Tender Warriors: Muscular Christians, Promise Keepers, And the Crisis of Masculinity in Left Behind (Critical Essay‪)‬

[1] The Left Behind series of apocalyptic "rapture" novels is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing, indeed perplexing, popular cultural phenomena to emerge from America in recent years. The series, consisting of sixteen books in total, was conceived by Christian Right activist Tim LaHaye, and penned by fellow evangelical Jerry Jenkins. (1) Launched in 1995 to a comparatively quiet reception, it has since proved phenomenally popular, and not just among conservative evangelicals--some 65 million copies have now been sold, and the last six novels all attained the number one position on best-seller lists, including those of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. (2) To offer a very brief synopsis, the novels take place at the end of history, and chart the changing fortunes of a group of former spiritual doubters who see the error of their ways and convert to Christianity following the "rapture" of their devout friends and relatives. Dubbing themselves the "Tribulation Force," the new believers battle to win souls for Christ and thwart the efforts of the Antichrist before Jesus returns to inaugurate his millennial kingdom. [2] If LaHaye and Jenkins' Left Behind novels are the most successful "rapture fictions' of all time, they are also the most castigated. There are now few offences of which they have not been accused. The media have anxiously noted their cultural and religious intolerance, their triumphalist worldview, and their appetite for violence. (3) Commentators such as Paul Boyer have suggested that Left Behind's apocalypticism has fomented fears about Islamic terrorism and helped justify the USA's punitive actions in the Middle East. (4) Others still contend that the series is deeply anti-Semitic--Sherryll Mleynek, for example, argues that Left Behind constitutes an insidious form of Holocaust denial. (5) Perhaps the strongest critiques of the novels, however, emanate from the Christian community itself. Anti-Left Behind literature is a growing sub-genre: Christian writers from various denominations, including Barbara Rossing, Carl Olson, Paul Thigpen, Steve Wohlberg and Gary DeMar, charge that the books are unscriptural and misleading, based on a fanciful biblical eisegesis that is not only faulty but lacking in pedigree--the dispensationalism on which the books are based was unheard of among American Protestants until the late nineteenth century. (6)