Reviews
-
Much scarier than 2012 is this documentary from Kate Davis, David Heilbroner, and Franco Sacchi about the death grip that fundamentalist religious groups have on American politics.
-
Illuminates a worldview marked by absolute certainty and chilling finality...spine-tingling... may raise goose bumps.
-
4 ½ stars (out of 5) Fascinating. Bold, courageous and brutally honest, Waiting For Armageddon is food for thought for us all.
-
A Wake Up Call...offers something for everyone.
-
Richard Cizik
Evangelicals need to see this movie to understand the unintended political consequences of what many of them believe.
-
Sophie Freud, MSW, Ph.D. Professor of Social Work, Emerita (from Simmons College)
Waiting for Armageddon is a documentary film made with the full collaboration of its protagonists, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, filming their organizational, proselytizing, and prayer meetings as well as interviews with the leadership. The latter were very satisfied with the film, viewing it as faithful to their organizational dealings and goals. The film is thus not a piece of spin-propaganda, but informative and educational. We are left to draw our own intellectual and emotional responses.
Armageddon documents the beliefs and activities of, apparently, 50 million Evangelicals who are predicting, impatiently waiting for, and praying for the destruction of the Earth to ready it for the second coming of Christ, who will then create a new Paradise (hopefully, Adam and Eve will not eat the apple, this next time around). Since Christ will land in Israel, perhaps even in Armageddon (Megiddo), the land must be nurtured and prepared for his coming. Hence the group’s amazing and generous political and financial support of Israel, with the assumption that the Jewish people will recognize the divinity of Christ when he comes this second time. In contrast, the group despises Muslims whom are not destined to be redeemed by Christ. The Israeli government, we learn (and see) has accepted this support with (shameful) grace and gratitude. Should we speak of “strange bedfellows” and shrug our shoulders? Do we recognize that bedfellows might contaminate each other and be seen by the rest of the world as having similar convictions? Do the Jewish people want to associate themselves with a group who desires and waits for the destruction of the world? It is urgent that Jewish people, especially, see this frightening and upsetting but captivating, important and effective movie. -
Chip Berlet
Senior Analyst
Political Research AssociatesThe film allows Christian Zionists to explain their apocalyptic beliefs in comfortable settings using matter-of-fact language. The sense of foreboding is created as the audience comes to realize that the horrific bloody carnage centered in the Middle East, envisioned by their specific fundamentalist and Millennialist reading of prophetic scripture, is not just anticipated, but welcomed. Israel and the Jews emerge as merely momentary stepping stones on the road to the battle of Armageddon, after which only "true" Christians survive to rule God's heaven on earth.
-
Jonathan D. Sarna
Director, Hornstein: The Jewish Professional Leadership Program @ Brandeis /Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History/ Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies
Brandeis UniversityWhy is all of this important to the rest of us? First, Dispensationalism is a growing force in American Evangelicalism and American religion generally… many do believe that the events of our time are the “birth pangs” of Future Time. Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth (a bestseller in the 1970s), and the more recent Left Behind series have translated Dispensationalist ideas into a popular idiom, and broadened their appeal still further.
Second, Dispensationalists love Jews… consider them the Chosen People, and insist, as Pastor Hagee declares in the film, that “if you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity there would be no Christianity.” Throughout Christendom, super-sessionism is giving way to the idea that God’s promise to the Jewish People remains valid and stands ready to be fulfilled. That represents a great and important change in Christian thinking.
Third, Dispensationalists support a strong Israel and are suspicious of any concessions for peace. They believe, fervently, that they already know God’s plan for the future of the Middle East, and peace with Muslim Arabs is not part of it. Dispensationalists, in short, view contemporary Middle East developments through a biblical lens, and often associate Islam with the Antichrist.
Knowing all of this, Jews understandably debate whether they should welcome an alliance with Dispensationalist Protestants or recoil from such an alliance. Some Jews forcefully promote the alliance. Jews, they say, are in need of allies; politics makes strange bedfellows; and in any case, everyone can put off worrying about what happens “at the end of time” until that time actually arrives. Other Jews, by contrast, find any talk of an alliance with Dispensationalists offensive. How, they wonder, can Jews ally themselves with biblical literalists who tend toward political conservatism, oppose concessions for Middle East peace, and ultimately expect Jews either to convert or go to hell?
To its credit, Waiting for Armageddon does not come down on one side or the other of this question. Instead, it offers people on both sides much to ponder.
- Here and Now
Listen to Waiting for Armageddon director Franco Sacchi in this interview with NPR's Robin Young.
- Boston Globe
"Jewish festival has an unlikely focus" Mar 22, 2009 "Politics makes strange bedfellows, and arguably none could be stranger than the relationship between Jews and this country's 50-million-plus evangelical Christians."
- The Boston Phoenix
- New England Film
"Waiting for the Documentary Storyline" Article about the making of the film, Waiting for Armageddon
- Village Voice
"Alarmingly good and incendiary." -- The Village Voice
- Gotham Girl
- The Leonard Lopate Show
How is literal belief in Biblical prophecy applied to modern life? A new documentary, "Waiting for Armageddon," explores America’s 50-million-member Evangelical Christian community, and how it shapes U.S. society and politics. David Heilbroner and Kate Davis two of the film’s directors, talk about the film on The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC 1.26.09
- Netbook.org
"Waiting for Armageddon, a well-done documentary, needs to be seen by all conscious people, Jew and non-Jew, who are concerned about the state of Israel and its impact on the world at large."
- Forward.com
"WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON resoundingly succeeds...absorbing...disturbing...fascinating and appropriately unnerving..."
- Filminc
“Inside the New York Jewish Film Festival: Belief at a crossroads in Waiting for Armageddon "
- Tribeca Films
"This film take an eyes-wide-open look at the belief of 50 million Evangelical Christians, and admirably, the filmmakers let the subjects speak for themselves. A fascinating and complex look at a controversial subject." -- Tribeca Films