Left Behind Books

[SemiCharmedQuark]

I have just started the first book about a week ago. I picked it up for about 50 cents at Goodwill, and I was curious about it. I have to read only a bit at a time because my vision is lost in a sea of anger. Could these be some of the most obnoxious books ever written? Is it just me?

[NVMojo]

1. ...and the movies are worse ...better you just read the books if at all

fundies are freaking scary people.

[EFerrari]

2. I'm not sure I want to know. What fresh hell is this?

:hi:

[Poll_Blind]

15. A brief description:

The "Left Behind" series of books depict lawlessness, titilation and retribution in a post-rapture world. As I said in another response, it's church-approved masturbation material. It reminds me- when I was a kid, my family were nudists. We'd go to the nudist camps which were very familiy-oriented and safe places at least when I attended, play volleyball, get wicked suntans, swim, view the best magicians the world has to offer and have a great time. All without the reminder of social status or wealth that clothing invariably brings with it.

Anyway, every once in a while there would be protesters outside. They were always equipped with three things: An overwhelming sense of shame of the human body which they attempted to share freely, a hastily-constructed protest sign, and very tall ladders so they could see us playing volleyball, swimming, etc. over the tall wooden fences and be appropriately ashamed for us. As a child, I remember wondering what could hurt their backs so much because the men, and it was always men from the local church, would always depart with a certain stoop in their back that I only adopted out of necessity around the 6th grade or so when unintentionally-aroused at school.

:grin:

PB

[EFerrari]

30. In a post-rapture world? That's wonderful!

:rofl:

[BrotherBuzz]

44. View the best magicians

Nothing up my sleeve. :rofl:

Not trying to detract from your post, but the magic bit tickled me just the right way ;)

[Poll_Blind]

48. LOL! No offense taken! Believe me, you have not seen...

...the art of misdirection, sleight of hand, etc. perfected until you've seen a naked magician.

:D

PB

[timtom]

24. Off topic, but

"fresh hell".

Dorothy Parker, right?

One of my all time favorite phrases (especially when the phone rings...)

[EFerrari]

29. That's right, nathan hale. She was a skilled describer of

the scale of human suffering.

lol

[NYC]

3. I never read one, but I was thinking it would be

a good idea to do so. I guess not, from what you are saying.

I heard they were interesting. Let me know.

[saracat]

4. And the most poorly written!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. Yes! They read like a 5th grade lit assignment.

Even the names! "Buck Williams" "Rayford Steele"...reminds me of "Tek Jansen"

[Reverend_Smitty]

11. Surely you can't be dissing...

Stephen Colbert’s Alpha Squad 7 Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure...a true masterwork!

[CornField]

5. They are the worst written pieces of tripe I've ever had the misfortune of

holding in my hand. Really... just set it down and walk away. The phone book is better written (and probably has a better plot too).

[Kutjara]

7. I'm still undecided about the upcoming video game.

Initially I thought it was just more of the same fundie crap, but once I heard that you could actually play on the side of Satan and shred fundies, its appeal has grown for me. I still wouldn't buy it, but I'm sure I'll be able to find a copy online somewhere.

[ContraBass Black]

10. Don't run it on your system.

It's full of spyware that reports your personal information, how long you play, what you see in the game, and which side you play for.

[Kutjara]

14. Thanks for the heads up.

The most embarassing thing would be for anyone to know I was playing a fundie game. I'd never live it down.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Those who have messianic fantasies and punishment fixations...

...tend to be avid readers of books depicting messianic fantasies and punishments. I think I tried reading a bit but it even makes Penthouse Letters seem, I dunno, somewhat more realistic.

  I basically view it as Christian Jihadist literature, something to whack it to while passing the time until you really can gun down the sinners and the un-believers.

  If you think I'm joking, have you heard about the video game? Google it, if ye dare.

PB

[saltpoint]

9. I've made a decision that they are demon-haunted.

It seems no more preposterous a claim than the premise of the authors.

Haven't read 'em, won't touch 'em.

[neoblues]

12. Left Behind Perspective

For some more perspective:

What the 'Left Behind' Series Really Means
by Joe Bageant...
.

[magellan]

21. OMG!

In the book Christians have to drive carefully to avoid "hitting splayed and filleted corpses of men and women and horses". Even as the riders’ tongues are melting in their mouths and they are being wide open gutted by God’s own hand, the poor damned horses are getting the same treatment. Sort of a divinely inspired version of "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."

I must admit, this part of Bageant's review made me snort. But the writers of these books clearly have sick, unholy fantasies about being "special" and getting revenge on everyone else. Is it any wonder these are the same freaks who believe Bush** is a good Christian?

[bobbieinok]

38. excellent and very scary article

From the article

....

This may be some of the bloodiest hate fiction ever published, but it is also what tens of millions of Americans believe is God’s will. It is approximately what everyone in the congregation sitting around me last Sunday at my brother’s church believes. Or some version of it. How can anyone acquire and hold such notions? Answer: The same way you got yours and I got mine. Conditioning. From family and school and society, but from within a different American caste than the one in which you were raised. And from things stamped deep in childhood -- such as coming home terrified to an empty house.

One September day when I was in the third grade I got off the school bus and walked up the red dust powdered lane to my house only to find no one there. The smudgy white front door of the old frame house stood open. My footsteps on the unpainted gray porch creaked in the fall stillness. With increasing panic, I went through every room, and then ran around the outside crying and sobbing in the grip of the most horrific loneliness and terror. I believed with all my heart that The Rapture had come and that all my family had been taken up to heaven leaving me alone on earth to face God’s terrible wrath. As it turned out they were at the neighbor’s house scarcely 300 yards down the road, and returned in a few minutes. But it took me hours to calm down. I dreamed about it for years afterward.

Since then I have spoken to others raised in fundamentalist families who had the same childhood experience of coming home and thinking everyone had been "raptured up." The Rapture -- the time when God takes up all saved Christians before he lets loose slaughter, pestilence and torture upon the earth -- is very real to people in whom its glorious and grisly promise was instilled and cultivated from birth. Even those who escape fundamentalism agree its marks are permanent. We may no longer believe in being raptured up, but the grim fundamentalist architecture of the soul stands in the background of our days. There is an apocalyptic starkness that remains somewhere inside us, one that tinges all of our feelings and thoughts of higher matters. Especially about death, oh beautiful and terrible death, for naked eternity is more real to us than to you secular humanists. I get mail from hundreds of folks like me, the different ones who fled and became lawyers and teachers and therapists and car mechanics, dope dealers and stockbrokers and waitresses. And every one of them has felt that thing we understand between us, that skulls piled clear to heaven redemption through absolute self worthlessness and you ain’t shit in the eyes of God so go bleed to death in some dark corner stab in the heart at those very moments when we should have been most proud of ourselves. Self-hate. That thing that makes us sabotage our own inner happiness when we are most free and operating as self-realizing individuals. This kind of Christianity is a black thing. It is a blood religion, that willingly gives up sons to America’s campaigns in the Holy Land, hoping they will bring on the much-anticipated war between good and evil in the Middle East that will hasten the End Times. Bring Jesus back to Earth.

Whatever the case, tens of millions of American fundamentalists, despite their claims otherwise, read and absorb the all-time best selling Left Behind book series as prophesy and fact. How could they possibly not after being conditioned all their lives to accept the End Times as the ultimate reality? We are talking about a group of Americans 20% of whose children graduate from high school identifying H2O as a cable channel. Children who, like their parents and grandparents, come from that roughly half of all Americans who can approximately read, but are dysfunctionally literate to the extent they cannot grasp any textual abstraction or overall thematic content.

more....

[bobbieinok]

39. background on Tim LaHaye from the article

....

...The truth is that LaHaye is among the most influential religious writers America ever produced and is the most powerful fundamentalist in America today. He is the founder and first president of the eerily secretive Council for National Policy, which brings together leading evangelicals and other conservatives with right-wing billionaires willing to pay for a conservative religious revolution. He is far more influential than Billy Graham or Pat Robertson and was the man who inspired Jerry Falwell to launch the Moral Majority. He gave millions of dollars to Falwell's Liberty University. He’s the man without whom Ronald Reagan would never have become governor of California and the man who grilled George W. Bush, then wiped the cocaine off George’s nose and gave him the official Christian fundie stamp of approval. He created the American Coalition for Traditional Values that has mobilized evangelical voters, putting neo-conservative wackjobs into political offices across the nation. In short, he is the Godfather of Soul, fundie style. When the man lays it down, his peeps doo dey duty.

Scratch LaHaye and you’ll find an honest-to-god surviving John Bircher. In the 1960s when LaHaye was a young up-and-coming Baptist preacher fresh out of Bob Jones University, he lectured on behalf of Republican Robert Welch’s John Birch Society. We are talking about a man who believed Dwight Eisenhower was an agent of the Communist Party taking orders from his brother, Milt Eisenhower. Along the way LaHaye extended his paranoid list of villains to include secular humanists who "are Satan’s agents hiding behind the Constitution." And the only way to destroy them is to destroy their cover.

more....

[MisterP]

13. I don't know who here turned me on to this site, but thanks:

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/index.html

[neoblues]

32. Very Interesting! nt.

[roguevalley]

16. Christian RIght Porn. I smell them before I see them and their evil

aura reaches me in the dark.

[Swamp Rat]

17. I wish they would hurry up and leave already!!!

I am TIRED of waiting! :eyes:

[NMMNG]

18. Horrible hateful tripe

Sadly they've outsold John Grisham and Anne Rice combined. It says a lot about the values of the fundies who buy that crap up. x(

[sam sarrha]

19. since my brother got into that shit he lost 40 IQ ponts, total freeper now

[hfojvt]

20. What do you find obnoxious about it?

I have not read the first book, but I read 365 pages of book 6. Quite stupid, but not really aggravating. What is making you angry? Now you are going to make me read some of it to see if it makes me angry. I have seen the movie, the Iowa library had it on video. I was ambivalent about it. I did not like it, but it did not seem like poison.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. Because it is fodder for the ignorant and stupid like GW who see

the "end times" as a viable solution to today's problems.

[timtom]

25. Every time fellow Christians bring up "end times"

(I'm speaking to you, not about you, Mr. Joad) I slap my forehead and impress upon them that Jesus very specifically advised his disciples to NOT be concerned with such things. We have been advised that no one -- not even Jesus -- knows that time -- only God.

When "christians" get caught up in such jiggerypokery, they are clearly not focused on loving one another, as we have been commanded.

And speaking of GW, maybe two times a day I intone, "Bush is a christian!" But my tone of voice is probably identical to *'s when he was mocking Karla Faye Tucker just before she was executed ("Please don't kill me!")

Thanks for letting me attach myself to your post (like a lamprey, I guess).

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

26. You're welcome to it, Nathan Hale...

I'm not quite in the same camp as you, but I was raised Christian and can't help but to have my eyes roll back in my head when I see or hear this drivel.

BTW, love the word "jiggerpokery!"

[LostinVA]

33. Christians should be the angriest about it

Because, according to my BIL, "liberal Christians" (ie anyone not a crazy-eyed Fundie) are also considered evil -- actually, WORSE than non-beleivers....

[hfojvt]

41. should that make me angry?

Don't I think of a crazy fundie or Christian-claiming hypocrite like Bush as being worse than an altruistic atheist? Why would I get mad at somebody who thinks the same way I do, only about different people? Does the Left Behind series do alot of bashing of Liberal Christians? I did not notice it in the one I read.

[LostinVA]

46. I think you missed my point -- and yeah, the books do

One of the villains is a liberal Christian.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

51. Reading this article linked to in post #12 may enlighten you:

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/12/what_the_left_b.html

[hfojvt]

52. I am not sure how enlightened I am

Very little of that slaughter takes place in the first book, does it?

Also that article writer's contempt and lack of math ability stand out.

"But whatever it is, at least 65 million folks that our nation failed to educate find deep meaning and solace in it."

Yes, that is quite a slam at the fundies I met who were going to law school and getting degrees in chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering.

And as for the math - "65 million folks". The books have sold 65 million copies. There are, what, 10 of them, or 8 of them? So that is only 8 million folks each buying 8 books. In a nation of 300 million people that is not so hugh. Probably many more people saw Spiderman II, or The Passion of Christ.

I guess I might hate it if I had his same, apparently screwed-up upbringing, but I used to take comfort in the thought of Jesus' imminent return. Now I just roll my eyes because I have heard the same 'real soon' crap for 30 years now and these people have no more credibility than Homer Simpson.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

53. I'm sorry you were disappointed for the continued existence of the world

and, in particular, of infidels. :sarcasm:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

55. The sense that they feel everyone on Earth bullies them, but don't worry

Big Brother Gawd will smite them all and then who will have the last laugh.

[TreasonousBastard]

23. I'd suggest finding something more worthwhile to read...

unless you're getting paid for it.

[fasttense]

27. I read them up to book 6 and couldn't take it anymore.

At first they are not so bad if you think of them as fantasy or religious Sci Fi. But you have to skip the blocks of boring praying and the authors' preaching against all things liberal.

What I couldn't take anymore though was the lack of description. The story just goes from action scene to action scene with little detail of the actual surroundings or events, and you don't get an in depth view of the characters feelings. Sometimes the characters feel like cardboard cut-outs. Every now and then especially in the beginning, they do some good writing but they are not consistent.

The authors slowly lead up to a supernatural phenomenon and when you finally read it you are seriously disappointed because of the lack of description and detail. You are left wanting more description of these magical events but the authors disappoint you. It's like the authors don't have a complete view of all these events and can't give you a clear picture of them. It's probably because they are poor writers or they are afraid of detail because they will step on the toes of some wacko religious leader. But if you decide to read them, read the first few books they are much better written then the final books. Whatever you do, don't even bother with the movies they are simply awful.

[PA Democrat]

28. I read the first book in the series, without knowing anything about the

author or the series.

My impression about the book:

too preachy for my taste

simplistic to the point of idiocy- a black and white world with no shades of grey

BIG print and very few words on every page- reminded me of a second grade reading textbook both in appearance and substance

[Bridget Burke]

31. Tim LaHaye is one of the authors.

The "Reverend" Tim LaHaye, that is. He is one of the founders of the Religious Right. His wife, Beverly, founded Concerned Women for America to fight the Equal Rights Amendment. CFAW remains as a propaganda mill--they were warning against "The War on Christmas" back in 2003.

The Left Behind books are anti-Catholic--reflecting opinions LaHaye expressed years earlier. I wish some of the Catholics who've joined "the cause" because of gay marriage & abortion knew about his background. Of course, LaHaye is against lots of people....

And real Fundamentalists don't like the books. All that stuff is NOT in the Bible!

"Sojourners" is a fine Christian group--here's what they have to say about LaHaye:

www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0109&article=010921

[leesa]

35. Was he also involved with the Rev Moon at some point in his career?

I seem to remember that but can't recall where I read it.

[Bridget Burke]

49. Yes, LaHaye's had a long & interesting career....

As the '80s progressed and the Reagan years wound down, however, Tim LaHaye's public profile dropped. Although he spoke enthusiastically in 1985 about backing TV preacher Robertson for president in 1988, by the time the first round of GOP primaries got under way LaHaye had switched candidates and was an official adviser to former New York congressman Jack Kemp.

When he joined the Kemp team, opponents of the Religious Right began digging into his past and soon uncovered a litany of intolerant statements. Four days after signing on to the campaign, LaHaye was forced to resign after information came to light noting that LaHaye had called Roman Catholicism "a false religion" and had on one occasion asserted that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death.

More damaging revelations soon leaked out. It came to light that LaHaye's church in San Diego throughout the 1970s had sponsored an anti-Catholic group called Mission to Catholics. One pamphlet produced by the group asserted that Pope Paul VI was the "archpriest of Satan, a deceiver, and an antichrist, who has, like Judas, gone to his own place.".....

LaHaye was also damaged by revelations that he had accepted money from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial Korean evangelist. Bo Hi Pak, a longtime Moon operative, gave ACTV $10,000, and LaHaye subsequently agreed to serve on the board of directors of Moon's own Religious Right group, Christian Voice. LaHaye also joined the board of another Moon front, the Council for Religious Freedom (CRF), which was formed primarily as a vehicle to protest Moon's 1984 imprisonment after he was convicted of filing false tax returns and obstructing justice.

www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5601&abbr=cs_

[progressivebydesign]

34. badly written.. awful books.. the kids versions are worse! n/t

[mwb970]

47. How could there be "kids' versions"?

So are they written at the reading level of an embryo, or what? The books already appear to be written for sub-literates.

[bobbieinok]

36. see the web site and the children's series

At the web site there are some interviews, a free chapter, praise testimonials, an ad for the video game, etc.

http://www.leftbehind.com/

Here you can find info about end-time prophecies, etc

• Q&A: Why is the name of Antichrist equal to "666"? (Fourth of a series on the Mark of the Beast by Mark Hitchcock.)
• Behind the Scenes: Jerry Jenkins on the "time machine globe" as part of his depiction of heaven in The Rapture.
• Presbyterian Apostasy: Contributing editor Mark Hitchcock comments on the recent PCUSA meeting.
• Playing Politics: Stan Goodenough of Jerusalem Newswire adds his opinion on the recent Presbyterian USA meeting.
• North Korea and Israel: Carolyn Glick talks about the story the Israeli press should have covered last week.
• What Jewish Ties to Jerusalem? Daniel Pipes points out that Muslims, often indifferent to Jerusalem in the past, now hold it in high regard.
• Bible Study: Prophecies of the Church Age continues our study based on the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible.

Join the Prophecy Club to read these articles and more!



There is also a special series for children at

http://www.leftbehind.com/channelkids.asp

'In one shocking moment, millions around the globe disappear. Those left behind face an uncertain future—especially the kids who now find themselves alone. As the world falls in around them, Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and the others must band together to find faith and fight the evil forces that threaten their lives! These books are great for kids 10-14.'

Left Behind: The Kids series—more than 10 million copies sold!

| read more |

"I absolutly love your books! These books are the best I've ever read, seriously. I've read all the kids books. The first time I picked up a Left Behind book I couldn't put it down. After reading those books I thought How can anyone read that and not believe in Jesus? Thanks for publishing these great books for everyone to read!"
—Alicia
Read what other kids have to say about the series.

For more Kids books, click here.

Kids Boxed Sets
Get the most recent releases in the best-selling Left Behind: The Kids series, compiled in a handy, value priced gift box, great for gift giving and collecting.

much more, including a bit about the content of the books in the series for children.

[theboss]

37. They are certainly not great literature

But the first few books are interesting, particularly if you ever studied Revelations in Church, which I did. My Church was certainly not big on The Rapture but every now and then we did a series in Bible School on it.

I do think that the Christians who are obsessed with the Rapture are really missing the big picture.

[MadJohnShaft]

40. I was on a plane and a family's teenage daughter was reading one

Dad was reading 'Collapse' - couldn't figure that out

[mwb970]

42. I paged through one at Barnes & Noble once.

I was genuinely surprised to find that it was written at an elementary-school level reminiscent of Weekly Reader. The writing was wooden and clunky. You would have to really be "into" the story to slog through book after book of such dumb stuff. Wow.

These are the people that have taken over America? How?

[uppityperson]

57. Readers Digest version of Left Behind!

:rofl:

[blm]

43. These books are political more than religious - Tim LaHaye was aligned

with RevMoon for years, and consiered himself an expert at mind control techniques.

Left Behind books have been the equivalent of the pods in the Bodysnatcher movie. Gullible minds are vulnerable to them - iow - typical fundie GOP voter.

[SmokingJacket]

45. And this the most minor of criticisms, but it still bugs me:

The new book, a hard cover, is the cheapest piece of crap EVER. The paper is cheap, rough stock and the ink looks like you could rub it off with your finger. Yet they charge $26 for it, just as if it was a REGULAR book. It's like it's *posing* as a book.

[JuniperLea]

50. Funny you should mention rapture!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1587900&mesg_id=1588222


Thanks again to Bright for the info... I KNEW I'd heard that before!

I was raised Christian too... but what I was taught doesn't even resemble the BS going on these days.

[Kellanved]

54. Real-life comedy gold

Those books, or rather their success in the US, is seen with a certain tragic amusement over here. Especially the rankings "better/worse than DaVinci Code" - why would anyone care about it and why should fiction be judged by its adherence to certain interpretations of the bible?

[uppityperson]

56. Picked 1 up by mistake once, thought sci-fi-fantasy

After the first couple chapters I was going wtf? Threw it away as a bad mistake and finally heard what it was. I rarely ever throw a book away but this one deserved it.