The Evangelical "Mainstream" Insanity Behind the Michigan "End Times" Militia

[RamboLiberal]

A federal prosecutor in Michigan says authorities decided to arrest members of the Hutaree Christian militia after learning "they were prepared to kill."

When I first learned of the news I went to the Hutaree Militia homepage and was struck by the fact that their site included links to a number of evangelical "End Times" sites like that of the Jack Van Impe ministries.

In the 1970s and 80s I appeared several times with Jack Van Impe on his TV program. His act was to predict the "imminent" return of Jesus. My act was to raise money for my latest far religious right effort to make abortion illegal.

As the son of well known evangelicals and far right leader Francis Schaeffer I was in the middle of the chain of events that led to the arrests of men prepared to kill cops for Jesus. The rhetoric we in the early pro-life movement unleashed combined, with the apocalyptic fantasies of the fundamentalist evangelicals, is a deadly brew.

As I describe in detail in my books Crazy For God and Patience With God this movement has a deep evangelical background. In fact I've been predicting violence from these people for years now, something I talk about in detail in Patience With God (from which I drew material for this article since I have a whole chapter there about the "Left Behind" cult).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/the-evangelical-mainstrea_b_520990.html

[Bitwit1234]

1. The problem with these groups of people is this

one or two may not even be interested in running wild and killing people, but when you get a mob together they encourage each other. Look at the bunch of tea bags egged on by the republican representatives (bachmann and others). So yes they are dangerous in those groups. Same at bullying. One kid doesn't have the nerve but all those together know they overpower.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Frank really tries

He has so much work to do if he ever wishes to balance his former work.

[katty]

3. herd consciousness acting out -- always scary

[tanyev]

4. Ah, yes, Jack "Computer is the Antichrist" Van Impe.

I love that Frank Schaeffer is out there blasting these people he used to work with. I hope he stays safe.