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Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:00 AM

Come as you are

At Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Snoop Dogg figures in sermons, housewives cradle babies in tattooed arms -- and religious fundamentalism rules. Meet the Disciple Generation, the fierce new face of American evangelism.

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  • Tuesday, September 12, 2006 09:00 PM

    evangelicals and the Rapture

    I recently met one of these culturally mainstreamed, Gen-Y Christians from the Pacific Northwest on an airplane. I debated theology with him for a couple hours.

    Although I don't know about this specific Seattle church, my impression is that it seems to fit into the traditional mold of American evangelical Christianity. Fundamentalist, communal, apolitical. They're mostly interested in minding their own business, and aren't anywhere near the same threat to our country as are the older voters in Bush's Religious Right base.

    Except for one thing. My seatmate, like this Ted Dietz, was steeped in the Rapture, in Premillennialist thinking of the "Left Behind" variety. Like Dietz, he was enthusiastically hoping to fulfill prophecy by constructing a new Temple in Jerusalem -- regardless of whether (or because) it would spark a World War in the Middle East (a likely consequence of destroying the Muslim Dome of the Rock).

    I'm starting to wonder whether Rapturists will be a greater threat to world peace than Islamic Fundamentalists.

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