Author explores U.S. apocalyptic Christian culture

By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters Life!) - For millions of American Christians the founding of Israel in 1948 is the flashing light on the road to the apocalypse - Christ's return and the end of the world are near.

Reading current events in the Middle East as unfolding Biblical prophecy, they believe that history is marching to the beat of ancient forecasts and that the ultimate battle between good and evil may soon be upon us.

For some critics such thinking in evangelical Christian circles has also had a disquieting influence on the Bush administration and helps to explain its foreign policy, including its decision to invade Iraq.

Nicholas Guyatt, a British national who teaches history at the University of York in England, set out to explore this world dominated by people like Texas mega-preacher John Hagee and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the popular "Left Behind" series of novels about the apocalpyse.

Guyatt spoke to Reuters by phone from England about his book "Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans are Looking Forward to the End of the World," which is due for release next month.

Q: What prompted you to write the book?

A: "I did my PhD in American religious history ... And the stuff I was working on was Manifest Destiny, this kind of idea that God wanted the United States to be a great country to help the world and transform the world ... so it was interesting, while I was researching this topic in the late 1990s I also began to read in the New York Times and hear on NPR (National Public Radio) about apocalyptic Christians, people who are deeply religious, at least as religious as many of the people who I was studying in the 18th and 19th century, who had kind of the opposite belief about America.

"Whereas the people I was working on believed God wanted America to save the world, these apocalyptic Christians believed the world was going to come to an end. It just struck me that this thread I was following was replaced by this totally different thread."