Sunday, November 07, 2004

Have a nice trip

I discovered today that trying to explain contemporary fundamentalist Christianity in the U.S. (i.e. dispensationalism, as opposed to traditional Christianity) to a Buddhist is like trying to describe a bad acid trip to a straight person, while you're still tripping. You get a reaction that is equal parts bafflement, concern for your sanity, and nervous laughter - and behind all that a lurking suspicion that you're making it all up.

Speaking of which, I spotted a shelf of the Left Behind novels in the English section of a large bookstore here the other day. They were in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section.

6 comments:

s. said...

Have you actually ever tried to describe a bad trip to someone while you were having it?

Badaunt said...

Not that I remember. I was guessing. (Although I am told that one time (a very long time ago, when I was young and foolish) I kept 5 flatmates up half the night by talking nonstop for several hours after coming home from a party. I didn't remember a thing in the morning, and nobody would tell me what I'd been going on about. They were all a bit nervous around me for a few days after that and kept asking me how I felt. I felt FINE.

s. said...

Heh heh. I was thinking that trying to do so would be the sort of cyclical-logic problem which would create the worst bad trip EVER!

I like yr blog - see you again soon!

Cheryl said...

Wow, that took me on a learning curve. Amazon seems to suggest the subsection 'fiction' within rel & spir for that title also (I had never heard of it) and yes if the link is a fair description of dispensationalism then I am as gobsmacked as your buddhist friend!
I looked at a few more of your posts :-)
Nice, interesting, thought provoking blog

Badaunt said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Badaunt said...

Amazing stuff, isn't it? I hadn't heard of the books either until an American friend told me.