Invest in Jesus: Neoliberalism and the Left Behind Novels

Abstract

Invest in Jesus:Neoliberalism and the Left Behind Novels Andrew Strombeck (bio) In case of the Rapture, car will be driverless. —Contemporary bumper sticker In case of the Rapture, can I have your car? —Another contemporary bumper sticker Wildly selling throughout the past decade, the Left Behind series—fifteen novels that narrate an evangelical Christian apocalypse—has emerged as the most visible symbol of a thriving Christian popular culture, and, by extension, an American evangelicalism that has sounded particularly triumphant in the wake of the 2004 election.1 Despite their wide popularity, the books have only recently become objects of critical inquiry; as Melani McAlister notes, the books have been "all but invisible in liberal and intellectual circles" (774). When cultural critics have addressed the books, they tend to accept them as exactly what the authors claim them to be—straightforward extensions of a narrowly conceived Christian evangelical culture. Of course, this interpretation has some merit, especially given the conservative, evangelical credentials of the books' coauthors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.2 Nevertheless, this overreliance on authorial intention tends to obstruct a full critique of the books as complex cultural objects. The purpose of this essay is to expand the critical framework in which the books have been read so far. I argue that, as much as the books reflect a narrow, Christian Right agenda, they also reinforce a more hegemonic ideology, the widely shared devotion to market capitalism known as neoliberalism. Although the novels, with their seemingly antimodern fundamentalism, seem to occupy the margins of [End Page 161] a certain America, in their devotion to free-market capitalism they occupy the center. The two bumper stickers that I use as epigraphs humorously evoke the conflicted relationship between the premillennialist theology of the Left Behind books and the consumer culture in which it operates. While one would expect the series to celebrate the solemn sentiments of the former sticker, the books in fact take great joy in the more crass impulse of the latter. In the first volume, Left Behind, the apocalypse is a financial opportunity, a good time to pick up a car on the cheap. This consumerism reflects the books' own position as products of global capitalism, marketed and distributed using the same mechanisms as Microsoft software or Disney movies. The series enjoys a wide distribution; the sleek-looking, colorful books surface prominently everywhere, from Wal-Mart to Costco to Borders, displayed for maximum promotion at the end of the aisle.3 This wide distribution, I argue, echoes the books' ideas; while the books do further a narrow conservative agenda, they simultaneously reinforce more widely accepted themes of markets and privatization. The books' cultural work extends beyond a mere recycling of a Christian agenda, and instead manifests a complex, but coherent, cultural logic. Reading the books in this light foregrounds not only their distinctiveness within a history of apocalyptic fundamentalism but also their continuity with the larger American culture. The ordinariness of neoliberalism organizes the apocalyptic imagination; visions of the apocalypse fuel the desire for neoliberal management. In the Left Behind books, the apocalypse is largely not transformative; throughout the books' upheaval and disaster, markets persist as the most efficient way of resisting totalitarian evil. And yet the smooth operation of neoliberal ideology ultimately proves unable to contain the books' suffering and destruction. Their devotion to market logic even in the face of catastrophe ends up demonstrating—if briefly—the shortcomings of neoliberalism's totalized vision. Apocalypse or Now? Building on a tradition of premillennialist theology, the Left Behind books begin with the "Rapture" (or disappearance), of all the world's [End Page 162] Christians.4 The eponymous first book describes the chaos resulting from driverless cars, engineerless trains, and pilotless planes. After this apocalyptic inaugural event, the rest of the books relate the story of the Tribulation Force, a band of newly converted Christians (after the rapture, the conversions continue, assisted by helpful videotapes left by Raptured pastors) who endure and resist the Antichrist's global domination. The Antichrist is a Romanian businessman named Nicolae Carpathia who rises to world power based on his charisma and "such an intimate knowledge of the United Nations that it was...