Barbara Rossing thinks that’s a bunch of crap. A Lutheran minister and teacher at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Rossing penned the 2004 book, “The Rapture Exposed,” where she calls Rapture theology unbiblical and blatant pandering to American fear over globalization, Iraq, and global climate change.

“The rapture is a racket,” she told Reuters. “We (moderate Christians) were asleep at the switch for too long, and fundamentalists rushed in to speak to this vacuum. Now we’ve got to reclaim it.”

But evangelical Christians do not have a monopoly on Armageddon.

But evangelical Christians do not have a monopoly on Armageddon. In fact, there is an entire philosophic theology devoted to end of the world study called Eschatology. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and has all kinds of people spooked. According to the Jewish Talmudic calendar, the Earth will only last 6,000 years from the creation of Adam. By this calculation, the end of days will occur at or before 2240.

Followers of the Bahá’í Faith have their version, as do the Rastafarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Seventh-Day Adventists. Most religions do. It’s the bookend to their particular story. The details change bit, but the plot structure is essentially the same: Jesus, God, Allah, etc., comes back and fights with a Satan figure for control of the Earth, a battle the good guys — of course — eventually win.

So what? No biggie, except Rapture and Armageddon believers make up some of the most militant anti-environmentalists and biggest consumers out there. Why worry about consuming natural resources when it’s all ending soon anyway?

“Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture?” asked esteemed journalist Bill Moyers in a 2004 speech at Harvard.

Moyers was spotlighting Rapture adherents — who make up a sizable majority of the so-called Religious Right — as a sort of sticky goo that clogs up the wheels of environmental progress in the halls of Congress. An entire voting bloc that sits home anticipating a deus ex machina.

“And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?” Moyers continued.

Given the fact that much of this gets drilled into young Christian heads at places like Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday school, and religious themed summer camps, combating Rapture theory with sensible logic seems an uphill battle. For this reason, religion from a secular academic perspective is being touted by some as a must learn for kids in public schools. But who vets the teachers? It goes on and on.

In the meantime, the next time you see a bumper sticker that reads “In Case of Rapture, this car will be Unmanned,” feel free to ask if you can have their vehicle after they’re gone.

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