Caveat: this is by no means a wholesale attack on American Evangelical Christianity, but only on a small, but socially consequential part of it, who will instantly recognize themselves in the following picture.
I have quite often been surprised by the bloodthirsty anticipation on the part of the otherwise peaceful and meek born-again Christians, whom I happened to know in large numbers, of the terrible things to come at the end of days. Some of them go so far as to declare that a full-scale nuclear war, that scariest of all scenarios of mutual and assured destruction, wasn't such a dreadful thing after all, but the fulfillment of the Apocalyptic prophesy, bringing them closer to the blessed moment when they will see Jesus, as promised! It goes without saying that they themselves do not envisage their own demise amidst the horrors of a nuclear holocaust, but expect to be raptured wholesale: with their families, friends, pets, and pastors, before the world’s clock ever strikes midnight.
I am sad for my Christian friends, who are thus uncomprehendingly committing an unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by seeking an arrogant and self-important answer to the impenetrable mystery of the Revelation that is supposed to remain closed to the scrutabilities of the humble God-fearing Christian mind. Furthermore, it is my strong religious belief that the task of every devout Christian is to work at preventing an Armageddon, rather than to invite it with open arms, gloating over its preordained inevitability. Indeed, how many human catastrophes in history have been mistaken for the Apocalypse; and then, haven’t all such false “prophets” already been assigned to a very specific and nasty place down below, by the Word of the Bible?
…The starting point of my rueful rumination, triggering that rather bloated opening tirade, was a passage in Schopenhauer’s Parerga and Paralipomena, Section 27. Here it is:
“When any wrong statement is made, whether in public or in society, or in books, and well received, or, at any rate, not refuted, that is no reason why you should despair, or think that the matter will rest there. You should rather comfort yourself with the reflection that the question will be afterwards gradually subjected to examination; light will be thrown upon it; it will be thought over, considered, discussed, and, generally, in the end the correct view will be reached; so that, after a time, the length of which will depend upon the difficulty of the subject, everyone will come to understand that which a clear head saw at once.”
…Good for Schopenhauer’s peace of mind, but his optimism shows an ignorance of sorts on his part. There have been many wrong statements made involving the Bible, and using its religious authority as a cover for some patently false and irresponsible interpretations, and as such, those statements have been well received among their target audiences. The problem with applying Schopenhauer’s optimistic expectations of things falling into their proper places as a result of some sort of objective examination is that all these dangerously misguided ideas are not in the open marketplace of ideas where they can be evaluated for whatever they are worth. In fact, they have attained the untouchable status of pseudo-religious dogmas, fondly protected from civic scrutiny under the separation of Church and State.
Yet, such troublesome ideas cannot be separated from the secular world. They have allowed extremist secular ideologies of reckless international behavior and direct aggression, such as the American neoconservative ideology, which led America into Iraq, to find fertile ground and popular appeal; and today they are feeding the extremist anti-Islamic frenzy, threatening the world with an uncontrollable violence and destruction, as it pitches literally billions against billions. As though the Terry Joneses of America, and their “protected” flocks are not just flirting with, but actually inviting Armageddon, seeing themselves as instruments of the Divine Prophesy, and seeking comfort in its apocalyptic fulfillment.
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