Rapture Bell

[2007]
Lyrics and Music by Charles C. Tyler
Album: Charles Tyler

"This 3rd song is a satire on evangelical Christians.
One of three songs that I have written around the Middle-East conflict. This one focuses on the mad people who are actually hoping for the troubles in the region to escalate into a "final conflict" prior to the "Rapture" and the "Second Coming" of Jesus Christ. These are people who obviously don't have much grip on reality. It would be OK if they were just harmless nutters - but this particular wacky belief is potentially very dangerous.

These are people who call themselves Christians but who actually hope for Armageddon and for millions to die. They expect to escape death themselves and selfishly hope to be 'saved' by their faith. In my view these people are even more evil - if that is possible - than suicide bombers who actually have far more limited objectives. And most of these people live in the USA. Because of the importance of the religious right to the Republican party they even have some influence on US Government policy. I find this a pretty terrifying thought.

In relation to this, if you haven't seen it please take the time to read the speech made by Bill Moyers when he accepted his Global Environmental Citizen Award last year. A key quote:

"The delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress."

Precisely. It is a real cause for concern when such nonsense as belief in 'The Rapture' infects the seat of power. Here is a link to the full text:

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/20666/

And here is a longer extract:

"They are the people who believe the bible is literally true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right � the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the left-behind series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye.

These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.

Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre - once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the anti-Christ will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon.

As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the Messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow.

I'm not making this up. I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfilment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man."

A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed as an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144 - just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter Heaven and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire."