End Times For Christian America?

[♦ nivek ♦]

End times for Christian America?

Acton Institute

by Hunter Baker

 

"Christian America is busy dying again. If you believe some partisan

historians, it was dead before the American Revolution, or at least,

nobody important was a Christian by then. The Founders had all moved

on to deism. Then again, maybe Christian America died at the Scopes

Trial during the 1920s when Clarence Darrow pinned down the non-

theologian, non-scientist politician William Jennings Bryan with the

power of hostile cross-examination. If it wasn't dead by then, it was

really dead by the late 1960s when every other religion book seemed to

be about either the death of God movement or 'secular' Christianity.

The most memorable volume of the period was Harvey Cox's The Secular

City, which put a happy face of the death of public Christianity and

heralded a new, more mature age of secular community." (05/13/09)

 

http://tinyurl.com/qe53p7

[Dagan]

Well, time for a whole new series of assholes to sell badly-written books and godawful movies to Christians predicting how the end times are going to shake out, wooo.

[Creepy Doll]

All I can say to the title of this topic is "God I hope so!"

[nightflight]

I don't think its the end.

[Vomit Comet]

The end of the liberal/mainline church is rapidly approaching. Well, not the "end", just the continued dwindling into virtual nothingness.

 

For the foreseeable future, the fundies/evangelicals are here to stay.

[Ouroboros]

Maybe the whole "resurrection" really is about the crazy religion coming back after "dying" over and over again?

[OpheliaGinger]

It's just the swinging of the pendulum.

[Dagan]

It's just the swinging of the pendulum.

 

Yup. Christianity waxes and wanes. Disorganized cult becomes organized, grows, expands, converts kings and other people in power. A theocratic system emerges. System becomes stagnant, covertly corrupt, reformers try to restore original intent. Reformers become organized, grow, expand, convert kings and other people in power. A theocratic system emerges. System becomes stagnant... lather, rinse repeat.

 

This is one reason why there are so many denominations in Christianity.

 

I would bet dollars to donuts (what does that even mean?) that we will see a reformed evangelical movement come out of this, a kinder, gentler fundamentalism.

 

Plus prepare yourself for a whole new wave of apocalyptic nonsense tying into current events. Blah. That stuff drives me up the fucking wall. I used to believe it and get right into figuring out which country was which beast in Revelation and Daniel, but even when I was a Christian I realized it was just nonsense and there was nothing prophetic about it whatsoever. But some of my extended family are right into it and I fully expect to have to endure inane conversations about the coming tribulation.

[Vomit Comet]

I would bet dollars to donuts (what does that even mean?) that we will see a reformed evangelical movement come out of this, a kinder, gentler fundamentalism.

 

We already are, actually. Rick Warren is its figurehead. He intends on becoming the most powerful force in American Christianity, and at this rate he just might.

 

It's the same turd, but sugarcoated this go-round.

 

Plus prepare yourself for a whole new wave of apocalyptic nonsense tying into current events. Blah. That stuff drives me up the fucking wall. I used to believe it and get right into figuring out which country was which beast in Revelation and Daniel, but even when I was a Christian I realized it was just nonsense and there was nothing prophetic about it whatsoever. But some of my extended family are right into it and I fully expect to have to endure inane conversations about the coming tribulation.

 

Many of them are going to go into "batten down the hatches" mode and get very defensive and reactive.

[therunner]

I have been seeing more and more "end of days" stuff (mostly because I watch christian tv and listen to christain radio, I know, I'm sick) but how long have xians been ranting about the rapture, the end of days and everything else. I know it gets stronger every generation but where are the "left behind" books of the 1400s?

[DarthOkkata]

Dollars to doughnuts means 'most certain' or 'most assuredly'. It comes from the idea of betting. Betting a dollar to a half-dollar, for instance, means that you're giving 2 to 1 odds--you're willing to risk a dollar to win only a half-dollar. Being willing to bet dollars against doughnuts (viewed as worthless) means that you're totally confident that you're right, so confident that you'll bet money against nothing.

 

The expression is also found in a number of variants, including dollars to buttons, dollars to dumplings, and dollars to cobwebs, each of these objects being considered worthless.

 

Dollars to doughnuts as an adjectival or adverbial phrase is first found in the late nineteenth century in America. The first explicit reference to betting is not found until the 1920s, in a story by "Ellery Queen"--"I'll bet dollars to doughnuts Field played the stock market or the horses"--but betting is unquestionably the origin of the expression.

 

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970210

[Dagan]

Dollars to doughnuts means 'most certain' or 'most assuredly'. It comes from the idea of betting. Betting a dollar to a half-dollar, for instance, means that you're giving 2 to 1 odds--you're willing to risk a dollar to win only a half-dollar. Being willing to bet dollars against doughnuts (viewed as worthless) means that you're totally confident that you're right, so confident that you'll bet money against nothing.

 

The expression is also found in a number of variants, including dollars to buttons, dollars to dumplings, and dollars to cobwebs, each of these objects being considered worthless.

 

Dollars to doughnuts as an adjectival or adverbial phrase is first found in the late nineteenth century in America. The first explicit reference to betting is not found until the 1920s, in a story by "Ellery Queen"--"I'll bet dollars to doughnuts Field played the stock market or the horses"--but betting is unquestionably the origin of the expression.

 

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970210

 

Wow, I learned something and you made me hungry! Well played, sir!

[Franko47]

Actually, I've thought for some time that Fundamentalist Christianity was in it's death throes, despite it's popularity. The resistance to cultural change, modernism, the access to information and ideas via the internet, progressive cultural ideas of tolerance, and so on, would finally put the stake through it's heart. The body would twitch and make a last gasp effort to gain power in our culture, but it would be like a powerful locomotive slowly losing ground on a steep hill of education, science, and rational thinking. The tide would then turn in favour of liberal Christianity; a kindler, gentler philosophical reasoning, and more emphasis on social responsibility than giant rallies of self-indulgent glorification.

 

 

But alas, then came 9/11. A bunch of fundy Islamists just bought more time for a bunch of fundy Christians. Ironic, don't you think ?

[Kyle]

Trust me. It is alive and well here in the babble belt

[Anna]

Ive been paranoid about end times even though im not not christian anymore. Well I was until I had a look actually in the bible and found that jesus falsely predicted that the end times would come soon after he left the earth in the generation that was there at the time.

 

Im going to lol if everyone freaks out

[Vomit Comet]

Actually, I've thought for some time that Fundamentalist Christianity was in it's death throes, despite it's popularity. The resistance to cultural change, modernism, the access to information and ideas via the internet, progressive cultural ideas of tolerance, and so on, would finally put the stake through it's heart. The body would twitch and make a last gasp effort to gain power in our culture, but it would be like a powerful locomotive slowly losing ground on a steep hill of education, science, and rational thinking. The tide would then turn in favour of liberal Christianity; a kindler, gentler philosophical reasoning, and more emphasis on social responsibility than giant rallies of self-indulgent glorification.

 

Other way around, I'm afraid. Liberal Christianity has been in steep decline since the 1950s and especially since the 1970s. Fundyism took off like a rocket. It's been growing steadily since colonial times, though I think the high point of the curve was in the early 1980s. It's not going away any time soon, whereas liberal Christianity is all but numerically insignificant. The only reason it's still influential at all is because its members tend to have more education, wealth, and social prestige than fundies do.

 

The tide has not turned in favor of Liberal Christianity. This very thing was expected by many to occur in the 1960s when the Baby Boomers came of age. I imagine many Episcopalian bishops were licking their chops at the prospects of young college-educated longhairs filling the pews to the brim while their Baptist competitors made do with a dwindling number of old cranky people. And the reverse ended up happening. "So you mean God doesn't give a shit if I sleep in on Sunday and spend my money on drugs and chicks instead of repairs for the church gymnasium? Groovy, man." If it didn't happen in the 1960s and early 1970s, I highly doubt it ever will.

 

In the near future we are going to see increased polarization as the fuzzy middle ground drops out. It's going to be non-religious vs. the fundies. The liberal middle ground will hardly be there at all to serve their traditional mediating function.

[Dagan]

Ive been paranoid about end times even though im not not christian anymore. Well I was until I had a look actually in the bible and found that jesus falsely predicted that the end times would come soon after he left the earth in the generation that was there at the time.

 

Im going to lol if everyone freaks out

 

Jesus didn't actually predict anything. The gospel writers put words in his mouth to tie in with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD because they were all written around that time or later. Kind of like how aliens put numbers in a time capsule for Nicholas Cage to find or whatever the fuck that movie was about.

 

All the end times stuff in the bible is classic Jewish apocalyptic literature, poetic hyperbole intended to make a more moderate point. Too bad all the fundies take it literally, because literally it all makes about as much sense as this.