It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

Some of you have probably heard about that crazy-as-Lindsay-Lohan-at-a-wine-tasting group that's predicting the world's going to end in a couple of months, May 21st, to be exact.  They call themselves "Project Caravan", and travel the country warning people to get saved like, ASAP.  Not, "Accept Jesus because he died for your sins and can change your life entirely for the better."  It's, "Get saved now, because the Tribulation starts in a few weeks."

(If you need further evidence that they're insane, check out their website and logo.  It's a stick figure leaning his head out of what looks like a bouncey house, with a cartoon bubble warning, "Get ready to be judged!"  Hey buddy, I'm a liberal, feminist, Christian mom living in the South.  I get judged every day.)

I have a major issue with any sort of evangelical group that does nothing to help people, but just goes around selling fire insurance (i.e. "get saved just in case so you don't go to hell").  It especially peeves me to see these jerks preying on people's fears in a period of great national uncertainty.  Every tragedy and instance of civil unrest only strengthens their cause.  "Earthquake in Japan?  End of world!  Nuclear reactor meltdown?  Definitely end of world!  Fighting in Libya?  Well duh, we all know that unrest and political upheaval in the Middle East is a sign of the end times!  It's not like that has been happening forever."

Ugh.  I hate, hate, hate seeing someone use fear and terror to try to lead someone to God.  Why can't we just show people God's love and peace, and tell them how great Jesus can make their lives?  If I wasn't a Christian, and all I saw of Christians was wide-eyed, panicky people speaking in hysterical hushed voices about the end times, then I wouldn't want whatever "faith" they had.

Also, how arrogant can someone be to think that God has revealed the time of the 2nd Coming to them, individually.  Don't we all have an equally direct line to God?  Wasn't that what the Reformation was about?  It's not like Martin Luther nailed an exception to the church door for "crazy 89-year-old from Colorado in 2011".

Besides, stressing about the end of the world is pointless.  The world could end for each of us, on an individual basis, at any time.  Anything from a car crash to an aneurysm to a nuclear bomb could hurl any of us into eternity before we can blink.  But we like to perceive that we have an amount of control over those things, so we don't worry about them.  The concept of the world ending is so terrifying because, if it happens, there's nothing to be done to prevent it.

I'm going to continue this post tomorrow with a timetable of other times in history when people predicted the end of the world and were, obviously, so wrong.

Unless, you know, the world ends before I get a chance to write it.