Originally Posted by
JayUtah
.But in a larger sense, I think the "end times" rhetoric plays a big part in Fundamentalist rhetoric. They're literally trying to scare their followers into membership and obedience. Spend some time in the American south; it's frightening. I grew up in the Bible belt. It was all about Satan lurking around every corner, waiting to entrap you, and dire warnings about where you'll be when the trumpet sounds. I also lived through the Cold War, under the real threat of nuclear annihilation. Not even close to the sphincter-clenching rhetoric I heard coming from Fundamentalist doomsayers.
Yeah, it's almost as if they're actually worshipping Satan under the guise of Christianity. But fear is nothing new, or regional, in American religion, viz Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God.
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