world will erupt in a cataclysmic war to end all wars. Indeed, many of them express joy as they salivate over the prospects of an end-time war. The desire for this war is what creates an instability in the middle east and the hope that the US will go to fight this war. Nevermind that one of the criteria that there would be two powers, Gog and Magog, that would fight this war.

This fascination in the rapture in some circles has led to a gospel that is not socially conscious, but detrimental to society. They fixate on idea of a rapture, which will take place at a point in time in which Christians will somehow disappear from earth, apparently teleporting to heaven much like a scene out of Star Trek. The idea is that Christians will be taken from earth before things get really bad. The Left Behind series demonstrates this belief that Christians will not have to live through the mess they created for the rest of us by failing to address, or exacerbating, social problems.

But, as I stated before, this belief has been around since the beginning of Christianity. Strangely enough, it has been called Premillenialism or Millennialism even though Christ lived two millenia ago. John Calvin wrote in Institutes that millennialism is a "fiction" that is "too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation." Furthermore, Chritianity's history is full of stories of people who have predicted this age only to stand waiting on a hill with nothing happening. Either they go back to recalculate the date of the "End"or realise that the "end times" are merely folly.

Yet, like the myth of gun rights, the concept of the "end times" receives a lot of bandwidth on the internet. The coming of 2012 and the fact that the Mayan Calendar ends in that year. Nevermind that astronomers such as Philip Plait have stated very clearly that the Mayan calendar does not end in 2012 at all, that it is like the odometer on your car, as each section of the odometer reaches 9 and then clicks over to 0, the next number to it starts a new cycle, so that when all the numbers again reach 0 all the way across the odometer - the last number will change from 1 to 2 and the new cycle starts all over again.

There are some 50 million Evangelicals in the US who believe in this "literal truth of Bible prophecy". You can argue theological accuracy all you want. This massive block of citizens possesses unshakable belief that the end of the world will be heralded by a series of prophetic events some of which have occurred (e.g., 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina), some of which are ongoing (e.g., the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), and some that they are working fast and furious to cause or exacerbate (e.g., global warming and the financial crisis).

Of course, the refrain of "the World is going to End" is like the boy who screamed wolf. We've heard it so much that we are like Douglas Adams' Barman that we remain blase as someone repeats it. The problem isn't so much that these people are deluded as much as that they are working to create a mess of the world, which really isn't very Christian behaviour. In fact, this mindset creates a very sick and nasty gospel that turns people from the message of Christ (if he existed).

Of course, his real name was יְהוֹשֻׁעַ or יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (if he existed), which is Yeshua, or Joshua: not Jesus. So, how can you have a personal relationship with the guy if you call him the same name as your Mexican gardener? So, don't come around and tell me I need to have a personal relationship with him since I already do.

He's one of my wife's family and they are all meshugga!

Editorial note: I support Chelsea.

A solution to the problem in the Holy Land!

I have this neat idea: let's revive the Knights Templar. Except this go round,let's make them more ecumenical: i.e. Jews, Christians, and Moslems. All three religions find this area sacred and need to learn how to share. The New Templars will ensure that everyone can enjoy the freedom of the Holy Land and work to cut religious strife.

A History of Christianity

BBC iPlayer is the thing! I just started watching Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch's A History of Christianity. It isn't your usual history of Christianity since he digs into things such as the Egyptian and Ethiopian Coptic, Syriac, and other Oriental Orthodox Churches. The most interesting of these Churches was the Orthodox Church of the East which was headquartered in Baghdad!

Professor MacCulloch posits that the true origins of Christianity lie further east than Constantinople, and that at one point Christianity was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China. He has this theory that the headquarters of Christianity may well have been Baghdad not Rome, and if that had happened then western Christianity would have been very different.

The next episodes deal with the rise of Rome, The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Reformation, and the concept of scepticism in Christianity with one more episode to be announced. This has real potential to get you thinking!

The interesting thing is that Professor MacCulloch points out that Christianity is hardly monolithic in its nature, which most people neglect. This is especially true for those who wish to establish "Chritianity" as a state religion. Which "Christianity" are you proposing to be the State religion: Catholic? Pentacostal? Some of the varied forms of Orthodox Churches? Protestantism is hardly monolithic as well going from High Church Anglican (Episcopal) to Fundamentalist Bible Churches. The website has a neat little accompanying piece in league with the Open University called Defining Christianity.

I mean some people can't agree about Christmas! Is it Pagan or religious?

Anyway, this is an interesting series that looks at the History of the Church from a totally different point of view. I am taking the the "What type of Christian are you" Survey as a lark. It actually isn't easy.


My written responses were that "being a Christian means that you see salvation as coming from Jesus Christ" and I have "difficulty in believing that Christ is the road to Salvation". I would be a Christian if the religion was that discussed by Jesus of Montreal, one of my favourite all time films.

So, go out there and get another take on Christianity!

For the Man with the Muckrake

I hope you missed the pornstar goof up (see Bad seasonal joke as the picture of Christy Canyon and Victoria Paris "caroling" ended up here instead of Noah's Ark - According to Richard Herring)

Muslim Backlash in the USA?

Why should the vast majority of peaceful people suffer from one insane person's actions?

I have a hard time understanding how some people in the US, in particular the religious right, can be religiously intolerant. The religious right of the founders' time were the ones who wanted religious neutrality from the Government.

I have a problem with people like the one who wrote in the Guestbook at ane exhibit on Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War at Ford's Theatre:
"You can't be a good American unless you are Christian."

I had to respond: "Sorry, but the United States is supposed to be religiously neutral. It doesn't matter what religion a person is, they can be a good American."

I found Naveed Ali Shah's blog when I was trying to learn what went down at Fort Hood. He's a public affairs specialist in the Army who has been deployed for the past 4 months. He is stationed stateside at Fort hood and his wife and child are there now. I watch his blog to see what is going on from a Soldier's point of view.

General George Casey said that “Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

People need to understand that this was the action of one man and that Islam is one of the world's major religions and is the predominant religion in much of Africa, the Middle East and major parts of Asia. But muslims can come from anywhere. Americans have the misconception that all Muslims are Arabs and that all Arabs are Muslims. In fact, less than 20 percent of the Muslims in the world are Arab, and all Arab countries have populations that believe in other religions. The nation with the world's largest Islamic population is Indonesia -- 88 percent of its 280 million people are Muslims.

In the United States, Islam is the fastest growing religion, a trend fueled mostly by immigration. There are 5 million to 7 million Muslims in the United States. They make up between 10,000 and 20,000 members of the American military.

The word Islam is a homograph, having multiple meanings, and a triliteral of the word salaam, which directly translates as peace. Other meanings include submission, or the total surrender of oneself to God.

But some people prefer ignorance to the light.

Another muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, moved Colin Powell to say:

It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.

The problem is that The American Family Association, a right wing Christian group is calling for no more Muslims in the military. I'd like to think that groups of this sort don't have much sway, but...

The problem is that the US is supposed to be religiously neutral. Article VI of the Constitution states that: "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

To prevent Muslims from Serivng in the US forces is unconstitutional. Moreover, we have to remember this from the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797.

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Somehow that sentiment has been lost with the passing of time, which is a shame since the US should not demonise 1/5 the world's population.

I realise that the next passage was written by George Washington about the Jews, but it applies to all religions

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

President John Tyler wrote in an 1843 letter:

"The United States have adventured upon a great and noble experiment, which is believed to have been hazarded in the absence of all previous precedent -- that of total separation of Church and State. No religious establishment by law exists among us. The conscience is left free from all restraint and each is permitted to worship his Maker after his own judgment. The offices of the Government are open alike to all. No tithes are levied to support an established Hierarchy, nor is the fallible judgment of man set up as the sure and infallible creed of faith. The Mohammedan, if he will to come among us would have the privilege guaranteed to him by the constitution to worship according to the Koran; and the East Indian might erect a shrine to Brahma, if it so pleased him. Such is the spirit of toleration inculcated by our political Institutions."

Ultimately, we must keep in mind what Army Chaplain (Capt.) Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad said regarding the need for understanding that their fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who are Muslim are just like they are non-muslims. "It's important for all of us to see ourselves as coming from the same origin," he said. "It's too easy for people to get off on what's different.

"People have a way of just being people," he continued. "That nature God has already put into us. There's not one Polish nature or Italian nature or Muslim nature or Christian nature. It's just human nature. When people get to the essence of what makes us who we are, then that's what binds us together.

"The Koran says that God created us different nations and tribes that we may come to know each other, not that we should hate or despise each other."