W. W. Abraham Lincoln D.?

[khedron]

Every once in a while I read the slacktivist blog, because he reminds me why I really don't want to read any more of the "Left Behind" books: not only are they as bad as I remember, but even from a religous perspective they're dreadfully wrong. This guy is engaged in taking apart the first book a few pages at a time from the evangelical Christian perspective, and it's interesting reading.

S'anyway, on the main part of his blog, he quoted a letter from Abraham Lincoln the other day. Good words. Highly applicable to current international policy. Start with the following and keep going:

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. "

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2004/02/on_the_mexican_.html

(Here's the Left Behind blog.)

Comments

[keyne.livejournal.com]

he reminds me why I really don't want to read any more of the "Left Behind" books...

Since the phrase "any more" implies that you've read some already, I'm unable to stop boggling.

Why? Curiosity?

[khedron.livejournal.com]

Yup, curiosity. Joanne F. had the first one, and since I'd recently heard about this sort of underground science fiction series which was sweeping parts of the country, I figured I'd see what it was all about.

Conclusion: the authors live in a completely different universe than I do. A place where airline pilots are universally recognized as the apex of rationality (if Rayford Steele believes it, it must be true!), where being left-handed serves as a suicide alibi, because everyone knows left-handed people are clumsy. Oh, and there's some religion stuff, too...

But people have an amazing power to forget and downplay past horrors. Every once in a while, I used to think, "Awww, it couldn't have been that bad, maybe I should read the second one." And Jen or Pam or Josh would leap to my rescue by saying, "Yes, yes it was -- do you remember how much you complained while reading that? _I_ don't want to go through that again!" The slacktivist guy does it this better, and in a way which helps restore my faith in humanity, or at least the Americans I'd started to worry about. He critiques both the writing and the religious philosphy behind it, nicely summarized by the following quote:

"I'm not a pastor, so I won't be pastoral here. These books are evil, anti-Christian crap."

It's sad that these books are so badly written. The story of a large chunk of the world's population suddenly being taken off to Heaven would make a fine science fiction novel! What do the rest do and believe? How do they structure their lives afterwards? Do they worry about the other foot falling? It'd be an interesting story, but this wasn't it.

(Am I still curious? Yes, a little bit. In the same way that I was vaguely tempted to read one of Ann Coulter's books. I'm cured of that now, though. The Firbys got me a Talking Ann Coulter doll. Ewww. I'm done.)