I wonder if Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye would ever consider writing a book called\u00a0Stay Behind,<\/i>\u00a0about a group of Christians who would rather stay and reach the lost than depart and be with the Lord?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Since even Kirk\/Buck is troubled by this impression of the deity of\u00a0LB,<\/i>\u00a0Tim & Jerry have to deal with it. And they almost do here, as just such an objection is raised by Chloe Steele:<\/p>\n\u201cDaddy, what does this make God? Some sick, sadistic dictator?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCareful, honey. You think I\u2019m wrong. But what if I\u2019m right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen God is spiteful, hateful, mean. Who wants to go to heaven with a God like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s where your mom and Raymie are, that\u2019s where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be with them, too, Daddy! But tell me how this fits with a loving, merciful God. When I went to church, I got tired of hearing how loving God is. He never answered\u00a0my<\/i>\u00a0prayers and I never felt like he knew me or cared about me. Now you\u2019re saying I was right. He didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t qualify, so I got left behind? You\u2019d better hope you\u2019re not right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if I\u2019m not right, who is right, Chloe? Where are they? Where is everybody?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And that\u2019s it. \u201cRayford dropped the subject and went to watch television.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCareful, honey,\u201d he cautioned his daughter. I picture him looking furtively over each shoulder and backing away from her slightly, fearful that God may smite her on the spot.<\/p>\n
Rayford doesn\u2019t disagree with Chloe \u2014 he never argues that God is\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0a \u201csick, sadistic dictator,\u201d or that God is not \u201cspiteful, hateful, mean.\u201d He simply points out that the spiteful cosmic dictator has whisked his wife and son off to Heaven, and that if he ever hopes to see them again some day he\u2019ll have to play by the Great Dictator\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n
L&J seem suddenly to realize that it\u2019s been nearly eight pages since the last phone conversation, and even longer since Rayford has had a chance to say something condescending about Hattie, so they correct this with a phone call from Pan Continental Airlines. As Rayford receives his instructions for his next assignment (with, of course, plenty of irrelevant detail) he also learns that Hattie has asked to be assigned to his next flight.<\/p>\n
Rayford sighed. \u201cNo objections, I guess. No, wait. Let\u2019s just let it happen if it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not following you, Captain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just saying if she gets assigned in the normal course, I have no objection. But let\u2019s not go through any gymnastics to make it happen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There\u2019s no indication here that Hattie\u2019s request was some kind of sexual overture. She\u2019s just been through a catastrophe and she\u2019s reaching out to everyone she knows for mutual support and comfort.<\/p>\n
Rayford, on the other hand, responds to hardship \u2014 and to all of life \u2014 like the American evangelical he is soon to become. Take care of your family with a fierce defensiveness, and let everyone else fend for themselves.<\/p>\n
He tries again to convince his daughter of his theory that the dictator-God was behind the disappearances. \u201cDon\u2019t say you won\u2019t even consider it,\u201d he tells her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, did you consider the space invaders theory?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a matter of fact, I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re kidding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI considered everything. This was so far beyond human experience, what were we supposed to think?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Rayford is lying. He never considered \u201cthe space invaders theory.\u201d He never considered\u00a0any<\/i>\u00a0possibility other than the rapture theory. Within instants of learning about the mass disappearances \u2014 all the way back on page 19 \u2014 he had already made up his mind: \u201cThe terrifying truth was that he knew all too well. Irene had been right. He, and most of his passengers, had been left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The closest he comes to considering the ET theory is when his daughter mentions it and he mentally mocks it as a nutty California notion, the kind of ridiculous idea believed by \u201cpeople on the West Coast [who] afforded the tabloids the same weight Midwesterners gave the\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/i>\u00a0or even the\u00a0New York Times.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
So why does Rayford lie to his daughter? And, more to the point, why do L&J seem to think it\u2019s OK for Rayford to lie to his daughter? It\u2019s possible they simply haven\u2019t been paying attention. Continuity is not their strong suit \u2014 Jenkins\u2019 28-day process for cranking out these novels doesn\u2019t seem to include time for reading them over before having them published.<\/p>\n
But what seems really to be happening here is that L&J are telling readers that it\u2019s OK to lie if that\u2019s what you have to do to convert the heathen. Chloe\u2019s mortal soul is in peril, and what\u2019s a little white lie compared to that?<\/p>\n
Rayford tells his daughter about the \u201cIn Case of Rapture\u201d videotape made by Irene\u2019s pastor. Chloe remains skeptical, so Rayford responds with this succinct statement of the logic behind L&J\u2019s faith in their vindicating Rapture scenario:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re coming at this as a skeptic, so sure it sounds ridiculous to you. I see no other logical explanation, so I can\u2019t wait to hear the tape.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Chloe, reluctantly, agrees to ride along when Rayford goes to the church.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll go over there tomorrow,\u201d Rayford said, disappointed in her reaction but no less determined to follow through, for her sake as much as his. If he was right, he did not want to fail his own daughter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A loving father, Rayford won\u2019t rest until his daughter is dead and in Heaven. Even if that means lying to her until his tongue turns black.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The vengeful demiurge of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins seems like a cruel god. Both he and his followers seem to take a bit too much delight in the destruction of the wicked and the weak. They seem to be basing their idea of God on a twisted paraphrase of Julian of Norwich: “All go to Hell, and all go to Hell, and every kind of person goes to Hell.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238],"class_list":["post-31288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-left-behind"],"yoast_head":"\n
Left Behind Classic Fridays, No. 68: 'A Grief Denied'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The vengeful demiurge of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins seems like a cruel god. Both he and his followers seem to take a bit too much delight in the destruction of the wicked and the weak. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. 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![\"a-grief-observed-c-s-lewis-hardcover-cover-art\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2016\/02\/a-grief-observed-c-s-lewis-hardcover-cover-art.jpg\")
<\/a>If you\u2019ve ever seen the movie or the play\u00a0Shadowlands,<\/i>\u00a0then you\u2019re familiar with the circumstances \u2014 his autumnal marriage to Joy Davidman and her slow death from cancer \u2014 that led Lewis to write a much better book on the subject. That later book was called\u00a0A Grief Observed.<\/i>\u00a0Where\u00a0The Problem of Pain<\/i>\u00a0is detached, abstract and inhuman,\u00a0A Grief Observed<\/i>\u00a0is raw, candid and full of human experience.\u00a0Grief<\/i>\u00a0has become one of those books that people give to others who are dealing with grief and suffering. Nobody does that with\u00a0The Problem of Pain<\/i>\u00a0\u2014 that would be cruel.<\/p>\n