The Rapture Of Unforgiveness: Only $40

Imagine a sign that says Unforgiveness: Only $40.

Would you buy it?

Of course not!

However, those who sell unforgiveness always call it something else, something we don’t recognize as unforgiveness, like the “service” of sending an “I told you so” e-mail to the recipients of your choice after the end of the world.

(I found mention of this here:  I Didn’t Make This Up.)

The idea of “left-behinders” – as in “I’m not going to be left behind, but you are, you sinner!” – thinking they are going to be standing in the clouds sticking their tongues out at the rest of us is hilarious!

Yet some people are, no doubt, paying $40 a pop in the belief that they can  have a gloating message delivered after Armageddon.

Like the Internet would still be functioning.

Not!

And if it is, who is maintaining it?

Satan?

Right.

I visited the site and the sales pitch page gets around this impossibility with a glib prediction that there will “only be temporary outages” after Armageddon.

LOL (Laugh Out Loud!!!)

The Silly Rabbits are depending upon the very people they think are condemned to hell to keep the Internet up and running. They are using these ”sinners” and thumbing their noses them at the same time.

I have to ask the obvious question: isn’t that just a wee bit hypocritical to use people like that?

Not to mention that the unspoken premise seems to be that, if you maintain Internet servers and infrastructure - if you’re involved in anything tied to scientific discovery - you’re a godless sinner who will be “left behind.”

Ah, you gotta laugh and wonder: Do they have a bridge to sell as well? Because I’m sure the guy who thought this one up is laughing all the way to the bank.

Ah, but that fits nicely with the topic I just brushed on the other day: knowing the facts, especially about your religion and how it evolved. We definitely have a fusion with Hollywood fantasy in this “Left Behind” version of “Christianity!”

But then, most Americans score poorly on religious facts.

On a saner topic, I think that Robyn Blumner captures the problem we’ve had in the U.S. perfectly and gives a sound prediction for the future.

Ah, to know the truth of it all, eh? What does happen when we die?

My guess is that it is absolutely nothing like we think it is and every story we’ve ever heard is a poor substitute for an experience that cannot be put into words.

Dear God,

Let my faith be rooted in love.
Let me concentrate on healing the suffering of this world
Not escaping from it.

Deliver me from foolish fantasy
And help me do the difficult work of forgiving
And loving my neighbor as myself.

Bless the “Left-Behinders”
And help me see them with compassion and love
As well as with good humor.

Because, one day, I will have to account
For the moments of my life
And how I used them.

Amen.

P.S.

Regardless of how welcome a return into The Light may be, what do you think? Is it childish irresponsibility to abrogate our responsibility to our present life on earth and to twiddle our thumbs waiting for The End?

Do you think the yearning for the end is a reflection of people living unhappy lives?

Or does that yearning arise out of a desire to punish those who do not believe and refuse to validate the nineteenth century beliefs¹ embraced by the “Left Behind” movement?

Shall we pray that the “left behinders” decide to live in the present instead of a fantasized future? After all, don’t we need their help in making things better here and now?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think, especially if you bought that service. I’d like to know what you are thinking, what your motivation is and what you hope that $40 e-mail will accomplish.

Dear God,

Open our minds to the truth of Your Being. Wash away all the hype and hucksterism, the egotism and game-playing that we substitute for love and right action. Fill us with the awareness of what we are called to do, right here and right now on earth to alleviate suffering and spread joy.

Help us to perform the miracles that you would have us do today.

Amen.

¹ [From Wikipedia] Origins of the Rapture seems to have been invented by an Anglo-Irish religious figure named John Nelson Darby(1800-1882).

He was ordained in the Church of Ireland and worked there to convert Catholics. He joined a dissident group called the Plymouth Brethren and became a prominent leader. Around 1830 he began teaching that Jesus’ coming at the end of times would be preceded by a “rapture of saints.”

Some members of his own Brethren community objected that this was not biblically founded, but Darby dismissed their criticism since he claimed that the rapture had been revealed to him by God. Eventually he would distance himself from the Brethren group and travel Europe, United States, and Canada from 1860-1870 spreading his views on the rapture.

Given Darby’s hatred of Catholics, his influence on Protestants adds an ironic touch.

And, while speculation about the end of the world is as old as Christianity, this particular scenario is not; in fact, the preaching of the rapture is not yet 200 years old.

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