The Fundamentalization of Pop Culture

I’d love to be able to come here and tell you guys that I loved reading Glorious Appearing – that, and that the essays read in The Fundamentalist Mindset were intriguing.  perhaps my language isn’t fair – I did enjoy the essays; quite a bit, actually – I will most likely be continuing to read this book once the semester has ended.  Glorious Appearing, however, has been thus far something quite different from what I’d expected.  I’ll thank you in advance for kindly allowing me to rant about this briefly before continuing onto a discussion of the complementary nature of the two works we read.

I think, perhaps, my animosity towards this work (which is a sub-surface dissatisfaction, really – overall, I’ve enjoyed reading it; I’m just annoyed) comes from that fact that so much has changed from the original novel.  There are so many new characters, and so much about the situation of the world has changed that the novel has become somewhat unbelievable.  I’ll admit that those problems probably could have been fixed by having read the novels between the first and this one, though I wonder if that would improve their believability.  The original purpose of the Tribulation Force was to have a small group, dedicated to fighting Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia, not a large fighting force.  By their own logic, the group has now failed to fulfill prophecy (and yet the authors seem to have overlooked this) – they could openly oppose the Antichrist, yes, but the prophecy says nothing about fighting the Antichrist until Jesus returns.  The group has expanded beyond it’s prophetic limitations.  Perhaps the authors did note this and will make up for it by actions later in the book; I’ll keep holding out for this possibility.

Anyway, on to the idea of the complementary nature of these two works.  It seems as if half of what was said was written was written with the Left Behind series in mind.  To begin with, at least once or it is mentioned in the second of the two essays that since Miller’s failure to correctly predict the apocalypse, “groups that predict dates for the apocalypse generally do not appeal to the mainstream public” (Strozier, et al, 33).  LaHaye and Jenkins are very careful to mention countless times that each different apocalyptic event cannot be known – that is, it cannot be known when these events would take place.  Perhaps the authors understood what was described in the essays and used that to ensure the popularity of their books – or at least to disallow for unpopularity.

There’s also mention on page 32 of the essays that nuclear weapons have begun to be included in end-times scenarios – a HUGE deal is made in Left Behind (the first book, not this sequel) about nuclear weapons – about 90% of the world’s supply being destroyed, with all the remainder being given over to the United Nations (the predecessor to the “Global Community,” of course).

And finally, for now, there’s the discussion of the formula of the apocalyptic narrative, the key feature of which is a main character who finds their way to faith despite initial opposition, after which they convert others.  Obviously we’re expected to see Rayford Steele as this figure – he meets all the qualifications.  But I wonder how possible it would be to find Rayford’s first wife as this character.  Yes, there are factors working against her (she has no real initial opposition to the faith, but has simply turned away from it for some time before returning – but such was Rayford’s relationship to the faith, too, just that he was never a true believer; she has not survived nearly 100% of the series [having disappeared in the Rapture at the very beginning of the first book]), but we must also consider the fact that were it not for her (and her disappearance), Rayford would never have been converted to the faith, and all those who he converted would not have been.  I know I’m stretching here, but perhaps there is some other evidence in the series that I haven’t found – or maybe someone else is there, too.

Then again, this series has been fairly obvious in everything it’s done – Carpathia having been the antichrist was expected (but unwanted), it was expected that the sign of Christ’s coming in the sky would be a cross (but, note that it was not a crucifix – perhaps a subtle commentary by the author on which is the right form of Christianity to follow), it was expected that Jesus would appear to all people at the same time in the same manner, and appear to be talking to each person individually – we’ve been led to believe and expect all of these things.  I find it disturbing that the authors could make themselves so obvious – where’s the plot’s subtlety?  Where’s the complexity?  The book is fairly simple, and enjoyable – but a bit more complexity would not hurt (perhaps their sales would be at 63 million instead of 64 million of the series).