America, Left Behind

Abstract

This paper examines the striking intersections between the Christian Right and the Neoconservative movement in contemporary U.S. foreign policy. Using as my specific example the wildly popular series of evangelical fiction, Left Behind, I suggest that there is an important “fit” or “elective affinity” between the aggressive foreign policies of the Neoconservatives and the millenarian vision of the Left Behind series. The former seeks a “New American Century” and a “benevolent hegemony” of the globe by U.S. power, ushered in by the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq; the latter seeks a “New Millennium” of divine rule ushered in by Christ’s imminent return and by apocalyptic war in the Middle East, first in Babylon and then in Jerusalem. Mr. Bush, I suggest, serves as the key structural link that helps tie together the Neoconservative ideologues and their most powerful base of popular support in the Christian Right.