"If you're having sex in the backseat with your boyfriend, and the rapture comes..."

I loved today's lecture, given by Ms. Amy Frykholm.   To give a few adjectives and simple praise, I found her discussion of apoctalypticism to be engaging, interesting, and relevant to our current studies.   In our reading of Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas, we discussed the idea of democracy being something more than just a structure of government, but also a rich culture developed over time with intellectual backing.  Amy connected this idea to the resonance of apoctalypticism in saying that, to paraphrase, "in the 19th century, Americans needed a STORY to be a part of-what Whitman called a mythos"  and that religious groups such as the Puritans first, followed by new protestant groups such as the Methodists and Baptists used the idea of divine purpose and a futuristic reading of the bible to create for themselves a story in which to belong.  Her studies show that premillenialism mentality- a pessimistic view that the world is damned and that the world will only descend into greater chaos until Christ comes again contributed greatly to the intensity of religious movements up until the 1960s, shaping the very way Americans looked at themselves and formed their internal culture.   I thought it was extremely interesting- that the concept of Americans being "unique" in the world and set about to bring justice and a higher level of living to the world- could have roots in religious ideas of the 19th century.   This goes for apoctalypticism and the idea of the rapture as well- that it creates a lot of uncertainty that reinforces and encourages self-policing and an indivisualistic approach to religion.  This influences the idea of religion being more personal, and more democratic, as we have discussed from Mary Ryan and our history book readings as well.   I am interested to continue reading to see from other authors how religious movements influenced the formation of American culture and Democracy