As the idea of “childhood” evolved during the last 150 years, special apocalyptical media has been developed to appeal to youth in the hopes of protecting and/or manipulating them.

Last class, we briefly talked about the existence of children at the end of the the world, in the context of the Shakers not having any. The Apocalypse is often portrayed as an adult problem to be dealt with by mature men and women. Children, when not born to sun-ladies and Jewish whores, are not native to the apocalyptical landscape but when they are they are shown to become its most innocent sufferers and pawns.

It is worth noting that the concept of dualistic thinking is often associated with childhood. I remember learning in my Children’s Literature Class that fairytales and fables were crafted with deliberately flat characters because it was easier to retell and explain to a large, uneducated audience. Children learn in absolutes. They have been also proven through multiple psychological studies to be incredibly ego-centric. In this way, the concept of the world’s end is almost uniquely tailored to young minds. While moral and ethical ambiguity is found throughout the bible, it is not present in Revelation.

That being said, how adults view children and how children view themselves, even if they are limited in their ability to express it in any lasting form for the masses, is different. I think that discrepancy is mostly a new phenomena which began in the Victorian era spurred by increasing lifespans and children’s removal from the workforce. And thus, although I am familiar with the practice of reciting catchisms and saw that the illustrated Revelation scenes enjoyed by women were also appreciated by their young offspring, the idea of children at the end of the world has become more common in the age of mass communication and a Godless Apocalypse. The Duck and Cover video avoids being too graphic or threatening even in the face of Nuclear War, the sworded savior imagery of revelation being replaced by an animated turtle. Although Rapture believers can delude themselves into believing that “(I)f the child were to die before becoming responsible for his or her own decision to accept or reject Christ, that child would go directly into the presence of God, for all eternity,” a magical infant immortality forcefield is not going to shield a school from nuclear refuse.

(See http://www.raptureready.com/terry/children-rapture.html for a believer’s long, surprisingly effective and logical-sounding answer to the question “Will All Children be Raptured?.)

Neither is a desk — I believe the picture book about Sachiko in Hiroshima and the 1000 papers cranes is probably one of the first readily available, commonly taught children’s books where the human main character dies at the end. Still children were very much on the mind of politicians and/or parents during the Cold War (and remain there today) They spent a fair amount of time trying to find sensitive ways to illustrate what could potentially happen. I hope Professor Quinby will have time to share some of her memories of being a cold-war-child during next class.

They also thought about the appropriateness of making more babies. Larger populations spread resources thinner and lead to increased suffering, but they also increase the chances of someone’s survival and world repopulation. Many Americans, including president and Revelation believer Ronald Reagan, believed family values made them superior to the people of the USSR. Now, there is surely a cry to “Think of the Children” when the end seems near.

I believe that Fundamentalists have appropriated these popular thoughts and  values to their own means as they raise little “soldiers of god.” Hence the large families of the Quiverfull movement. Hence the 50 somewhat books in the “Left Behind: the Children Series.” As shown in the video below, they are aided by the human instinct to mimic leaders, to see things in broad terms and to view oneself a particularly important part their surroundings.