ramble through the bronx

Saturday, July 29, 2006

NOOOOOOOOO!

eeww... I feel dirty. From an interview in Newsweek with Tim LaHaye co-(author of the Left Behind books --

Q:You recently donated a whole lot of money for a hockey rink at Liberty University. If these are the end times, why make an investment like that?

A:[Laughs.] My strategy is that Canada and Northern America produces the bulk of hockey players. We use the ice rink to get the hockey players to come to Liberty University where many of them are exposed to accept Christ. Many of them come because they are Christians. They are challenged to go into the ministry, and we’ve already had some of the guys in the earlier classes that graduated, and they’re going home to Canada to start churches.

Q: Proselytism with a hockey puck?
A: “Evangelism with a hockey puck” would be better.

No! Evil!

*sigh* A few pages earlier:

Q: [Laughs.] But my understanding is that current biblical scholarship reads some of the apocalyptic scenes in the Bible as metaphorically addressing events that were taking place as the Bible was being written.
A: These are usually liberal theologians that don’t believe the Bible literally.

Q: So the Revelation should not be interpreted, for example, as a polemic against Rome?
A: That’s what they say. We believe that the Bible should be understood literally whenever possible. The next big event is the second coming of Christ. That’s preceded by a number of signs. And some of those signs could be could be stage-setting right now. They’re not going to come out of nowhere. For example, the Bible predicts when the antichrist comes and sits at his kingdom after the Rapture, he’s going to have one world economy and one world government and one world religion. We’re already moving rapidly in the direction of those very things.

Q: Really? It seems we’re a ways off from one world religion.
A: That’s the least developed, but there are many particularly liberal theologians that just think that "Oh, if we could just get everybody together of all beliefs ..." If you don’t have a strong belief system, you’re willing to compromise your beliefs with other religions.

Q: You’ve written about the threat of secular humanism.
A: Part of the opposition to our position is from the secular humanists, but part of it is from the liberal people of theology that reject the Bible. I don’t see a great deal of difference between them. Their basic conclusions are often the same.

Ah yes... the reason that I'm becoming Catholic, as a liberal, is that I reject the Bible. That would explain why I've been reading it so much lately, eh? And thanks for writing off the whole ecumenical and interfaith movement as being a rejection of those faiths. Yes. Of course. Because obviously those unbelievers are just TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING. Yes. Clearly. And we can totally take the Bible literally because it was assembled piecemeal and bits were included & taken out based on voting for them, and the Church Fathers disagreed with each other about what should be included because clearly MOST of them were liberal theologians who didn't take any of it seriously anyway.

By "basic conclusions" of secular humanists and liberal theologians, I assume he means "treating everyone with respect, love, and mercy." Liberal theologians are clearly entirely wrong since they pay more attention to the two principle commandments of the New Testament (Love God, Love your neighbour) and the cautions against wealth and greed (you know, the ones in the Gospels), than to bashing Muslims or ranting about sex. Obviously.

Point to me the line in the Bible about turning off your brain? Oh wait -- there isn't one. Rather, there are cautions to carefully appraise spirits & messages, to make sure they're genuine. Tim LaHaye: not so genuine.

Pfah.


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EDIT: In the NY Times, this piece about conservative evangelicals who want to separate themselves from the Religious Right qua political establishment.

“There is a lot of discontent brewing,” said Brian D. McLaren, the founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and a leader in the evangelical movement known as the “emerging church,” which is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical establishment.

“More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,” Mr. McLaren said. “You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.

“Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.’ ”

jane 3:04 PM [+]