Glenn Shuck - Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity

Marks of the Beast

Marks of

the Beast

The Left Behind Novels and the

Struggle for Evangelical Identity

Glenn W. Shuck

a

N E W Y O R K U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

New York and London

n e w y o r k u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s New York and London

www.nyupress.org

2005 by New York University

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shuck, Glenn W.

Marks of the beast : the left behind novels and the struggle for evangelical identity / Glenn W. Shuck.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0814740049 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 0814740057 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. EvangelicalismUnited States. 2. Eschatology.

3. LaHaye, Tim F. Left behind series. I. Title.

BR1642.U5S38

2004

813'.54dc22

2004014840

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Acknowledgments

vii

Preface: About American Evangelicals

xi

Introduction: First Words on Last Things

Signs of the Times: The Dispensational Background of Evangelical Prophecy Belief

Reluctant Rebels: The Left Behind Novels and the Politics of Evangelical Identity

The Emergence of the Network

Culture/Beast System

Technologies of Transcendence: Beast Religion

and the Deification/Demonization

of the Network Culture

Marks of the Beast: The Struggle for

Evangelical Identity

Beast, Inc.: Evangelical Resistance and the Internalization of Evil

Epilogue

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

About the Author

v

Acknowledgments

I have benefited from the insight, patience, and kindness of many people during the production of this manuscript. Indeed, I would never have had the opportunity to undertake this project without the support and encouragement of many more. I would like to begin by thanking the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University for their support, financial and otherwise. Specifically, this includes Sylvia Louie, the department coordinator with all the answers; and the chair, William Parsons, who introduced my work to Jennifer Hammer of NYU Press. Likewise, I thank Jennifer for recognizing the projects potential and urging her editorial board at NYU Press to publish it.

This manuscript emerged from my dissertation project at Rice University, and I benefited much from the wisdom of my dissertation committee. Edith Wyschogrod, the committee chair, encouraged me to develop my ideas and produce a project at once both rigorous and readable. Always oracular in her comments, Dr. Wyschogrod gently implied her suggestions, not wanting to unduly influence the final product. Nevertheless, as anyone who knows Edith Wyschogrod recognizes, her mildest suggestions often contain hidden imperatives one would be wise to heed.

John M. Stroup constantly barraged me with bizarre Internet links and helpful e-mails, patiently read large portions of the incomplete manuscript, and provided abundant and welcome insight into issues both of us believe require greater scholarly attention. Mark C. Taylor, ostensibly operating out of Williamstown, Massachusetts, proved a constant source of insight via his avatar on the World Wide Web. Mark has also recognized the importance of the work, and I am grateful for his support and encouragement. Finally, Michael O. Emerson, although a latecomer to the committee, did as much work as anyone to counsel me through the various stages, patiently reading drafts and providing an excellent example of professionalism for me to emulate.

vii

viii | Acknowledgments

A number of other scholars also read portions of the manuscript and/or discussed the project with me at length. The list begins with Robert C. Fuller, whom I met during a conference at the Esalen Institute in April 2003. Bob, rather plain-spoken himself, urged me to clarify portions of the text and make my claims more explicit. Bob also made several incisive and helpful comments in subsequent communications. Jeffrey J. Kripal, whom I assisted with a number of research projects at Rice along with the Esalen conference, also read the manuscript and made many helpful suggestions. Jeff pushed me during the publication phase of this project more than anyone, actually, and his adviceas alwayswas sound. I hope this book draws at least a measure of the attention garnered by his first monograph, Kalis Child, although I could do without the par-liamentary debates on the merits of burning it. I would also like to thank Cathy Wessinger, who heard a summarized version of the manuscripts main arguments at the 2002 National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Wessinger asked many incisive questions about the project and encouraged me to publish it.

A number of friends and colleagues also assisted me during this process. David A. Adcock consulted, challenged, and debated many portions of the manuscript; and, no matter how much I may have agreed or disagreed with some of his readings, I never left our meetings lacking fresh insight into the Left Behind phenomenon. I also owe a debt of grat-itude to my friends and colleagues, notably Alejandro Chaoul, Randi Clary, Robert Erlewine, Stephen L. Hood, Julie Kutac, Molly Robey, Anna Solberg, Matthew Schunke, and Carter Wagner. Some of you read portions of the draft, while others provided an indulgent audience for my descriptions of Left Behind and its cultural significance. Still others reminded me that life goes on outside academia, difficult as that is to believe sometimes. I wish also to thank two of my teachers who became good friends, Richard Milk of Texas Lutheran University, and Rosanne Barker of Sam Houston State Universitywho believed in me when I needed it most.

My family has always provided me with plenty of understanding and encouragement. Dorothy Fitt, David and Sherry Teller, Rosemary Tre-ichel, and Johnny (who always knew) and Mary Lou Ulrich have all played important roles in my ability to produce this manuscript. I would also like to thank Hermann and Waltraud von Laermy German host

family. Hermann and I have spent many a late night discussing and debating American evangelicals, the state of the global economy, Der Stop-

Acknowledgments | ix pelmarkt, and anything else we have thought of while enjoying his favorite local brew, Haake-Beck Pils. Finally, I owe thanks to three very special people. My late grandmother, Dorothy Ida Ulrich, made sure I followed my academic dreams and would have been quite proud to see them coming to fruition. And last but certainly not least, I thank my parents, Colleen and Charles Shuck, who provided support, read drafts, sent love, sent money, and basically anything else I needed during those lean years known as graduate school. My academic work would simply not have been possible without you, mom and dad. It is to you that I dedicate this book.

Preface

About American Evangelicals

Before moving into the substance of the book, I want to provide readers with a sense of how I deploy the term evangelical.1 Evangelical is a much-misunderstood descriptor, owing in large measure to the many different ways it has been used. Throughout American history it has indicated related but politically and culturally dissimilar groups. Even evangelicals occasionally disagree about which groups belong in the fold and which count as heretical. In this text I am describing what evangelical media theorist Quentin J. Schultze calls the phenomenon of popular evangelicalism, emphasizing people in the pews who mix and match beliefs, rather than denominational leaders who hold to more precise definitions.2 I understand a popular evangelical first as a conservative Protestant who holds the Bible as a guiding authority. Second, a popular evangelical will also cite the necessity of a saving experience of Christ (sometimes called a born-again experience). Third, an evangelical understands witnessing, or the need to share ones experience of Christ with others, as an important responsibility for the believer. Fourth, popular evangelicals believe that each individual must freely choose to either accept or deny Christ. Finally, and perhaps most important for the purposes of this study, popular evangelicals believe that Christ will return soon to establish his literal, millennial kingdom on Earth.