Still behind
Okay, okay, I confess.
I’ve read the entire Left Behind series and enjoyed it. Well I still have a quarter of Glorious Appearing left to read, but I can pretty much figure how it turns out.
What brings this confession is this week’s cover story in Newsweek about the authors. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, read the article, then come back.
As with everything I read lately, I came upon the series on my cart at the library. It seemed like every time shelved Adult, there was one of these black books on it. It was the cover art that intrigued me. One day when I was out of stuff to read and wanting to begin a new series, I pulled one off the shelf, looked inside to see which one begins the series and checked out Left Behind.
I was expecting anything one way or the other. I had no clue what the books were about, just that they seemed mightly popular. That helped me go into it with an open mind. Because of the way the books are written, I kept right on going when it became clear these are Christian fundamentalist books.
They are a pretty good read. Not literary, mind you. One of the authors says, “The literary-type writers, I admire them. I wish I was smart enough to write a book that’s hard to read, you know?” I guess action-packed pulp fiction is the best way to describe them.
Sure there’s plenty of Scripture, but just enough to carry the story. The plain-Engish interpretations of them sure helped me understand where these people are coming from. I learned a lot.
What I found the most unusual thing about these novels isn’t the inclusion of Scripture, or the absence of hard-core Bible-thumping, it’s that the authors have no compunctions whatsoever about killing off main characters. They’re going to live with Jesus anyway, and they’ll return with Him soon enough, so why not rotate the cast?
In short, I recommend the books to anyone. They’re as entertaining as a good murder mystery and as addictive as any good fantasy series. And even though you know right from the start of the first of them where the whole thing is going, the characters, situations, whiz-back technology and plot twists keep them engaging.
If you want to get into the religious aspects of them, then by all means do. If you like your higher power on the anthropomorphic side, I suppose you could do worse that Christianity—even fundamentalist Christianity. Just don’t argue theology with me or try any conversions, okay?
That’s one of the messages I got out of the series, that the Christian God lets people make up their own minds. I think evangelists could follow that example. (Hint, hint.)
What cracks me up is that nearly all the theological controversy about the books lie within Christianty itself. Ship of Fools, a Christian web magazine, takes a humourous look at Christian issuessort of God with a grin. Their tongue-in-cheek Rapture forecast on the home page is modeled after weather forecasts on other web sites. Today’s chance of Rapture? 60.8% Don’t forget your umbrella.
That’s not to say SoF don’t take it seriously either. Left Your Brain Behind?” pretty much sums up the anti-Left Behind arguments within the church.
I have no thrilling conclusion, so let’s just leave it there.
