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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ulysses!unc!tim
From: tim@unc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: End-of-the World, Final Part
Message-ID: <6175@unc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 14:36:44 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6175
Posted: Tue Nov  8 14:36:44 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Nov-83 02:17:31 EST
References: unc.6161
Lines: 40

Pamela and I often spend our Sunday nights watching the various Christian
programming that comes on the local stations at that time.  Usually, this is
good for some laughs and righteous indignation.  Sometimes, it is cause for
nothing short of terror.  I refer not to the threat of Hell, but from the
fact that these people seem united in one thing: absolute and unreasoning
hatred of the USSR, combined with an unwillingness to negotiate any arms
controls or even to conduct high-level meetings with the Soviet leaders.
They do not usually say that they want war, since they realize that they
will get bad publicity if they do so, but there seems little other
interpretation of their advocacy of massive weapons buildups and refusal to
deal with the Russians on non-hostile terms.

This past Sunday was particularly bad, since all of them chose this as their
topic.  Jerry Falwell in particular made no real attempt to cover the fact
that he wanted a war with the Reds so bad he could taste it, but that is
nothing new, really.  He would just as soon see all homosexuals in America
put to the torch as well.  This sort of rhetoric is usually juxtaposed with
a lot of talk about the book of Revelation, and specious comparisons of the
current situation with the prophecies.  (Not that they're bad matches, it's
just that matches equally good could be drawn at any point in human
history.)  It can't help but worry me to see these people exerting a certain
amount of political influence, since they have stated plainly that they
think they are to be the last generation of humans on Earth, and we all know
how religious folk are with their prophecies:  If it doesn't come true on
its own, they figure it's their duty to make it happen.

In short, I do believe that this form of pre-millenial thought is a clear
and present danger to the survival of the human race, now that we have the
means to destroy ourselves.
________________________________________________________
Tim Maroney, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
duke!unc!tim (USENET), tim.unc@csnet-relay (ARPA)

PS.  Some of you may not know that we have a Christian programming ministry
on USENET.  It is called "itm", which stands for "In Touch Ministries".
When the site originally entered our network, a man called itm!bob was
fairly active in quoting the Bible in a purposely insulting fashion at us
unbelievers, but I haven't seen anything on this group from that site
recently.  I for one would be interested in hearing more about how these
programs are produced, distributed, and funded.