The Sins Of My Generation

The other day I read a blog post written by Tom Morton to do with these mostly painful subjects: generational guilt and the quest for redemption, the Christian church's influence in the seventies (and onwards) and how seemingly innocent things can quickly unravel into squalid mega-troubles. The question being; is it all Larry Norman's fault? 

Golden boy Larry was pretty much the inventor of Christian rock music back then and despite leading a chaotic and selfish life he managed to sell millions of records, convert Mike Pence along the way and articulate the "Rapture" as no one else had done before. He wrote the song " I wish we'd all been ready", and the rest turned out to be history. This song became a Gospel ear worm in the early seventies that influenced and corrupted old and young minds all across the world. It led to a flood of books, films and sermons about "The Last Days" (according to the Bible) and how we were all living through them right now. The mysterious Rapture might happen at any moment and are you, you unjustified sinner, ready? Unfortunately I was a part of this generation and very much affected by these teachings. Fuck!

Over time my generation grew up and this thinking and the bent theology that goes with it solidified in the hearts and minds of Evangelical Christians all across the world. The Bible tells us there will be trials and tribulations, a shitload of trouble in Israel and the Middle East and then after some climactic battle or event the rapture will take all the (proper) Christians "home". It also lines up nicely with Jewish doomsday scenarios and the coming of their own exclusive Messiah, a kind of alternative Jesus.  As you might imagine, in the USA, within Christian groups, this is very much the lens through which all world events are viewed. Help the poor, feed the starving, make the world a better place? Well do a bit if you can but there's no real point because we're all trapped in a Biblical narrative that has only one outcome ... the return of the Messiah and a lot of judgmental and consequential consequences ... err but we'll all be OK in our Baptist Chapels. 

If then you've come to believe that we're on the eve of total destruction coupled with the redemption of the faithful there's little point in adhering to what might previously have been considered as "doing the right thing" a few generations ago. So arm the Israelis but also arm the Arabs and anyone else that might have some input into ramping up the tribulations. It's not so far removed from the billionaire based long term futurism that plans to colonize the Moon, Mars and other random planets. No point in helping the people of earth improve their lot, it's all a lost cause whatever religious or philosophical slant you apply. The easy way is simply to get out of it all and hope the species, either in physical or supernatural form survives elsewhere. Everyone else can basically get to fuck; too poor, too dim and just born at a bad time when the planet was over heating.

Funny to think that it all began for my generation with a room full of long haired ex-hippies plunking on guitars and pulling texts and phrases from the Bible to quietly mull over. We had our moments of baseless optimism and disregard for our fellow heathen humans but we honestly thought it would somehow work out favorably. There might be a revival, societal change, the collapse of capitalism and a return to more simplistic values. A brave new acoustic and analogue world filled with rainbows and paperback fantasy novels where Jesus is chief influencer.  In reality it turns out that over investing in some twisted theological fairy story coupled with a line of dangerous pipe dreams that seduce the naive, exploit the stupid and empower all the worst people isn't a helpful or constructive way to be. Just take a look around.

So is it still all Larry Norman's fault? Well he's long dead and gone now and unlikely to have made it into heaven by any standards so on balance it probably is.