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{"id":1395,"date":"2006-07-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/19\/about-those-left-behind-readers\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:49:54","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:49:54","slug":"about-those-left-behind-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/about-those-left-behind-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"About those ‘Left Behind’ readers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When it comes to describing the end of the world, millions of readers are convinced that the \u201cLeft Behind\u201d books contain the gospel truth.<\/p>\n\n

This isn\u2019t surprising since these 12 novels \u2014 backed by sequels, movies, video games and comic books \u2014 have sold 70 million copies. For most readers, the page-turners cranked out by writer Jerry Jenkins and preacher Tim LaHaye form a pop-culture catechism that explains some of the Bible\u2019s most mysterious passages, said researcher Robert Woods of Spring Arbor University.<\/p>\n\n

But a recent survey of \u201cLeft Behind\u201d readers did yield one big surprise. While nearly 69 percent were, as expected, evangelical and mainline Protestants, 8.6 percent of the readers were Catholics and the remaining 22.8 percent said they practiced Islam, Judaism, Buddhism<\/a> or another world religion. Why did they dig into these books?<\/p>\n\n

\u201cCuriosity was a big reason,\u201d said Woods, who teaches communications at the evangelical campus in Michigan. \u201cIt also seems that many of them thought that by reading these books they could learn about <\/p>\n

Christianity. \u2026 So now they think that what the \u2018Left Behind\u2019 books teach is what ordinary Christians believe about the end times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

For many non-Christians, he said, the words \u201cLeft Behind\u201d and \u201cChristianity\u201d are now tightly linked. They have been fed a pop version of \u201cpremillennial dispensationalism,\u201d a complicated 19th Century doctrinal system that says Jesus will reign for 1,000 years on earth after the last trumpet sounds, the dead rise and the true Christians are \u201craptured\u201d to meet Christ in the air.<\/p>\n\n

Many Christian leaders will find this disturbing. This is especially true since there is a born-again believer in the White House and the daily news is full of explosive headlines about the Middle East, the <\/p>\n

tense region that dominates the apocalyptic plots in these novels.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want people to pigeonhole the Protestant view of the end times,\u201d said Woods. \u201cBut you know, there are lots of people who, if you tell them you are an evangelical, then they are immediately going <\/p>\n

to say, \u2018That means you\u2019re one of those Pat Robertson, Jesus freak Christians.\u2019 Now there are people who, if you say you are an evangelical, they are going to say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re one of those \u2018Left Behind\u2019 Christians.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n

The Spring Arbor team \u2014 Woods, Kelly Skarritt and statistician Caleb Chan \u2014 began with a 33-item survey that was posted at the official Tyndale House website used to promote the \u201cLeft Behind\u201d series. This invitation drew 16,916 voluntary responses. The researchers then did an in-depth, random study of 1,312 readers drawn from this larger flock.<\/p>\n\n

Once again, many of the results were predictable. No one was surprised \u2014 because of previous research by evangelical pollsters \u2014 that the typical \u201cLeft Behind\u201d reader is a female, married, white, <\/p>\n

evangelical, politically conservative, Bible-Belt resident who is between 30-something and 50-something and who goes to church almost as often as she consumes Christian mass media.<\/p>\n\n

On the other side of this divide were those least likely to appreciate the fiction of LaHaye and Jenkins. These readers were more likely to be male, single, black or Hispanic, politically progressive and residents of the American West or Northeast.<\/p>\n\n

However, most of the readers \u2014 their denominational ties didn\u2019t matter \u2014 said they believe that the \u201cLeft Behind\u201d books are highly accurate portrayals of what the Bible teaches about the end of the world or, at least, the beliefs of conservative Christians about that subject.<\/p>\n\n

When readers were asked about their motivations, the most intense clusters of responses came from those who affirmed that they read the books in order to compare what they \u201csay about the \u2018end times\u2019 with what the Bible says\u201d or because the series explains the \u201cevents described in the book of Revelation in an understandable way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The goal, said Woods, is to do more research into why so many non-Christians read the \u201cLeft Behind\u201d series and the impact the books had on their beliefs.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cMost forms of Christian entertainment just \u2018rock the flock\u2019 that already lives in our gospel ghettos,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it does seem that this form of media \u2014 apocalyptic fiction \u2014 is reaching some new people in our post-9\/11 culture. It appears that there really are people out there who are curious about ultimate issues. We may be on the verge of another wave of rapture culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"