I often wonder what it is with those of us from Christian cultural backgrounds and our apparent obsession with apocalyptic scenarios?

When I was a kid, Hal Lindsey was writing books and making films like “The Late Great Planet Earth” about how the Last Days of the Bible were upon us. I was enamored with reading Jack Chick‘s tract comics and in particular, his “Crusaders” series (which I still have and read on occasion. What… they are fun reading).

Christians had started making inroads into making their own films, some better than others, but other than Billy Graham’s “The Hiding Place,” my favorites were always the after Rapture movies. Years later the “Left Behind” books would become quite popular and Cloud 10 Pictures would make their “Apocalypse” series of films (my personal favorite, “Judgment” with Corbin Bernsen, I kind of like the creative story idea  of God being put on trial for his crimes against his creation, by his creation).

Then we had the end of the world on December 31, 1999 at midnight when every computer was destined to crash and the underlying technology of our time would cease. The biggest thing that happened as far as I could tell, was that the Sunset Strip was completely without traffic and people, it was a ghost-town, till midnight. Once the world did not end, Sunset was its usual traffic nightmare and I saw my first accident of the new “millennium” (which did not really start until January 1, 2001) by 12:30AM.

Now the western disaster fascination with the end of the world has taken hold on the end of current b’ak’tun of the Mayan Long Count Calendar that ends in just under three weeks on December 21, 2012. Mayan mythology says nothing about the world coming to an end, at most it requires the beginning of a new cycle; the b’ak’tun (about the scariest part of that might be that it is the beginning of b’ak’tun number 13, ooooooh).

There is no Planet X about to collide with or knock Earth from its orbit. The Earth, Sun and the super-massive black hole, Sagittarius-A*, at center of the Milky Way Galaxy align every year on or about December 21st. Sure, they are not always on the exact plane of the Milky Way, but I would not be to concerned, they are not this year either, last time was 1998. So I would not suggest quitting your job or making any other questionable decisions, at least not based on the publicity machine of the disaster mongers.

So lets get together and have a great party and celebrate the beginning of b’ak’tun 13, after all, it is Friday night and like the song says; “Everybody’s working for the weekend.”

Written by R. A. Burgener

After finishing the 850 mile trek of self-rediscovery on California's El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma, California, Robert continued, via Greyhound, to Portland, Oregon, where he is becoming familiar with the concepts of weather and seasons after 30 years in Los Angeles.

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