I ran into this idea courtesy of a group of fundies while I was in the Navy–I quickly decided it was horse hockey. Nothing of that nature showed up in the base’s Protestant services. Never ran into it anywhere else. Even when my present preacher gets a little too evangelical for my taste (too “praise God”-ish, too inclined to attribute “miracles” to a higher power), there’s nothing remotely resembling the idea you cited. It’s exactly the reverse–that we need to do the 24/7 work of being good people. It’s a doctrine of moral self-examination. Bible passages are quoted to demonstrate how imperfect we are in our understanding of things, and how far short we come in terms of goodness, perfection, etc.

We’re striving for goodness and some reasonable degree of comprehension of God’s will, vice striving for anything material, or piling up points for a reward. The pre-trib stuff is part of a highly materialistic worldview, whereas Christianity consistent with Christ errs on the side of denouncing materialism. To put it mildly.

Re the influence of Hal Lindsey, the problem in a mass-mediated culture is always the lure of simple, easy, no-brainer, pre-packaged ideas from TV, movies, the press, and other outlets. Mass fads like “Left Behind,” or the power of positive thinking, or the various victimization-based pop psychologies, or the current hysteria that religion is the root of all human evil, or the b.s. of “memes,” or the notion of angels and ESP–these are mass-appeal stories that people can shape to their own views and needs. Which they can accept to whatever extent (and in whichever way) suits them. People express their personal beliefs and values in terms of the pop narratives made available to them, and today’s broader menu of pop narratives has resulted in much disconnect between what people actually believe vs. what they report believing.

I don’t believe fundamentalism has taken over to anything NEAR the extent statistics may indicate. What we’re seeing is an increased acceptance of simple-minded thinking, but the actual rate of participation in that kind of simple, primitive thinking–that we can’t be sure of.

Here’s the catch- I am a VERY serious Christian. I also used to be a VERY convinced atheist. But I died for 10min during a routine medical procedure and let’s just say my atheist doctor is no longer an atheist. I also learned upon my death that there is a God. The Christian Bible IS true. But the majority of “Christians” interpret the Bible how it is convenient for them, but you are right-there is NO reference to the rapture OR pre-trib crap doctrine in it. It is the nonsense being preached all over the place in (dare I say) ALL churches for their love of money that chases people away from the faith.

I remember at 15 after my parents were divorced having one of BH’s married ass. pastors come out of my mother’s bedroom half dresses banging on the door of my bedroom to tell me that I was going to hell for listening to Led Zep. Apparently he believed it had backwards Satanic messages in it. I told him that I wonder if God and his wife will appreciate him F-ing my mother. He told me “I am already saved by the blood!” So being who I am I recorded the music, unscrewed the tape and turned it backwards. Then I called him in playing it and asked him where and what the msgs were. He said it must be on a different album of course!! If he would have just listened to it forward he may have actually heard some Satanic lyrics. But that is how “Christians” go about things, because of religion. Jesus Himself was anti-religion.

As for Eatser and Christmas they are Pagan rituals having NOTHING to do with Christianity. The day of rest and worship is supposed to be Saturday, but MAN decided they wanted it to be on the day of worship of the Sun god for the sake of knew believers in the 4th century. Funny I didn’t see where God ordained it!!

As for gays and sinners, God loves them all and doesn’t wish for ANY of them to perish. His laws cannot be completely understood in this life, but in my brief death, I understood them and had MANY false doctrines exposed to me. I WAS sentenced to hell BTW and it REALLY SUCKED! Thank God I got a 2nd chance.

As for you, I see that the church really screwed up a good thing with their crap doctrines. The faith of a small child should NEVER be played with and I personally would love to have some Old Testament punishments for these phonies, but I’m not willing to play god. I apologize on behalf of the FALSE Christians, even though I am not among them.

As for how “Christians” treat people of the world with judgment and contempt-IF you read what the Bible says, you see CLEARLY that we aren’t to judge the WORLD, but we are ONLY to judge our fellow Christians AND ONLY when we don’t have the plank in our own eye. Most “Christians” walk around with a plank in BOTH eyes and judge the world while pretending that themselves and others in the “body of Christ” are perfect. Ironically Jesus Himself told us IF a part of the body causes us to sin, cut it off and throw it into the fire. Paul tells us that we are to associate with the people of the world and we aren’t there to proselytize anyone, just to show Christ’s love and goodness from us. <In my words. May God bless you and help you to see the truth, despite all of the false people in the churches.

Mainline Christianity is a completely different animal, in my view. It’s not merely more reasonable, it’s the correct approach to religion–finding meaning and truth in its symbols and myths–vs. the invalid approach of taking those myths and symbols as literally as possible. I’m constantly being told that reasonable C. is simply Crazy Christianity Lite. I hope you’re not of that view.

Yes, those who base their view of Christianity on their own unfortunate and narrow experience are applying the logical principle known as A=All Examples.

Really? Three years attending the Protestant services at a Navy base, ten years as a member of a Presbyterian church, and a year (and counting) at a United Methodist Church–not a single mention of the r-word or any concept close to it. Maybe I can follow your example and generalize from my experience of not hearing about the rapture and conclude that NO ONE ever hears about it. But I know better.

So, no, it’s not everywhere in Christiandom (sic). Not even close.

Oh, and f-word, f-word, f-word.

And don’t worry, I still like you, disguised as your identity may be.