My Problem With the Rapture

One of the funnier images sent around yesterday was of Randy "Macho Man" Savage (RIP) about to deliver a flying elbow to Jesus up in heaven. It's actually quite apropos for the day, with Christians of all sorts taking shots meant for the sad, desperate people looking for anything better than what they have.

I remember watching WWF during its rise in the 80s. My grandfathers were drawn to it up in Milwaukee and I was equally drawn in by Mean Gene Okerlund and the crazy cast of muscle heads dressed up like superheroes. If I'd mention it at school, at least one person would usually try to ruin it for me by telling me that it was all fake. I could never determine if they were trying to help me out or ruin my enjoyment of wrestling. It's still hard to tell.

Back to this "rapture". The saddest aspect of the news from yesterday is that it seems to have been largely spawned by one person named Harold Camping. He's done it before, too, but shrugged his 1994 blunder off as a miscalculation. Let's take a look at the problems with his campaign:

1. If the rapture wasn't set to hit until May 21st, why waste all of that money on billboards and advertising when it could have been spent on people still starving on May 19th?

2. Once someone within the viewing area of a billboard sees the message, then what? If you are a believer, you're already okay according to the bible. Was he looking to convert people out of fear? Hardly seems like the point of the new testament (unless you check Camping's revenues and net worth). Believing to hedge your bets is not really believing.

3. Speaking of net worth, why were people giving up all of their worldly possessions for the "rapture"? To prove to God that they were true believers? If they were true believers, they would have given all of those worldly things long ago. Also, see items 1 and 2. It's a "rapture" of convenience on Camping's terms.

And now back to wrestling. I didn't have to believe that the two men in the ring hated each other and were really smashing each other in the face. I didn't care if they knew who would win or lose before the match started, or if they practiced the whole match, move by move. I enjoyed the choreography, the physical feats of strength, and the general spectacle. I mean, people don't come out of Cirque Du Soleil saying "people can't really fly - IT'S FAKE!"

I'm not saying that religion or Christianity is fake or a facade or entertainment. I'm saying that while there's a mystical component that people tend to focus on (miracles, resurrection, rapture), there's also substance. Regardless of how worked over the text has been through the years, the parables and guidelines to living a good life are still relevant. Whether they were written by God through the hands of men or just arbitrarily written to keep people from stabbing other people in less civil times, the overarching message in Christianity is to be good to each other.

Unfortunately, that's boring. So, we see the polygamists, the doomsayers, and the hypocrites on television all day, every day, tweaking the message to suit their predilections. The average Christian takes a lot of extra heat on days like May 21st thanks to some headline-grabbing crackpots. I find it interesting that some people vigorously defend Muslims in America, correctly noting that Al Quaeda doesn't speak for all Muslims (probably not even considered Muslim by most Muslims) but don't offer the same benefit of doubt for Christians.

The bottom line is, Christianity and science don't have to be polarities, there are Christians who are in it for the humanity (not the competition), and there are lots of lost, lonely people in the world.