Reverse Jeremiahs

Jeremiah preached doom and was hated for it.  Reputedly eventually stoned to death *after* his prophecies had all come true.  Cassandra had nothing on Jeremiah.

But nowadays preachers of gloom do pretty well by themselves.  So much so that its hard to tell who is sincere and who is a grift.

Meanwhile in the middle of dozens of undeniable social and political ills, some of which have serious catastrophic potential, church leaders are markedly NOT preaching gloom.  We seem to be in a reverse Jeremiah situation.

So what gives?

Part of it may have been that Jeremiah was preaching to the people in charge, whereas our podcasters and our prophets are talking to the world at large.

It may also be that modern gloom isn’t usually a call to action or change, but a call to despair and apathy and, if any action is taken, lashing out in expressive but unproductive ways.  Probably it wouldn’t be popular if it weren’t for that.

But I really don’t know.