Editing Left Behind (section)

==== Violence and war ====
Some practicing Christians, evangelical and otherwise, along with non-Christians have shown concern that the social perspectives promoted in the ''Left Behind'' series unduly sensationalize the death and destruction of masses of people. [[Harvey Cox]], a professor of divinity at Harvard, says part of the appeal of the books lies in the "lip-licking anticipation of all the blood", and Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing, author of ''The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation'', said the books glorify violence.<ref name="Rossing2007">{{cite book |author=Rossing |first=Barbara R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mK2fcw-GkMIC |title=The Rapture Exposed |date=March 1, 2007 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00496-6}}</ref><ref name="cloud" /><ref name="whitehead">{{Cite web |last=Whitehead |first=John W. |date=July 1, 2004 |title=God So Loved the World that He Gave Us World War III |url=http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112214410/http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp |archive-date=January 12, 2008 |website=[[The Rutherford Institute]] |series=OldSpeak}}</ref> Additionally, Paul Nuechterlein accused the authors of re-sacralizing violence, adding that "we human beings are the ones who put our faith in superior firepower. But in the ''Left Behind'' novels, the darkness of that human, satanic violence is once again attributed to God".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nuechterlein |first=Paul |date=May 18, 2004 |title=Re-Sacralizing Violence in Left Behind |url=http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119140743/http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |archive-date=November 19, 2007 |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=Girardian Lectionary}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' said "the nuclear frights of, say, [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'' wouldn't fill a chapter in the ''Left Behind'' series. (Large chunks of several U.S. cities have been bombed to smithereens by page 110 of Book 3.)"<ref name="cloud">{{Cite magazine |last=Cloud |first=John |date=June 23, 2002 |title=Meet the Prophet |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020701/books.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202151833/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020701/books.html |archive-date=December 2, 2008 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]}}</ref>

David Carlson, a Professor of Religious Studies and a member of the [[Greek Orthodox]] Church, wrote that the theology underpinning the ''Left Behind'' series promotes a "skewed view of the Christian faith that welcomes war and disaster, while dismissing peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere—all in the name of Christ".<ref name="Carlson">{{cite web |last=Carlson |first=David |date=2003 |title='Left Behind' and the Corruption of Biblical Interpretation |url=http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602001404/http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php |archive-date=June 2, 2015 |access-date=May 12, 2015 |website=Orthodoxy Today}}</ref>

B. D. Forbes "locates the series in the context of a well-established tradition of American popular culture...that presents the good-evil struggle as 'evil [coming] from the outside' with 'the solution [as] the destruction of the evil-doers".<ref>{{Citation |last1=Serazio |first1=Michael |title=Right Behind 'Left Behind': The Conservative Geopolitics of Christian Apocalyptic Entertainment |date=2008 |pages=9 |series=Conference Papers |publisher=[[International Communication Association]] |last2=Hardy |first2=Bruce |via=[[EBSCOhost]]}}</ref>