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May 21 Judgment Day Hysteria Rising: How Evangelical Preachers Stoke the Flames of Fear

May 19, 2011 By 6 Comments

Evangelical fear-mongering appears to be a major contributing factor to the susceptibility of  millions to Judgment Day hysteria. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, Evangelical Christian leaders began suggesting seriously that God sent the Hurricane to punish America for its sins.

Evangelical leaders who saw God's hands in the disaster included Pat Robertson and Hal Lindsey.

Pat Robertson specifically linked Hurricane Katrina to terrorist attacks and legalized abortion. "We have killed 40 million unborn babies in American…But have we have found we are unable to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?…"

Hal Lindsey (yes, the same person whose 1988 date-setting for Judgment Day failed) also commented, "It seems clear that the prophetic times I have been expecting for decades have finally arrived…it appears that the Judgment of America has begun…"

After the September 11 attacks on the United States, Jerry Falwell,  who, in 1979, founded the conservative political lobby Moral Majority, Inc., claimed that feminists, homosexuals, abortion-rights supporters and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had turned God against America, and that God was punishing America by allowing the terrorist attacks.

Central to the conservative Christian propaganda is the message from the evangelical pulpit stoking the flames of Judgment Day hysteria–that God had blessed America in the past when it was a "God fearing" nation but that with the rise of secularism, religious pluralism, Gay Pride, legalized abortion and Civil Rights agitations, America is now ruled by an "evil cabal of greedy, corrupt and totally immoral people," and that is  why America is suffering floods, hurricanes and homeland terrorist attacks.

That, it seems, also, is why a wizened 89-year-old-man can catch the attention of millions and mesmerize them with Kabbalah-istic "numerological" evidence that the world will be ripped apart on May 21, 2011 by catastrophic apocalyptic earthquake.

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JohnThomas Didymus

Transmodernist writer and thinker. Author of "Confessions of God: The Gospel According to St. JohnThomas Didymus"

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  • Adam

    Frightening.

  • http://www.revelation-truth.org Rev. Daniel W. Blair

    I am very sad for those who have been following this lie that the rapture will occur on May 21st. Even if they attempt to explain away “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32), they cannot explain away that most every Christian, theologian, scholar, and prophet from the first Century until the Nineteenth Century all believed that the church would go through the Great Tribulation and not escape through some secret rapture that would leave the world paralyzed. I pray that they will take a moment and read my book, “Final Warning” because the hour of is His judgment has come. http://www.revelation-truth.org

  • Jo

    They don't try to take away the rights and even want to kill adulterers. It should be a bigger sin than being gay, it's one of the commandments. It must be because too many of them are guilty. As far as abortion, they have been such bullies they have made it hard and unsafe. This should be left up to the woman, her doctor and beliefs. It should be done at hospitals, and surgery centers not singled out to be abused by these people. Why do they try to force their beliefs on others and not let God worry about each individual's relationship with God?

  • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

    They talk about death camps concerning the Dems… It is they who will create death camps if they do not stop with their inane and asinine ideology. I have seen far too many people kill themselves due to their religious beliefs, while the religious, still living, deny it was suicide or ignore the attempted suicides, giving it all to their god and calling it God's will too many times. I have seen people kill themselves because of forcefully imposed dogmatic ideology too many times also. It will not stop at this rate, but only get worse, unless someone puts a stop to it and get those fools out of our government.

  • http://thejoyfulmystic.blogspot.com Sheri Lawson

    They (the religious radical right) want this to be true so much that they may create a self fulfilling prophesy. Perhaps it's why so many deny global warming and climate change. They want the earth to self destruct as proof that they are right. Of course they would claim it was god's doing as punishment for all of us who beleive in live and let live.

    • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

      One problem Sheri… If the world self-destructs, then no one will be able to say it is proof of anything, unless we can get off this rock and go to Mars or something. Last I checked, we aren't terra-forming anything out in space. Not even the moon, but it wouldn't do us any good if the earth self-destructed.

      Technically though, the planet isn't going anywhere until our big huge star goes nova. What we will get is climate change, with millions of deaths and extinctions. We'll be lucky if we humans don't go extinct, but still, if we don't go extinct, they still cannot say it is proof of any god or a god's doing. We'd still have the science, hopefully, to prove them wrong.

      Oh, I just realized you meant they want this rapture thing to come true. I just have one word for their desire… Whatever.