Oh How Embarrassing
I’ve just discovered that Dispensationalism (the kooky and dangerously twisted strand of religious fundamentalism unnervingly popular in the United States) was invented by an Irish guy, in Dublin: one John Nelson Darby no less. We’re really sorry. Dispensationalism preaches the fairy-tale notion of “Rapture”, which is a bit like being abducted by aliens or elves, instead this time it’s God. The idea that they will escape a whole lot of shit coming down the pipeline apparently gives many fundamentalist christians licence to abdicate responsibility and let the environment and civil society go to hell because, well, it’s going to turn into hell anyway. Or something like that. Some of the weird “prophecies” within dispensationalism are also to blame for some of the less rational bone-headed foreign policy moves by successive US governments, especially with regards to the Middle East.
