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Fabio's supportive females
While evangelicals may be ambivalent about the body of Christ, they are less hesitant when it comes to the bodies of Christians. These characters would feel right at home on the covers of romance novels. Meier describes one of his main protaganists as "a six-foot-four-inch blond Nordic weight lifter" (imagine Fabio explaining prophecy) and his girlfriend with "striking blue eyes. Any possible plumpness was poured into a figure that clearly held [Nordic] Jimmy's full attention." Another woman is petite, though "her figure lacked nothing in maturity." Robertson's Lori is "tanned" with a "flawless complexion … blonde … light blue eyes … striking," not to mention "cheerful and upbeat," while Pastor Jack is "a tall, powerfully built man in his early seventies with gray hair pulled back into a pony tail." LaHaye/Jenkins are more perfunctory, settling for such generic descriptions as "drop-dead gorgeous" and "a young Robert Redford."

One gets the impression that the six-feet-plus males who populate these novels reflect a deep-rooted insecurity about Christian manhood. Left Behind has an unraptured-but-soon-converted character, Rayford, describe this ambivalence through his former attitudes toward his raptured son: "He didn't have the killer instinct, the 'me first' attitude Rayford thought he would need to succeed in the real world. He wasn't effeminate, but Rayford had worried that he might be a mama's boy—too compassionate, too sensitive, too caring." The implied question these novels raise is, how can we be tough and independent and be like Jesus? No father of school-aged children—a role that calls for the soft virtue of nurture—figures significantly in any of the novels. It is almost as if American evangelicals were trying to merge the gospel of love with a John Wayne persona—and finding the task daunting. To escape this dilemma, these novelists have resorted to stacking their plots with unattached single men and a few fathers of adult children.

And then there are the women. According to these leaders, here are the evangelical "Rules." First, if you are a mother with young children at home, you do not qualify as a character—you are background.

Second, if you want to be taken seriously, you have to be attached (either dating or married), childless, and in a supportive role to your man. Robertson's Lori plays the lead female: she is childless, professional, loves husband Carl, and disappears from the book after becoming a Christian. Meier has well-proportioned Ruth marry Nordic Jimmy, become pregnant, and die in labor. Left Behind 's two lead women follow different paths: drop-dead gorgeous Hattie becomes the Antichrist's consort, and plain Chloe becomes the girlfriend of the multitalented main character Buck.

Third, if something disqualifies you from fulfilling traditional roles, you are allowed to be an effective Christian minister. Thus Meier's Cindy Wong, because she is blind and Chinese, has an effective ministry as an evangelist and apologist—she is by far the most active woman of all the books—though she is not allowed to marry Ben, despite their love for each other, because Archangel Michael wants Ben kept "pure."

A dark and dangerous time
For all the authors, the world is a bad place and getting worse. Crime, AIDS, euthanasia, and abortion are mentioned as signs of decline. In fact, Robertson suggests that the four horsemen of the apocalypse have already ridden in the twentieth century—and, given the number of those who have died in wars, famines, plagues, and natural disasters, it is hard to argue with him.

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September 1 1997, Vol. 41, No. 10