The Slacktivist Continues His March on LaHaye and Jenkins...

[liz_marcs]

Evangelical liberal Christian journalist Fred Clark, aka The Slacktivist, is best known for his hilarious, thorough, theological, and long-running take-down of Left Behind.

After spending several years ripping Left Behind into teeny-tiny shreds, he has now set his sights on Tribulation Force.

Title for his first entry? TF: Inaction Heroes.

Actual quote from his first entry on Tribulation Force:

For those who did read the first book, this introduction highlights how very little actually happened in Left Behind. They've condensed that 468-page book into a three-page summary mainly by leaving out the phone calls and plane rides. And while they were at it, they've provided a few revisions and additions to the plot of Book 1. This summary diverges from the actual book enough that it might have been better titled "What I Meant to Have Gone Before," or "What Would Have Gone Before If I'd Bothered With Even a Cursory Rewrite After Rattling Off a Rough Draft and Sending It to the Publisher."

In any case, if you're going to read this prologue, I suggest doing so out loud in your best imitation of a Movietone News announcer or in the voice of the narrator from an old-time matinee serial narrator -- "Meanwhile, Rayford has fallen down a well ..." That's more or less how it's written. (Plus almost anything can be fun if you read it in that voice.)

Ahahahahahahahahahaha!

On the one hand, one wants to ask why Mr. Clark would continue to torture himself so. On the other hand: Wheeeee! Good for us!

Is it no wonder I tune into Blog Slacktivist every Friday?

Comments

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

Reading crap!fic is a bit like being into masochism: one does it for the sheer pleasure of the pain, realizing all the while that not too many other people will understand the kink. Given my own love for crap!fic*, I can entirely understand why he keeps going back for more.

* DISCLAIMER: I own and have read all the books in the Left Behind series. The level of bad was absolutely glorious and won't be matched anytime soon.

'B' Ark?

[first-spike.livejournal.com]

I was blissfully unaware of Left Behind until now - seems The Rapture™ is a peculiarly USAnian thing.
I reckon the whole thing is just the cover story for a version of what Douglas Adams described in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

What I really came here to mention is that the first link to The Slacktivist is borked - has an embedded " in it.

[deird1]

Ah, Left Behind Fridays. How I love them.


Having worked in a Christian bookstore selling people those horrifically awful books for several years, reading his posts is wonderfully cathartic.

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

You're poasting more than usual. I like it. :)

Thanks for reminding me of the Slacktivist.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

I need to read him more. He makes some good points, and I think I'd find his pov mentally stimulating.

You posted about Darwin Day a while back, quoting the percentage of people who don't believe in evolution. Well, there's a reason for that, and he points it out admirably in his post on Young-Earth Creationism: Christians have been told, in so many words, that to believe in evolution is to disbelieve in God. And the thing is, it's not just coming from Evangelical leaders. No, it's coming from scientific atheists just as much. "Here's something that replaces your God," they say. So if you do believe in God, you're caught in a dilemma: do I believe the scientists, or do I believe what I've been taught my whole life?

It's not an easy leap to make. Given that dilemma, most will cling to anything that allows them to keep their faith, which adds meaning, rather than turn completely away and lose that foundation. I've accepted evolution while keeping my faith, but it's something I hide from most Christians. Cowardly, I know, but given the level of emotion, it's a lot easier than "coming out." I just wish there could be more dialogue on the subject. As it is, one side shouts, "You're going to hell!" The other side shouts, "You're stupid!"

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

So if you do believe in God, you're caught in a dilemma: do I believe the scientists, or do I believe what I've been taught my whole life?

Now to me, this is a non-issue, because Genesis and Darwin focus on two different things. Darwin says: This is how we got here. Genesis says: And this is why our being here is important--because life is good, and the world is good, and we are responsible for the world and what we do in it. And both say--Isn't it incredible?

[honorh.livejournal.com]

I truly wish more people thought that way. I hate the cold war between science and faith. It's easy to blame one side or the other for the whole thing, but that's not the way the world works, is it?

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to know what groups tout this belief. I was raised Presbyterian and I'm currently Methodist and no one has ever once insisted that I disbelieve in the theory of evolution. Am I completely oblivious or just incredibly lucky in my congregations?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I'm utterly mystified by this myself. I went to Catholic school from Grade 5, and the nuns would have a heart attack if religion got anywhere near a science class.

And I'm talking nuns with habits and big, oversized crosses. Science and religion were never, ever considered to be in conflict because they dealt with fundamentally different questions.

So, yeah, maybe we had heard about creationism as kids, but that's because I remember it becoming an "issue" on the news, net because anyone even suggested it had any bearing on reality.

So, no, you're not the only one.

Then again, to be fair, I hadn't even heard about the rapture until I was in my mid-20s. I heard the word, but I had no clue what it meant. First time someone explained it to me, I thought they were making a really funny joke. Then when they were serious, I got pissed because I thought it was a nasty thing to say that Christians actually believed it. (I thought it was a smack against Christianity in general, see?)

A short time later, I saw some documentary about...you guessed it...the rapture. My reaction was still the same...laugh hysterically in a this-is-a-joke way, then pissed because I was convinced it was some kind of anti-religious propaganda.

Then I figured out that this serious and I got scared. Not so much that the rapture was going to happen (Catholics, as a species, pretty much dismiss all of Revelations as "allegory" in the same manner that the first 5 books of the Old Testament...important to know but not based in fact), but that people not only believed it but were acting on it.

Which only goes to show, one man's religious truth is another man's nightmare.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I suscribe to the theory that Revelation is a letter speaking of current events at the time in a fairly breakable code for those who were living it. Of course, allegory also applies there. That just always made sense to me.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Also, I've done fairly extensive study of the Bible and Revelation in particular rather recently, and the scriptural backing for the whole "rapture" (at least as visualized by the kind of people doing Left Behind and their ilk) is pretty darn thin ice.

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

I like him in between Fridays as well, he's a good guy!

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I like the blog in general. I keep meaning to add it to my journal role...I really should at some point because I do enjoy reading him.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

He tortures himself so we don't have to? Things like Left Behind make me cringe in embarassment that people think that's what I mean when I tell them I'm a Christian.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it's the loudmouths that get all the publicity. :-)

Hey, right now I don't exactly like admitting I was raised Catholic, because the current pope is just an embarrassment.

Unitarian-Universalists aren't generally hated at least, even if a someone occasionally targets them because they're liberals they can get to.