Timothy LaHaye

[[File:Timothy LaHaye.jpg|thumb|right|165px|LaHaye]]
{{christianity}}
{{cquote|I myself have been a forty-five year student of the [[Satanic panic|satanically-inspired]], centuries-old [[conspiracy]] to use [[WAKE UP|government, education, and media]] to destroy every vestige of [[Christianity]] within our society and establish a [[New World Order]]. Having read [[Proof by Verbosity|at least fifty books]] on the [[Illuminati]], I am convinced that it exists and [[Scapegoat|can be blamed]] for many of [[Problem of evil|man's inhumane actions against his fellow man]] during the past two hundred years.|||Tim LaHaye, ''Rapture Under Attack''}}

'''Timothy F. "Tim" LaHaye''' {{lived|1926|2016}} was an [[United States of America|American]] [[evangelical]] [[Christian]] minister, author of several books (most notably the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series), and was a primal voice of American [[fundamentalism]] and the [[Religious Right]]. He was the husband of Beverly LaHaye, the founder of the [[Concerned Women for America]] (CWA). LaHaye died on July 25, 2016 at the age of 90 after suffering from a stroke.

==Political activism==
LaHaye was at one time a member of the [[John Birch Society]].<ref>''Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right'' by Matthew Dallek (2023) Basic Books. ISBN 1541673565.</ref>{{rp|215,232}} During the late 1970s and early 1980s, LaHaye became involved in politics with the Christian Voice (USA), and promoted or started numerous groups to promote his conservative viewpoints. In 1972, he helped establish the [[Institute for Creation Research]] at Christian Heritage College (later named [[San Diego Christian College]]) in El Cajon, [[California]], doing so along with its founder, [[Henry Morris]].<ref name="SDCC">{{cite web|url=http://sdcc.edu/about-sdcc/history-sdcc |title=History of SDCC |publisher=Sdcc.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-01-30}}</ref> In 1979, he encouraged [[Jerry Falwell]] to establish the [[Moral Majority]] and sat on its board of directors.<ref name="dreyfuss">Robert Dreyfuss. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060422012738/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday Reverend Doomsday: According to Tim LaHaye, the Apocalypse is now]". ''Rolling Stone''. January 28, 2004.</ref><ref name="goldberg">Michelle Goldberg. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060719080409/https://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html Fundamentally unsound]". ''Salon.com''. July 29, 2002.</ref>

==Crank views==
{{main|Crank magnetism}}
{{cquote|It's the [[lie]] of [[evolution]] that [[Equality|all man''[sic]'' are just evolved and that they're all equal]], and that [[Animal rights|all creatures are equal]].|||Tim LaHaye, promoting [[racialism]]<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20040605133803/http://www.faithfulreader.com/authors/au-LaHaye-Tim.asp</ref>}}
===Homosexuality===
As one may expect from a fundamentalist Christian like LaHaye, he was also a raging [[homophobe]]. To present this view to the public as well as to his cohorts, he published ''The Unhappy Gays,'' which was later retitled ''What Everyone Should Know 
Imagine
 About Homosexuality'' where he spews forth notions that [[homosexuality]] is "[[Homosexual agenda|militant, organized and vile]]." Of course, the screed reduces to false assertions, unproved data, and [[Lying for Jesus|outright lies]]. The book argues that gays share 16 pernicious traits, including [[Bullshit|"incredible promiscuity," "deceit," "selfishness," "vulnerability to sadism-masochism" and "poor health and an early death."]] LaHaye seriously claimed that those who accept gays are more "cruel and inhuman those who practiced [[Old Testament]] [[capital punishment]]" on gays.  He had called his hate tract "[[Irony|a model of compassion]]." He believed that [[Reparative therapy|homosexuality can be cured]].<ref>Michael Schaub. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20040207071133/http://www.bookslut.com/propaganda/2002_10_000326.php The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about]". Bookslut. October 2002.</ref><ref name="moser">Bob Moser. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20050903101823/http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=862 Holy War]". [[Southern Poverty Law Center]]. Accessed December 20, 2007.</ref> However, he said that [[Escape hatch|such conversions are rare]].<ref>Thomas C. Caramagno. ''Irreconcilable Differences? Intellectual Stalemate in the Gay Rights Debate.'' Praeger/Greenwood. 2002. page 159.</ref>

===Conspiracy theories===
LaHaye was a firm believer in the [[Illuminati]] and it is one of several groups that he believed will "[[New World Order|turn America into an amoral, humanist country, ripe for merger into a one-world socialist state]]." Because of his paranoid delusion of [[crank magnetism]], he had an irrational distrust of several organizations including the [[Trilateral Commission]], the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Organization for Women, [[Planned Parenthood]], "[[Mainstream media|the major TV networks, high-profile newspapers and news magazines]]," the State Department, major philanthropic foundations (Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford), the [[United Nations]], "the left wing of the [[Democratic Party]]", Harvard, Yale, "and 2,000 other colleges and universities."<ref name="dreyfuss">Robert Dreyfuss. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060422012738/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday Reverend Doomsday: According to Tim LaHaye, the Apocalypse is now]". ''Rolling Stone''. January 28, 2004.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:LaHaye, Timothy}}
{{apolbox}}
[[Category:Anti-abortion activists]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism]]
[[Category:Atheophobia]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Christian apologists]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Crank magnetism]]
[[Category:Creationists]]
[[Category:Cult leaders]]
[[Category:Culture wars]]
[[Category:Fundamentalists]]
[[Category:Homophobes]]
[[Category:Institute for Creation Research]]
[[Category:Ministers]]
[[Category:Propagandists]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Theocracy]]

Categories: Anti-abortion activists, Anti-Catholicism, Atheophobia, Authors, California, Christian apologists, Conspiracy theorists, Crank magnetism, Creationists, Cult leaders, Culture wars, Fundamentalists, Homophobes, Institute for Creation Research, Ministers, Propagandists, Purity culture, Racists, Right-wing activists, Theocracy