The lecture on Tuesday evening was supposed to be the Catholic version of the End Times. But Jim would always much rather talk about "them" than about "us". Not necessarily in a finger-pointing way, 'though some people laughed at the absurdity of some of the notions. Jim is so not "us" ... but he isn't "them" either. Myself, I have lost the right to laugh, "forfeited" the right is probably more accurate. I was there to keep him honest on his topic and he was, very honest. As always.

His position, following Rev. Rossing, is that Rapture theology is environmentally deadly. He quoted James Watt (Reagan's dept. of the Interior) in his confirmation hearing answers as saying "Well, I don't know how many more generations we're going to have until the Lord comes again." Jim's point: the wrong guy to have in charge of the country's environment.

I'm not necessarily an environmentalist. I mean, obviously, I was brought up to not litter and I don't. You know, that crying Native American campaign and everything. That's the extent of it, no littering. From what I see in NJ, that's practically a virtue. Oh, well, we recycle, too, but that's the law. I don't do the two other R's: reduce and reuse.

So that angle of "attack" isn't going to convince me. I am much more concerned about the spiritual implications and the escapist tendencies. Jim shared this quote from Sojourner Truth which earned an amen or two from us:

You seem to be expecting to go to some parlor away up somewhere, and when the wicked have been burnt, you are coming back to walk in triumph over their ashes--this is to be your New Jerusalem!! Now I can't see any thing so very nice in that, coming back to such a muss as that will be, a world covered with the ashes of the wicked! Besides, if the Lord comes and burns--as you say he will--I am not going away; I am going to stay here and stand the fire, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! And Jesus will walk with me through the fire, and keep me from harm. Nothing belonging to God can burn, any more than God himself; such shall have no need to go away to escape the fire! No, I shall remain. Do you tell me that God's children can't stand fire?'

Jim's bottom line was that he's prepared to be wrong about Rapture but it isn't so important to believe in Rapture. That is to say, he doesn't think that in order to be raptured, one needs to believe in Rapture. The important thing is believing in Jesus and that's Jim's thing, that's his position. If you belong to Jesus, he'll take you whenever he comes. And the audience agreed with him and nobody was laughing anymore.