Word: christian
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...While most creative works about Armageddon (The Day After Tomorrow, Omega Man, The Road) tend to be bummers, heavier on cannibalism than comedy, Kutner's book is a lighthearted romp that looks on the bright side of the end of the world. Yes, it's a shame that a Christian Rapture could teleport all the godly elect into heaven, leaving sinners (like yourself) to suffer a millennium of "Satanic chastisement" - but on the plus side, the raptured supposedly leave their clothes behind. "Just think of it," Kutner writes. "Any clothing item you want, direct to you by Heavenly consignment...
...world. He has a "go bag" - a collection of items needed in case of an emergency evacuation - and he calls himself and his wife "apoca-nerds." He looks around the landscape of American popular culture and sees a country that shares that obsession with end times: think of the Christian Left Behind series of novels, which have sold more than 60 million copies, or TV shows like Jericho, set after a nuclear war. "We're in this nebulous new age where the Cold War, which defined the second half of the 20th century, is over," says Kutner. "But the good...
...might have learned to say to himself, "Ah, there goes a Chinaman! God will not love me if I do not stone him." Twain's essay About Smells notes that in Heaven, one will meet people of all races--he lists a few--but not, alas, the "good Christian friend" who spends all his time complaining...
...happens, many of these were also the issues of his day, and he addressed them as eloquently as anyone has since. The idea that America is a Christian nation? Andrew Carnegie brought that up to him once. "Why, Carnegie," Twain answered, "so is Hell...
...about to take place. If they could rally enough citizens to oppose the hideous deed, that would make the anti-lynching position the new conventional wisdom that everyone would flock to conform to. But a problem--where to find enough sheriffs? Why not draft them from among the Christian missionaries spreading the malady of Western civilization in China? (Missionaries were a favorite target for Twain.) In China, he told his readers, "almost every convert runs a risk of catching our civilization ... We ought to think twice before we encourage a risk like that; for, once civilized, China can never...