My right wing brother says the end times are here!

[CANDO]

And now that they've been resoundingly defeated in the political arena, they turn to this. The beginning of the end of the world! My brother insists that a "world leader"(he assumes it's Obama) gets assassinated(by Muslims) very soon, which ushers in great world-wide turmoil, leading to the peace maker(the Anti-Christ) appearing on the scene and most of the world's population getting drawn into his spell. I found it interesting he didn't believe the Anti-Christ to be Obama! We are also getting pushed into a one-world government led by the European Union. Naturally, this is an evil development. I said to him that perhaps a one world government may not be a bad thing if it keeps us from killing each other over dwindling energy resources. Anyway, I told him to chill out already. Just because it's the end of the world as he knows it(politically), he doesn't have to go all apocalyptic on me!
We were raised in a non-denominational fundie church which believes in the end times interpretations of the Book of Revelations. My brother has never been quite right in the head. He's college educated but has always seemed to be drawn into the spells of guru type personalities like Limbaugh and these wacko end times preachers such as Hagee. My brother actually told me last week that he's relieved now that he may have been wrong in figuring he'd never have to plan for retirement. He thought he screwed up and that he should have done so and was coming to realize this. Now that the economy is tanking and his party has been thoroughly rejected, he's out there on "the edge" so to speak. Now he's back to his original end times scenario and he's now "excited" about the end being near! It is so fucking sweet hearing him like this! It tells me we ROCKED his world to it's foundation with this election!

[Ian David]

1. Tell him that he's right, and he may as well give you all his stuff. n/t

[CANDO]

12. That's an awesome idea!

I'll tell him that this weekend at our family Christmas get together.

[billybob537]

21. It must be the end

I've never been so OPTOMISTIC!

[Ian David]

39. Tell him you KNEW Obama was The Antichrist, and that's why you voted for him.

Tell him we ALL know.

[Uben]

2. Thanks for the heads-up!

I'm going out and investing in cemetery plots.

[Mari333]

3. heh. thats been going on for a longgg time.

heres a fun look at the thousands of end times predictions that have never come true over the last few centuries..
http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrld.htm

[lostnotforgotten]

4. What Amazes Me Is How Anyone Could Think This Way

My brain is so logical by comparison that I truly have a hard time relating to your brother's way of thinking.

[CANDO]

10. I struggle with that thought every time we talk politics!

This person just can't be my brother. How can he not see logic and reasoning? Let me tell you, if there ever were a finer example of a right winger, my brother would be that persons greatest rival! He just drives you mad with his refusal to acknowledge truth and facts. They don't exist in his world unless it came from approved sources.

[Cassandra]

13. Really, it's a psychological state that has nothing to do with logic.

Read this
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

it will make all clear.

[Maru Kitteh]

38. It's nice that you're able to remain so modest - with your awesomely logical brain and all

We sit in awe.

:rofl:

[lostnotforgotten]

46. Well Since You Don't Know Me Who Are You To Judge

eom

[Vickers]

5. o noes, the end times AGAIN??!??!??!

Didn't we just have them?

:shrug:

I swear, they get closer together every year..

[Lasher]

6. The end is near!

January 20, 2009 for him, like you said.

This is one of the sounds of heads exploding. I hope your brother makes a speedy recovery.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. An Honest Question For You

You wrote: "We were raised in a non-denominational fundie church which believes in the end times interpretations of the Book of Revelations."

How does fundamentalism square with interpretive reading of the holy books? That doesn't seem to make sense to me, but since i've been rarely exposed to fundamentalism, up close and personal, it isn't a criticism. I just don't understand how the two are not mutually exclusive.
GAC

[CANDO]

17. Good question

There are a lot of these churches which are not tied to any denomination such as Assembly of God, or Southern Baptist, but they believe in the Bible being the actual word of God. As for biblical interpretation, if anyone can make sense of the wacky shit in the book of Revelations, I'm all ears! Fundies believe every word in the bible is the literal truth, but for obvious reasons, the book of Revelations needs some interpretation. I think whomever wrote it was on an acid trip or something to that effect. Perhaps I'm being too cavalier with the use of the fundie terminology, but I've always described my upbringing in that church as seeing and doing everything you'd expect except handle rattlesnakes. I'm talking faith healing, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, observing people being knocked out with the Holy Spirit, dancing in the isles. It was quite entertaining, but I never believed a damn bit of it.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Acid Trip? No! Out Of His Mind? Yes

That book seems like it was written by someone whose mind had wandered off the map.

I still don't get how one can believe in the literal word of God and then accept interpretation. It's either interpretable or it's literal.

I guess i don't have to get it. Better i just ignore it.
GAC

[GreenTea]

51. A good acid trip helps....

[mrcheerful]

26. Actually that very well my be the case if it was written during a wet year

where many of the grain crops got ergot. Ergot was what the doctor extracted from to make LSD 25, better know as acid. Eating grains contaminated with ergot would induce the same effects in people as LSD 25 does.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. Do you get his stuff when he gets raptured?

Do you think he would give you some of his stuff early?

[CANDO]

24. According to his latest understanding, there is no rapture.

I don't recall the details, but he said there'd be a lot of Christians who fall for the A-C.

[ieoeja]

33. The word "rapture" does not appear anywhere in the King James Version of the bible.

"Rapture" was the vision of a young girl in Scotland 150 years ago. How so many fundie churches in the United States came to embrace this concept is unknown. I would say, bizarrely unknown in light of the fact that those same churchs believe in the inerrancy of the bible which makes no mention of this concept.

Perhaps someone pointed this out to your brother's church, they did a little research, found out it was true, and therefore decided to reject the concept which would explain "his latest understanding".

[CANDO]

41. His latest 'understanding"

Must come from whomever he's listening to(religious guru) at the moment. Has anyone seen Bill Maher's Religulous? Maybe I'll see it when its out on DVD and send him a copy!

[awoke_in_2003]

43. Religulous was pretty good...

and Maher lets the people talk themselves into corners.

[DrDan]

9. well - your rw brother is radical, even for a reich--winger

one of the fundamentalist evangelicals believing literally in the book of Revelations.

[notadmblnd]

11. Ask him if you can have his stuff.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. The Myans said it would be Dec. 21, 2012, right?

[Turbineguy]

19. Maybe they

just ran out of space on the circle?

[ieoeja]

35. Our solar system crosses the plain of the galaxy on that date. n/t

[Catshrink]

15. My sister is one of them too.

She goes to Israel with a group every other year. Oh my.

Unfortunately she's been ill the past week (but is getting better). She was upset because she couldn't go to church yesterday -- it's the annual "Jews for Jesus" visit and she doesn't like to miss it.

Hard to believe we came from the same family.

[Shiver]

16. Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait WAIT!

Obama is NOT the Anti-Christ?

:grr: :grr: :grr: FUCK! FUCKITY fuck fuck fuck FUCK! :grr: :grr: :grr:

:nuke: I voted for Armageddon, dammit! This is NOT change I can believe in! :thumbsdown: :banghead: :thumbsdown:




Edited to add more angryness

[CANDO]

20. That's the funniest part!

Obama is NOT the A-C! He actually said the A-C will be a supernatural being who just appears on the world stage and acts as a calming influence. My brother says that the world's three major religions are all looking for their messiah and that they'll all see their messiah in this person.

[awoke_in_2003]

44. Would this supernatural being...

have a valid birth certificate? :)

[Turbineguy]

18. Get over it

you lost.

Yeah, that's it, don't plan for the future. That way there won't be one.

Sorry about your Brother's afliction.

[madmom]

23. Ya know I have kinda the same scenario with my family, they (parents and older brother) are

not REAL religious but they "believe" and are staunchly conservative. I on the other hand am a non-believer and a very staunch dem. I can't figure it out. Why am I the (according to them) black sheep?

[zeemike]

25. The one thing all fundamentalist have in common is

That they ignore the teachings of Jesus.
And so the best rebuttal comes from the words of the Christ himself
And there are manny teachings they ignore but for example the thing about public prayer, which they practically insist on, Jesus taught that you should not pray in public but "lock yourself in the closet so that you be not like the hypocrites that love to be seen praying in public"
Ironic is it not that they do the opposite of what the Master taught?

[Ilsa]

29. What I learned was that the Bible says no one will know when

the end times are near (???), one should always be prepared either way. And these people spend all their effort on trying to figure it out, and then they get their members to waste their money on their junk writings.

[zeemike]

32. Yep ,,,it is all about the money n/t

[Ilsa]

27. My father was a Southern Baptist minister and even he planned for his own

retirement, death, and funeral. The only thing that didn't work out as planned was that my mom predeceased him. He had arranged everything to protect her financially for his death first. Consequently, he gets a slightly lower pension.

So, what is your bro gonna do when he is too old to work and has nothing saved for retirement?

I'm happy to hear that he is so excited that his party has tanked! :crazy: :evilgrin:

[CANDO]

42. I'll tell him I told you so and...

that we liberals will be sure to have a safety net so he won't starve.

[gratuitous]

28. So all this pain and misery is about him, him, him?

Yeah, it's really attractive to be hip deep in shit and think that it's all going to be magically resolved. Hell, what an ego boost! God's visiting all this death, destruction and general mayhem on the world's population for the benefit of the lucky few who figured out the Heavenly Combination Lock and who subscribe to the right set of beliefs. And your brother just happens to be one of those, so the rest of the world can just literally go to Hell. He's absolved from doing anything about it.

For his edification, I would direct your brother to Matthew 25, the "judgment of the nations" parable of Jesus. Note not only what is said, but what Jesus significantly does not say. Yes, there's all that tiresome feeding the hungry and clothing the naked stuff (Damn, the Bible sure goes on and on about that; we need a lot more judgment of you the wicked and vindication of me the righteous), but notably not one word about what anyone believes. Neither the sheep nor the goats are depicted as giving testimony to God. Everything is about how they treated the least of their brothers and sisters: Did you feed them when you saw them hungry? Did you clothe them when you saw them naked? Did you visit them when they were sick or in prison?

What is your brother doing about these things, or is he just going to cower and wait for all to be supernaturally set right? And if it's the latter, you can tell him from me "Shame on you."

[leftyladyfrommo]

30. He really needs to get a life. He obviously has way too much

time on his hands.

[nancyr]

31. Do we share the same brother???

I have one just like him.

[deaniac21]

34. I enjoy it when my siblings are despondent too! Makes life

SWEET!!

[stopbush]

36. Does the world end, or is it just humanity that gets the boot?

Let's face it, humans are the only life form on this ball that realize anything about anything. But we're a species just like every other species, and the odds are that sooner rather than later, we'll be gone as well. The Earth will still be here for billions of years after we're gone, just as it was here for billions of years before we got here. When we're gone, the universe will most likely lose any awareness of itself. That's the one constructive thing humans have added to the chaos that is existence - awareness of the universe.

The ultimate ego trip at the base of Xianity is the belief that humans are the be all and end all of the universe, and that believers in Jesus are a subset who are the be all and end all beyond the universe (and for eternity, no less).

It's stupid and childish, but that's what most people believe.

[Night_Nurse]

37. Imagine how peaceful the world will be...

after the rapture - no more fundie nutjobs!

[baldguy]

40. If Obama is assassinated, it won't be by Muslim nutcases.

It'll be by fundie Xtian nutcases from right here.

[TWiley]

45. Agreed ..... homegrown Republican Bastards are more of a threat

[Skittles]

47. I will kick some CANDO brother ass

yes INDEED

[anigbrowl]

48. The only rational response to this is 'Orly? Can I have your stuff?'

Strangely, I've never met a rapture-believing type willing to hand over any of their material possessions, no matter how close they say the rapture is.

[LaPera]

49. They've been saying this shit for hundreds of years....keeps the flock in line, believing & guidance

pounding the bullshit into the sheep....it's very profitable to preach the end is near....people will give up everything they have if you can convince them the way & road to be saved (giving all ones money to the church diffidently helps)...

And since guilt is the main tool used in the process, (the way to make all feel unworthy)...you then show them a different way - Give to the church (me) and you will be saved.... a very exclusive way that you WILL be saved, and I will tell you & show you how..Just be a believer and do as it is written, (i.e., as you are told).

For hundreds of years the master con men have used the bible to explain it all....how it's now the exact time according to the good book, we indeed better pray for 'salvation" (the same lame shit the frightened, ones who can't think for themselves, the terrified of life need) because they are told the end is certainly near...yes, brothers & sisters now is the exact time so clearly written in the bible (again)...

Be generous now and support our way of thinking and our church and our bible...despise the sinners, it's for their own good - hate & distrust everyone but the church...The heathens won't be allowed to be among us...praise the lord, an exclusive eternal gated country club community in heaven just for you.

They've been saying & using this shit for centuries and every good huckster can make the bible pertain to today & for you only....The god business is very profitable....it'll never stop...there far too many lost sheep who can't and won't believe & think for themselves and their choices....leave it to someone else...a "false Prophet" is also fine, because it help me sleep better at night beliving I'm saved...and don't forget to support our god-fearing greedy, lying, hateful republican leaders!

[dana_b]

50. one world government could NEVER happen!

hell, look how we fight! I can't imagine trying to merge without a huge loss of life.

[yardwork]

52. Tell him to cheer up - his decision not to plan for retirement was prescient.

Even if he had, it would be gone now.

[Patsy Stone]

53. Check back in with your brother in about eight years

and see how that's working out for him.

[DRoseDARs]

54. Hasn't it been the "End Times" for like 1500 years now? Give. It. A. Rest.

*ugh*