Survivors - of God's indiscriminate slaughter

Before The End of Faith I read a book called Survivors that I got for two quid off a geezer in the street. I didn't have to give him two quid, he just asked for 'any coin'. But I wanted to at least cover the cost of publishing and distributing it. In retrospect, I probably should be more careful who I'm giving my money to!

The book is by a group called the 'Jesus Christians', who apparently dislike organised Christianity and follow the example of Jesus in a 'pure' way, impoverishing themselves and wasting their lives preaching. Apparently they disagree with the Left Behind series of books produced by a fundamentalist Christian group in a America, which (again, apparently, I don't know much about them) weave a fictional storyline around the (completely factual, of course) story of the coming apocalypse (as detailed in that wonderful Biblical story, The Revelation). So these Jesus Christians decided to write their own story, much shorter and fitting into the one small book, along the same lines and using a lot of the same names, but 'correcting' all the misinterpretations of scripture. The whole thing must infringe the Left Behind's copyright massively since chunks of it are completely plagiarised (I can say this with confidence because the authors admit it throughout. Did nobody tell them it was illegal?). After every chapter is a short tract relating the story to scripture to give you more of an idea of where their interpretation is coming from.

I quite liked it at first because the story was quite gripping, if simplistically written. The Russians, completely unprovoked, destroy America with nuclear bombs and the story follows the experiences of one family in that time. (The Russians! You've got to be kidding me! Apparently America is the new 'great power', therefore the scene of destruction is removed from the Middle East to America, and the attack must from 'from the North', so by Russia over the North Pole.) Then we get a whole period of spiel while the main character, Rayford, discovers Jesus and leads this group of 'Jesans' up to the time of the 'Tribulation'.

At this point it starts to get more and more loopy. In order to follow the Bible literally the authors have to start including more and more fantastical nonsense in the story, turning it into a crazy hallucinogenic trip. The leader of the UN becomes the leader of a world government, then he dies and his body gets inhabited by the antiChrist, who has a scary demon face. The antiChrist sets about slaughtering Christians and having massive orgies in a Jewish Temple he's constructed. Then we have The Mark, which is a chip placed literally in the right hand or forehead allowing us to pay for things (forehead, for goodness' sake). The two leaders of the Jesan sect, which is growing in popularity through its message of living like a pauper and cutting off your hand if you've had The Mark installed, have the power to shoot fireballs from their mouths. Eventually, God's kingdom comes down from the sky looking like a giant glass pyramid and all the good people float up to it for their thousand-year reign over the Earth. (What happens after that was never clear. Is it judgement?)

Except for the fireballs and other magics, the whole thing is hilariously literal, the authors trying to find a materialistic parallel for all the guff in The Revelation. Even heaven, or the kingdom, or whatever this pyramid thing that's floating in the sky is, has its own 'divine physics' governing how things work. They even have the Jesan's website being served through this heaven! However, this literalness in many ways serves to make the story even more unbelievable. With magics and revelations and a return to high levels of superstition you could almost imagine some of this stuff happening, but as it is you're trying to reconcile things like the antiChrist introducing widespread execution for anyone connected to the Jesans (or Twelve Tribes as they become known), while the world's populace seem to join in whole-heartedly.

One of the things that brought me into the story early on was that one of the leaders of the Twelve Tribes started out as a humanist, not really believing in God. Rayford sucks him in with the standard theist method of calling god something else that exists (love, the universal human compassion, or some such), and then going back to using the old definition of God without a blink. Another one of these leaders-in-waiting is a lesbian, another a Jehovah's witness etc. They're all bickering away when God speaks through Rayford in a booming voice. They're all converted instantly on the spot. You see, they get a sign! Not like the rest of us.

God is portrayed as a totalitarian, manipulative, mendacious, vicious sadist. Now that does make a lot more sense! Apparently, the reason why the Bible is so ambiguous and God has allowed so many different Christian sects to crop up is because he's been fucking with us, essentially. Testing us, to see if we would be true to ourselves. That's why he could accept the humanist, you see, because he was true to his beliefs.

However, after they've converted, the humanist accepts there's a god. Worst of all the lesbian is forced to accept that god has a right to choose how he wishes people to express their sexual behaviour, and is converted to the holiness of straightness. God, by virtue of having created us, has a right to use us and control us like tinker-toys, and command us to do whatever loopy crap he deems fit. In His Infinite Wisdom, he has seen fit to create homosexuals (or allow them to come about), who must then deny those urges because God is a colossal sexual pervert and our sexual behaviour is of crucial importance to him (I think there's definitely some Freudian shit going down here, I think God definitely needs therapy).

The book was fascinating because it does show you what a range of beliefs we must combat. If you have bought into the complete literalness of the Bible and the genuine proximity of the Apocalypse, you're not going to be persuaded by arguments. Only a revelation of similar magnitude is likely to break down that wall. Nobody can draw your attention to how ridiculous your beliefs are because you have bought into, and convinced yourself of, ideas that are so utterly preposterous it must almost represent some kind of brain damage.

---

I'll tell you a little story as an aside to this. When I was going to the Free Expression Rally yesterday, there was a woman at Oxford Circus shouting stuff about God through a loudspeaker. There was a huge space around her as people were trying hard to avoid her. I was already in my activist frame of mind so I went up to her, tapped her on the shoulder and said "I've got news for you: there is no God. It's all a fantasy. It's in your head!" She looked stunned and was completely silenced. I didn't hear her speak again at all as I walked down Regent Street.

Thinking about my little triumph, I had to be realistic. Just consider what kind of state of mind it must have taken for her to take herself out to humiliate herself on the streets in the first place. She must have been absolutely inspired with the urge to spread her message. It must have completely overwhelmed her character. You're not going to crack that nut with a few words. And similarly so with these other lunatic Apocalyptic Christians.

This is why I try to work at the edges, talking to the doubters and the moderates, and the huge numbers of people with very vague, wishy-washy beliefs. The strong believers have just got too much history for their brains to be completely reconstructed. If a man is not open to reason, you must work with his children. He is already lost.