NEWS STORY: Millennium meeting explores a history of dashed millennial hopes

c. 1998 Religion News Service BOSTON _ David Doter belongs to a small, millennial movement that sees itself ushering in a new age of peace and love, in confident expectation of the Messiah’s return. But during a break at a conference on millennialism here Tuesday (Dec. 8), Doter, 31, was having doubts about his faith. […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

BOSTON _ David Doter belongs to a small, millennial movement that sees itself ushering in a new age of peace and love, in confident expectation of the Messiah’s return.

But during a break at a conference on millennialism here Tuesday (Dec. 8), Doter, 31, was having doubts about his faith. He listened as researchers and academics here delivered paper after paper about the dashed hopes of past movements.”It makes me want to consider the seriousness of what we’re endeavoring for, of the hopes that I have,”said Doter, who belongs to the Boston chapter of The Twelve Tribes, which stresses communal living and voluntary poverty.”People have waited for the millennium and the age of peace, but they haven’t found it,”he said, relating what he had learned at the conference.


During three days of presentations at Boston University, Doter might have heard about the Millerites of upstate New York. In 1843, 50,000 of them stood on hilltops in white robes, waiting to ascend into heaven. They were disappointed.

Or he might have heard about Christians today who are digging in for a time of tribulation and the final battle between good and evil. They too will be disappointed, speakers here predicted.

Most Christians see the dawn of the new millennium as an invitation to reflect on their lives and renew their faith, said Richard Landes, director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, which sponsored the Dec. 6-8 gathering.

Some, however, see Armageddon on the horizon. And a few sects _ which ones, nobody knows _ will almost certainly turn violent, said Landes.

Asking if there will be violence sparked by the millennial turn”is like asking if there will be car crashes on Thanksgiving weekend. The question is how many,”he said in an interview here.

The most likely suspects, in this reading, are millennial sects that indulge in conspiracy thinking. And the most likely eruptions are expected to come after 2000 _ after the Great Disappointment, as Landes terms it.”When you believe God is about to intervene in history on your side, and zap your enemies, you can afford to be generous,”said Landes, a historian of the Middle Ages.”When he doesn’t, one option is to believe that God wants you to zap them.” Millennial watchers say Christians who believe the end is near have been proliferating for over a decade. They are guided by literal interpretations of biblical prophecies, and many have become fixated on the 2000 date.

Ironically, a purely secular phenomenon _ the Year 2000 computer problem _ has added to this fixation. The millennium bug threatens to knock down some computer systems in 2000, because of date-sensitive software and embedded chips.


Also known in the jargon as”Y2K,”the computer conundrum has altered the consciousness of movements that paint various doomsday scenarios, said Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates in Somerville, Mass.”Y2K is heating up everything. All the scenarios are coming through the refractory of Y2K, into a survivalist stew pot,”Berlet said in a presentation here, citing scenarios that range from economic to environmental to nuclear catastrophe.

Some experts or alarmists warn that Y2k could trigger multiple disasters including food and water shortages, due to breakdowns in computerized systems of distribution. The speculation has spurred a movement of survivalists who are stockpiling food, and even weapons, in fear of social chaos.

Because of the perceived threat, some millennial-minded Christians have begun mingling with militia movements, which are repositories of information about survivalist tactics, Berlet said.”If we want to see this as a lunatic fringe of extremists, we’re going to miss what’s going on here,”he told the gathering.”This is spilling into mainstream culture, more than people are willing to admit.” Landes views Y2K survivalism as a millennial, apocalyptic movement, in its religious as well as secular forms. He said some conservative Christian leaders have suggested that the millennium bug could launch the Great Tribulation prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

According to a familiar strand of millennial theology, true believers will be”raptured”up to heaven and thus spared the seven years of tribulation before the Second Coming. This conviction is coloring Y2K preparations, says Landes.”There are people who are stockpiling stuff, and they openly say they’re not doing this for themselves because they will be raptured. They’re doing it for those who are left behind,”he said.

Landes, Berlet, and other experts here stressed that they were talking about relatively few believers, and even fewer who might entertain thoughts of violence. But they said the few could make a difference _ sometimes a deadly difference, as in the case of the Oklahoma City bombing.

The accent on apocalypse extends beyond the United States, and even beyond Christianity. Landes cited a Hindu sect that awaits the final avatar or incarnation of the god Vishnu, who is expected to come and rule the world by 2003. He also referred to readers of Nostradamus prophecies,”Aquarian New Agers,”Hopi Prophets, and UFO devotees.


Not surprisingly, he points to Israel _ Jerusalem especially _ as the most likely cauldron of millennial strife. The Center for Millennial Studies has issued a position paper that calls on the Israeli government to”monitor closely”the Christian apocalyptic groups that plan to descend on the Holy City in the coming year.

With the idea of drowning out fanatic voices in the United States, the organization is urging that cities and municipalities channel millennial energies into grand, civic celebrations like the”First Night”New Year festivities popular in some places.

Millennial watchers are also calling for greater public dialogue about millennial movements, past and present.”Millennialism can cut either way. It can be incredibly violent and paranoid. Or it could be incredibly creative and constructive,”Landes said.”I think awareness is the key,”he added. That might be an uphill push, judging from the thin turnout at the third annual millennial studies conference here _ which drew about 65 participants, half of them speakers and journalists.

The Center for Millennial Studies is clearly not anticipating the end. The organization plans a series of conferences lasting into the next millennium. The final parley, in 2002, is already titled,”Disappointed Millennialism.”

DEA END BOLE

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!