Fundamentalist Reality

Joe Bageant: What the 'Left Behind' Series Really Means

I just discovered Joe Bageant, and he's a terrific writer. I'll be watching his blog from now on. A couple of his points rang true:

Beyond that, there is a more mundane aspect of the success of the Left Behind books. It is fair to say that Left Behind readers are happy to discover a pop-lit phenomenon that they can participate in at all -- popular literature that doesn’t conflict with their insulated and armor plated world view. At last they have something else to read besides Guideposts and Readers Digest, both of which pass as highbrow lit in most fundamentalist households.

I think Joe touches on a crucial point why stuff like this Left Behind nonsense is so popular. There really isn't much media around these days that isn't offensive to the conservative Christian. These people are right when they say the world has changed. And they haven't. At all.

So when I hang around with my (one) Christian friend, I choose my words carefully. I literally become a different person. I find myself complaining about the commercialization of Christmas, and the lack of morals of the new generation of teens, proving there is still common ground there.

But when I imagine what he thinks these days, with 24/7 sex on TV, reality-morons defining proper behaviour for the next crop of tube-heads, I begin to understand why Christian books and music are be so popular. I sympathize, even, when I think of myself screaming at my own TV when I pause on CNN for a bit too long. There are idiots on TV saying stupid things!!! ARGH!! But it can't be worse than trying to be a good Christian with so many soulless, morally-bankrupt douchebags running around buying DVDs and big screen TVs in their SUVs.