Some Watery Tart at Shakespeare's Sister is wondering about those loopy Left Behind books and movies. You might have heard of them. They were written by God's Right Hand Man Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The movies are being released directly to DVD, and are being sent to congregations for pastors to show to their flocks.

I'm reposting a post I made in 2003 about these books and movies. I haven't seen or read them, and I don't want to. I'm long familiar with LaHaye because in my fundy days I used to listen to his wife, Beverly LaHaye, on the radio program for Concerned Women For America. That show drove me batshit even when I was a fundy.

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I finally read all the segments of Slactivist's scathing review of Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. [via Electrolite] You may have seen the jacket for at least one of the film versions at the your local movie rental joint. Kirk Cameron avoided 1-800-CALL-ATT acting Hell for a far worse sort of Hell in starring in the movie series. Slactivist, who is a Christian, called this $50 million dollar phenomenon "pre-trib porn." The book series is about the supposedly imminent Rapture and the good Christians who will be pulled directly to God's side. It sounds to me like the authors and fans want to convince themselves that they can avoid the fear, pain, and loneliness of death. Left Behind is a multi-million dollar exploitation of cognitive dissonance.

I'm more familiar with LaHaye's wife, Beverly Lahaye. Back in my fundy days I used to listen to her radio program for her organization, Concerned Women for America. I couldn't stand her show or her the organization even when I was a Christian, but it had a train-wreck kind of appeal for me. I noticed the show's irony immediately. Here's a woman who extolled to her obedient female listeners the Godly virtues of Stepfordwifedom, all the while broadcasting 3,000 miles away from her husband. Tim pastored a church in San Diego. Bev sat in a cushy office in the Murder Capital of the World (Washington, D. C. at the time Marion Barry was mayor.). Susan Faludi made the similar observation as Slactivist about the phallic symbolism outside LaHaye's office window. Referring to Freud, he wrote "sometimes the Washington Monument is just a cigar." Faludi's description of LaHaye's office in her book Backlash, had shown how much LaHaye reached for that phallic power herself.