The End of the World As We Know It

Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America

Daniel N Wojcik

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 1999
• ISBN:
  9780814770504
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

From religious tomes to current folk prophesies, recorded history reveals a plethora of narratives predicting or showcasing the end of the world. The incident at Waco, the subway bombing by the Japanese cult Aum Supreme Truth, and the tragedy at Jonestown are just a few examples of such apocalyptic scenarios. And these are not isolated incidents; millions of Americans today believe the end of the world is inevitable, either by a divinely ordained plan, nuclear catastrophe, extraterrestrial invasion, or gradual environmental decay,

Examining the doomsday scenarios and apocalyptic predictions of visionaries, televangelists, survivalists, and various other endtimes enthusiasts, as well as popular culture, film, music, fashion, and humor, Daniel Wojcik sheds new light on America's fascination with worldly destruction and transformation. He explores the origins of contemporary apocalyptic beliefs and compares religious and secular apocalyptic speculation, showing us the routes our belief systems have traveled over the centuries to arrive at the dawn of a new millennium. Included in his sweeping examination are premillennial prophecy traditions, prophecies associated with visions of the Virgin Mary, secular ideas about nuclear apocalypse, the transformation of apocalyptic prophecy in the post-Cold War era, and emerging apocalyptic ideas associated with UFOs and extraterrestrials.

Timely, yet of lasting importance, The End of the World as We Know It is a comprehensive cultural and historical portrait of an age-old phenomenon and a fascinating guide to contemporary apocalyptic fever.

1

Approaching Doomsday
The Contours of American Apocalyptic Belief

Beliefs and narratives about the end of the world have fascinated people throughout human history. In nearly every society, sacred narratives are told about worldly cataclysm, the regeneration of the earth, and the creation of a terrestrial paradise (Talmon 1968:349–351; Thrupp 1970:11–15). Until recently, the end of the world has been interpreted as a meaningful, transformative, and supernatural event, involving the annihilation and renewal of the earth by deities or divine forces. During the last half of the twentieth century, however, widespread beliefs about a meaningless apocalypse have emerged and now compete with traditional religious apocalyptic worldviews. The creation and proliferation of nuclear weapons, in particular, have fundamentally altered contemporary apocalyptic thought, fueling fears of global annihilation and evoking widespread fatalism about the future of humanity. The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 initiated an era of nuclear apocalypticism that has flourished in American religious and secular cultures. Popular beliefs about the inevitability of nuclear apocalypse are revealed by a Yankelovich poll taken in 1984, in which 39 percent of a sample population agreed with the statement “When the Bible predicts that the earth will be destroyed by fire, it’s telling us that a nuclear war is inevitable” (L. Jones 1985:67). If this sampling of the populace is representative, then approximately eighty-five million Americans believe that nuclear apocalypse is unavoidable (Halsell 1986:10).

Despite the end of the Cold War, anxieties about the possibility of nuclear apocalypse persist today, stemming from the magnitude and seeming uncontrollability of nuclear weapons and the likelihood that they will be developed and used by hostile nations or extremist organizations in the future. In addition to the fear of nuclear annihilation, other threats have emerged as possible causes or signs of impending doom and have enkindled apocalyptic speculation. Perhaps poet T. S. Eliot was right in “The Hollow Men” that the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper: the gradual destruction of the environment, the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, the AIDS epidemic, widespread famine, overpopulation, incurable strains of pneumonia, ebola, and flesh-eating viruses, and other as yet unimaginable future afflictions may contribute to our eventual extinction. Indeed, the majority of Americans believe that the world will end someday, according to a 1995 Gallup poll, with 61 percent of adults and 71 percent of teenagers agreeing that “the world will come to an end or be destroyed” (Bezilla 1996:26). Fatalism about the future of humanity, especially pervasive among young people, is indicated by an extensive nationwide study of a representative sample of more than seventeen thousand high school seniors; more than one-third agreed with the statement “Nuclear or biological annihilation will probably be the fate of all mankind within my generation” (La Farge 1987:27–28). A 1995 Gallup poll revealed a similar degree of apprehension about the imminence of humanity’s destruction, with approximately three teenagers in ten fearing that the world may come to an end during their lifetimes (Bezilla 1996:26).

In view of such attitudes, and the numerous potential disasters that threaten humanity, it is no surprise that with the approach of the year 2000, apocalyptic anxieties have intensified and doomsday speculation flourishes. At the end of the second millennium, ancient apocalyptic traditions converge with recent secular predictions of catastrophe and inflame the popular imagination. Ideas and images about the end of the world permeate American popular culture and folklore, as well as popular religion, and are expressed in films, literature, music, poetry, visual arts, dance, theater, cartoons, comics, humor, and commercial products. Religious apocalypticism and its secular counterpart may differ in terms of underlying premises and the details of doomsday, but the proponents of such beliefs—whether televangelists, authors of best-selling paperbacks on biblical prophecy, seers of the Virgin Mary, New Age visionaries, Hopi prophets, survivalists, or futurologists—agree that global catastrophe is imminent.

This confluence of popular beliefs about approaching doomsday has compelled some researchers to predict that before the century ends, political, economic, and social problems will be interpreted as portents of the endtimes and further contribute to widespread feelings of doom; an apocalyptic fervor will captivate millions of people throughout the United States and the world; a multiplicity of prophets and visionaries will appear; and apocalyptic movements will arise and attain mass followings, with some apocalypticists perhaps even attempting to fulfill their own prophecies by instigating societal catastrophes in order to usher in a new world (see Friedrich 1986:11; Schwartz 1990:8–10; Martin 1982; Barkun 1983). In fact, a self-fulfilling apocalyptic scenario may have been the goal of the Aum Shinri Kyo (“Supreme Truth”) sect, alleged to have perpetrated the subway nerve gas attack in Tokyo in March 1995. The sect’s scientists supposedly were researching and experimenting with chemical, laser, biological, and conventional weapons so as to fulfill their leader’s prophecies of worldly cataclysms.¹

Popular stereotypes of apocalypticism as a “cult” phenomenon involving fanatics and alienated outcasts have been reinforced by the media coverage of the Aum Shinri Kyo sect, the Branch Davidian tragedy that occurred in 1993, the suicides and murders associated with the Swiss Order of the Solar Temple sect, and most recently the collective suicide of the Heaven’s Gate group in March 1997. However, expectations of the end of the world are not limited to a handful of religious groups existing on the social margins. Today, millions of Americans embrace beliefs about the imminence of societal catastrophe. Apocalyptic thinking is an enormously influential and pervasive means of conceptualizing the world and one’s place in it, yet scholars have largely neglected the study of contemporary endtimes thought.

The End of the World As We Know It offers a framework for understanding various expressions of apocalyptic belief that exist in the United States today and suggests reasons for the prevalence and enduring appeal of such ideas. The forms of apocalypticism discussed herein are predominately expressions of “folk” or “popular” belief—widespread ideas that are not officially promoted or approved by mainstream organizations but that exist at a grassroots level apart from the formal sanction of these institutions. The work examines the underlying features of differing apocalyptic traditions as expressed through oral narratives, folk religious practices, and the prophecies of visionaries and charismatic leaders, as well as through photocopied fliers, religious tracts, videos, audiocassettes, paperbacks, popular literature and music, humor, and computer newsgroups. Taking a comparative and multidisciplinary approach, this study analyzes the ways that various apocalyptic traditions have been adapted to reflect current concerns and how new religious and secular apocalyptic beliefs have emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century.

This book focuses in particular on how the prospect of nuclear annihilation and other potential catastrophes has influenced apocalyptic thought and explores how the concept of fatalism—commonly understood as the belief that certain events and experiences are inevitable, unalterable, and determined by external forces beyond human control—is central to apocalyptic speculation in the nuclear age. The term fatalism is not used here in a pejorative sense; fatalistic thought is an enduring and widespread means of interpreting experiences and understanding the world. The idea of fate embodies the sense of inevitability, both pessimistic and optimistic, that is inherent to religious and secular apocalypticism in the United States today.

The word apocalypse (from the Greek apokalypsis) means revelation or unveiling. This sense of a revealed, underlying design for history has traditionally characterized apocalyptic ideas and resembles ancient notions of fate as an absolute force in the universe that determines all things. As philosopher and theologian Martin Buber notes, in apocalyptic thought “everything is predetermined, all human decisions are only sham struggles” (1957:201). By asserting that history and worldly renewal are predetermined, religious apocalyptic belief systems affirm that the cosmos is ordered, that evil and suffering will be destroyed, that human existence is meaningful, and that a millennial realm of peace and justice ultimately will be created. Faith and fatalism are thus interwoven into the fabric of apocalyptic thought: a profound fatalism for a world believed to be irredeemably evil is entwined with the faith for a predestined, perfect age of harmony and human fulfillment.

Unlike religious apocalyptic worldviews, secular beliefs about societal cataclysm usually lack this sense of meaning and moral order. Although various secular movements promise or anticipate a radical transformation of the world after the destruction of current society (Nazism, communism, or survivalism, for instance), most secular beliefs about imminent apocalypse are devoid of the component of worldly redemption and therefore tend to be characterized by a sense of hopelessness and despair. This profound pessimism and fatalistic appraisal of the future is especially evident in secular beliefs about a nuclear conflagration. Although the prospect of nuclear annihilation has been readily incorporated into some religious apocalyptic belief systems, and thus mythologized as a meaningful event that is the fulfillment of a divinely ordained plan for the redemption of the world, secular beliefs about an inevitable nuclear war express feelings of fatalism, helplessness, resignation, and universal doom (Chernus 1986:53–62; Lifton 1987:137–147). Exploring the complexities of fatalistic thought and the reasons that motivate people to interpret events fatalistically provides considerable insight into the nature of both religious and secular apocalyptic speculation and their respective visions of a meaningful or meaningless apocalypse and reveals much about current concerns, fears, and hopes for the future.

This study begins with a survey of the landscape of contemporary American apocalyptic belief and then discusses the terminology, “folk” attributes, and fatalistic underpinnings associated with apocalyptic worldviews. Chapter 2 traces the history of American apocalyptic beliefs; subsequent chapters explore the following forms of contemporary endtimes thought: (chapter 3) premillennial dispensational prophecy beliefs as expressed in the books of Hal Lindsey, the most influential prophecy interpreter in the twentieth century; (chapter 4) apocalyptic prophecies associated with visions of the Virgin Mary as expressed in the Bayside apparitions in New York City; and (chapter 5) secular ideas about nuclear apocalypse in American popular culture and folk belief, and within various subcultures. Chapter 6 analyzes the fatalistic aspects and cultural and psychological meanings of these diverse apocalyptic ideas, and chapter 7 examines the transformation of apocalyptic prophecy in the post—Cold War era and the current themes now emphasized with the approach of the year 2000. The last chapter explores the emergent apocalyptic ideas associated with UFOs and extraterrestrial beings and compares these recent beliefs to previous apocalyptic worldviews. The conclusion offers a typology of apocalyptic beliefs, surveys apocalyptic speculation associated with the year 2000, and reflects on the enduring appeal of apocalyptic thought at the end of the second millennium.

Contemporary American Apocalyptic Beliefs

Narratives about the end of the world have existed since the beginning of recorded history. The tale of Noah and the Flood, the Norse myth of Ragnarök (popularized in Richard Wagner’s opera Die Götterdämmerung), the Hindu myths of recurring worldly annihilation and regeneration, and selected Zoroastrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Buddhist, Islamic, Greek, Roman, African, Mayan, and Native American myths describe the destruction and transformation of the world, the struggle between the powers of good and evil, and the divinely determined destiny of humanity and the cosmos. As historian of religion Mircea Eliade notes, “The myth of the end of the world is of universal occurrence; it is already to be found among primitive peoples still at a paleolithic stage of culture … and it recurs in the great historic civilizations, Babylonian, Indian, Mexican and Greco-Roman” (1975:243). The pervasiveness of such narratives historically and cross-culturally is revealed by the listings in the various folklore motif and tale-type indices, such as Stith Thompson’s six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1955–1958), which classifies particular narrative motifs and identifies their distribution. The major apocalyptic narratives are listed under “World calamities and renewals” (A1000—A1099), which includes subcategories such as “World catastrophe” (A1000), “Deluge” (A1O1O), “Escape from deluge” (A1020), “World-fire” (A1030), “Continuous winter destroys the race” (A1040), “Heavens break up at end of the world” (A1050), “Earth disturbances at end of world” (A1060), and “Fettered monster’s escape at end of world” (A1070). The narratives and motifs listed in this and other folklore indices contain many of the same underlying ideas and structures as contemporary apocalyptic narratives, illustrating the continuities through time of apocalyptic thought.

Christian belief in apocalyptic prophecy, founded in the ancient Jewish prophetic tradition, has an extensive legacy in American culture and consciousness, beginning with the Puritans and continuing to the present day. Scholars have frequently commented on the presence of apocalyptic themes in American religion, history, literature, and “imagination” (see Zamora 1982a). Beliefs about apocalypse and the arrival of the millennium have been central to numerous sectarian groups (such as the Shakers and the Millerites) and the Native American Ghost Dance movements in the 1870s and 1890s, and contributed to much nineteenth-century social reform, including the abolitionist and temperance movements. According to several scholars, such beliefs also served as the ideological catalyst for numerous slave revolts, early feminist consciousness (Moorhead 1987:17–18), and even the American Revolution itself (Bloch 1985:xiii). Studies of American millennialism have examined the relationship between millennialist thought and themes of American destiny (Cherry 1971; Tuveson 1968), millennialist ideas in the fundamentalist and holiness movements (Marsden 1980; Sandeen 1970), the rise and appeal of premillennialism in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth (Weber 1987), the nature and diversity of millennialist thought in eighteenth-century New England (Davidson 1977), millennialist fundamentalist ties with rightist politics (Jorstad 1970), and the ways that millennialist ideas influenced political actions during the Civil War (Moorhead 1978).² The prevalence of apocalyptic and millennialist ideas in the United States has even prompted comparisons with American foodways and sporting events: social scientist John Wiley Nelson asserts that apocalyptic ideas are “as American as the hot dog” (1982:179) and historian Leonard Sweet asserts that a preoccupation with the millennium “has become, even more than baseball, America’s favorite pastime” (1979:531).

Most studies of American millennialist traditions examine such ideas prior to the Civil War, or among selected sectarian groups, or as expressed in premillennial dispensationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Buss 1988:19). With the exception of a few recent studies (Boyer 1992; Brummett 1991; O’Leary 1994; Strozier 1994), surprisingly little research on contemporary American apocalypticism has been conducted, and comparative work on American apocalyptic beliefs in the nuclear era is practically nonexistent.³ According to historian Paul Boyer, author of an important study of premillennial dispensationalism, “Despite a vague awareness that prophecy belief is rampant ‘out there’—in the dark beyond the campfire, so to speak—academics have given these beliefs little systematic attention” (1992:15).

Often the studies that have been conducted consider those who believe in the imminence of the end of the world to be members of marginal social groups, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, or the deprived. Historian Timothy Weber observes, “Traditionally, advocates of apocalypticism have been outsiders, alienated and disinherited from the privileged and powerful. With few exceptions, they looked for their future redemption from beyond the clouds precisely because they had no recourse in the present” (1987:x). Although this association may have been true in the past, as the third millennium approaches, millions of Americans of all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels currently hold beliefs about apocalyptic prophecies.

Today in the United States, belief in apocalyptic prophecy is integral to the worldviews of many evangelical Christians, such as the Southern Baptist Convention (with an estimated fifteen million members) and various pentecostal and charismatic denominations (roughly eight million members), including the Assemblies of God Church, the Church of Nazarene, and thousands of independent evangelical “Bible churches” (Boyer 1992:4). Premillennial dispensationalism, a form of evangelicalism that emphasizes apocalyptic prophecy, is espoused by the majority of televangelists, including Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jack Van Impe, and Oral Roberts (as well as the once-popular Jimmy Swaggert and Jim and Tammy Bakker), many of whom have stated, at one time or another, that nuclear weapons and the prospect of nuclear war are a fulfillment of biblical prophecies. According to a Nielsen survey of television viewers conducted in October 1985, approximately “61 million Americans (40 percent of all viewers) regularly listen to preachers who tell them nothing can be done to prevent a nuclear war in our lifetime” (Halsell 1986:11). Although such surveys do not reveal the degree to which apocalyptic beliefs are integral to people’s lives, the data gathered through various polls suggest that beliefs about biblical prophecy and the Second Coming are much more pervasive than scholars have recognized. For instance, a 1983 Gallup poll revealed that 62 percent of the respondents had “no doubts” that Jesus will return again to earth, and a 1994 poll for U.S. News and World Report indicated that 61 percent of Americans believe that Jesus will return (Gallup and Castelli 1989:4; U.S. News and World Report, December 19, 1994, 64). The U.S. News and World Report survey also found that 53 percent of those polled believe that some world events in the twentieth century fulfill biblical prophecy, and that a significant percentage of Americans believe the Bible should be taken literally when it speaks of a final Judgment Day (60 percent), a Battle of Armageddon (44 percent), the Antichrist (49 percent), and the Rapture of the church (44 percent) (U.S. News and World Report, December 19, 1994, 64).

Widespread interest in apocalyptic prophecy is further indicated by the success of mass-marketed paperbacks on the topic, such as the numerous best-sellers by Hal Lindsey. His book The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), sold 7.5 million copies during the 1970s, making it the largest-selling American nonfiction book of that decade (New York Times Book Review, April 6, 1980, 27). More than twenty-eight million copies of the book, in fifty-two languages, now have been sold (Los Angeles Times, February 23, 1991, F16; S. Graham 1989:249). President Ronald Reagan’s interest in biblical prophecies about the imminence of Armageddon, which received national media attention in April 1984, is a further indicat...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Approaching Doomsday: The Contours of American Apocalyptic Belief
• 2 The American Apocalyptic Legacy
• 3 Signs of the Endtimes: Hal Lindsey and Dispensationalist Prophecy Beliefs
• 4 Apocalyptic Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in New York City
• 5 Secular Apocalyptic Themes in the Nuclear Era
• 6 Fatalism and Apocalyptic Beliefs
• 7 The Transformation of Apocalyptic Traditions in the Post-Cold War Era
• 8 Emergent Apocalyptic Beliefs about UFOs and Extraterrestrial Beings
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index