Sunday, October 31, 2010
SUNDAY GOSPEL HOUR
Today's film was the documentary
Chilling.
The makers let the believers speak for themselves. The only people who counter the assertions of the Rapturians are other evangelicals or jewish conservatives. Well, one liberal Jew.
Here is my take. I knew a lot of this stuff but viewed it as emotional and irrational. I did not know that there is an entire literature which rationalizes the whole thing and renders the literal gospel as scientific.
And other delusions.
The other thing I had not realized is how widespread this is. The makers say 50 million in the USA but are careful to say a "portion" of that believe in The Rapture. Their upper case not mine.
One of the very skillful aspects of this film is that the makers present these people in such a way that, at the beginning, one almost begins to want to believe or is scared into thinking that his or her's opposite beliefs are wrong. I had this come over me. I don't know how they did it.
So it is not a hatchet job. We hear them giving their case over and over. Oppo positions only come in the latter part of the film.
I am not going to go into what all this sums up to.
My cousin Bernice believed in The Rapture once. It is the first time I heard of it. This would be about 1995 or 6. She had a date when it would happen. December something. The date came and there was no rapture. Or, if there was very few people, including Bernice, were allowed to go. She got left behind.
I think, after that, she forgot about it. I did not.
She was a smart person. A good person. Yet she was able to be convinced that she and others who believed as she did would rise up to the sky and the rest of us would have terrible, shitty things happen to us.
Some of the people in this film relish the thought of seeing the sinful destroyed. "God is going to trash the planet" says one smug bastard very happily.
And so on.
I know this is ad hominem but most of these people are obese.
I wanted to see this highly rated film because I wanted to see this stuff way up close and the film does that.
If we dismiss this out of hand and mind then we underestimate the power the movement has. Think a lot of the tea bags and much of the GOP base along with many people in business and other influential positions.
The film opens with two people who are instrumental in the design of combat aircraft.
And so on.
This is a very good piece of work. Give it a 5 as a documentary. It is very disturbing that these people are around and that they have the influence that they do.
On the other hand, there is an exaggeration here wherein the makers conflate all evangelicals as part of this thing and this is deceptive. Yes, they let the people tell their own story but it is so grizzly that we need some counterweight. In a way, the fight is fixed but in a way that makes us almost as mindless as this bunch of heathens. They do not believe in God, they believe in magic.
I don't want to see this again. Ever. It is like watching a PETA film that highlights the worst that can be done to animals. Once is enough. Or, maybe too much.
Labels: films
