There is a University of St Thomas Law Prof that has a article up at Huff Post Against Apocalypticism . Basically it blames some facets of Evangelical thought on the end of the world on many problems including as we see in the last paragraph GUN VIOLENCE.
I have to say I am not quite buying this. I find myself in a difficult position as to the end times and the book of Revelation. I was raised a Southern Baptist and had a Seventh Day Adventist influence in my family in my youth where it was talked about perhaps too much. I am now a Catholic where I think these issues do not get any thought at all it seems.
Again thought I am not quite buying this. I was alive when the Great Planet Earth was released and I can recall sermons on it that scared the heck out of me in my youth. However that was a different time. You really do think about these things more when the threat of dying in just a few minutes because of a nuclear attack that could come in five minutes was a reality. Further the Cold War was also happening around the time when a ton of other revolutions were going on. Those dealing with race, sex , etc.
Looking at this period now with all our problems it seems downright calm now . I also think that is reflected in Evangelical circles. Though there might be some sense these are "signs of the times: . Still I am not sensing a overwhelming linkage among current issues and the end of the world like in the past. In my Christmas shopping visit to LIFEWAY books ( owned by the Southern Baptist Convention ) it does not seem such literature was a hot seller. It seems in fact Evangelicals are much more talking about issues surrounding Calvinism or things like Rachel Evans book and it's controversy.
In other words as someone that perhaps pay attention to these things it seems we are are sort of at very low point as to evangelicals and this topic.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Evangelical Views On End Of the World Responsible for Gun Violence and Other Problems ?
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2 comments:
I think the y2k hysteria, and all of the turn-of-the-century superstition had a lot to do with the popularity of this "end of the world" thinking. The widespread use of the word "millenium" in conjunction with the turn-of-the-century hype, when that word is part of the end-times teaching fanned the flames of this hysteria. Since the days of LaHaye's "Left Behind" books becoming instant best sellers, the Evangelical crowd seems to have gone into Dominionism big time. I was recently reading about the power struggle going on at TBN, with Crouch family members suing each other, and making sensational charges against each other, and it seems that the trouble is rooted in a disagreement between Dispensationalism versus Dominionism. The two camps will have very different views about gun violence and anything else that happens in the world.
I think you are right about the 2000 stuff. Plus I think social media plays a role in the attitude that everything is on the edge of collapse
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