http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/page/23/

Above is a fantastic, years long study on why Left Behind is awful. Primarily, it is because LaHaye and Jenkins are money grubbing hacks, but additionally the Slacktivist group manages to reveal much of what's horribly awry about modern Christianity as a whole.

Additionally, here's a quote which sums up one of my pet peeves:

Some true believers, interpreting biblical prophecy, are sure they will be saved from the horrific destruction brought by ecosystem collapse. They’ll be raptured: rescued from Earth by God, who will then rain down seven ghastly years of misery on unbelieving humanity. Jesus’ return will mark the Millennium, when the Lord restores the Earth to its green pristine condition, and the faithful enjoy a thousand years of peace and prosperity.

Christians as a whole don't care two whits about the environment thanks to the misaligned hope that we will all be snatched away from the very jaws of death at the last moment as nuclear fallout rains down and sea levels go up.

Thanks to this, fundamental Christians actively battle attempts to slow global catastrophe. Christian scientist swear up and down that global warming is merely the result of some unknown natural phenomenon which will inevitably pass. Why are they so comfortable with gambling human life and spitting in the face of evidence and the overwhelming opinion of the scientific community? Because they are convinced if they're wrong, they'll get whisked away to heaven while the non-believing suckers get to suffer the horrible consequences.

The problem here is that all of this is based on human interpretation of a frighteningly unreliable book of the Bible and generous doses of speculation. Instead of actively working to prevent a global cataclysm, it seems Christians prefer working towards global destruction as that signals the end of times and rapture.

Pretty risky if you ask me.

[edit: An additional quote from Slacktivist that reflects what I'm saying:

"I spent years working for groups like "Evangelicals for Social Action" -- trying to get Christians to follow the Bible's teachings about justice and mercy for the poor, and the "Evangelical Environmental Network" -- trying to promote a stewardly care for God's creation. In that work I would frequently encounter rapture-maniac Christians of the LaHaye/Bush variety who seemed genuinely to believe that any such efforts to make the world a better place were contrary to the will of God as they understood it.

To such people God's will was for the world to spiral downwards into chaos and ever-increasing suffering. Such a view leads these Christians to pursue the opposite of what Jesus taught. It is, in one word, "Anti-Christ.""

I would also like to bring up a certain Betrand Russel quote I used earlier that seems apt:

"I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."

-Bertrand Russell

]

I believe I have found my new favorite quotation that sums up nicely my view of "The Church."

"I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."

-Bertrand Russell

Ah, correction, this is the finest quote:

"Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it."

-Bertrand Russell