Rapture humor

Several years ago, I was interviewed by Linda Wertheimer of
National Public Radio about the then extraordinarily popular Left Behind
series. At one point, she asked me if I thought the Left Behind books were
funny. I paused, trying to absorb all the layers of her question, and then came
up with a brilliant answer: "No. Why? Do you?"

I've always wondered if I just lack the right sense of
humor. Was I supposed to find the books funny? Was I just not getting the joke?
It was a relief, then, this week to pick up Presbyterian pastor Mark Davis's
book Left Behind and Loving It. It
is funny.

I cannot say that I see an urgent need for this book at this
particular moment. Surely Harold Camping, Timothy LaHaye and company have been
so thoroughly discredited in the minds of Century
readers that they will not need this book for theological purposes. I myself
have read way too many debunkings of rapture theology, both earnest and
sarcastic, to find another one interesting.