Interview with Steve Hewitt, editor of Christian Computing Magazine, at Christian Book Distributors website

Link

Now, for the sake of editorial accuracy (if any of you care), I don't agree with Mr. Hewitt's statement that "for the average person in America I think the effects will be almost nonexistent." We all have our opinions. But the anecdotes about people's lives being adversely affected by unnecessary Y2k panic are very noteworthy.

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CBD: At this juncture, what do you think will be the severity of Y2K?

Steve Hewitt: I think at this point in time there's a problem; it's being fixed. It's within the norm of computer problems. I'm not trying to say there's not a problem, I'm not saying companies aren't working hard. For the average person in America I think the effects will be almost nonexistent.

CBD: What misconceptions do you think people still hold about Y2K?

SH: That something big is going to happen January 1, 2000. Eighty-eight percent of Y2K will already take place by December 1999. So when they are worried about this big Y2K event; they need to realize 88% of it is over with. January 1 was a big deal, February 4 was a big deal, and April 1, 1999, was a major deal.

CBD: And why was that?

SH: Canada, Japan, the state of New York have all rolled over their fiscal years. Right now, their corporate calendars, their financial calendars are already working into March 31, 2000, and yet there's no crashes. Michael Hyatt on the Focus on the Family show last January stated that when April 1, 1999, came, we would see enough of the beginnings of Y2K that no smoking mirrors could hide it from the public. They would know how bad it was going to be. This is April 6  nothing. Michael Radcliffe of Ziff-Davis News shared in his column on April 2 that there was even a camera crew from a news agency that went into the capitol of New York state waiting all day to get a story about the crashes, and nothing happened.....Everybody agrees that Y2K is happening now. Around 70% of all the companies in America and Europe have already suffered Y2K crashes, and yet few people noticed it.

CBD: How has Y2K become not just a computer issue but a spiritual one?

SH: That's a very, very good question, and I don't have all the answers. It has, for a couple of reasons. One is we're looking for signs of the times. And I'm certainly one. I believe in the soon coming of Jesus Christ. I don't want to minimize that at all. We are to be watching and waiting , and I'm ready for His coming. But we've gone a little overboard with that. We sensationalize every time three planets line up, or there's going to be a meteor shower, or somebody's name has six letters in it, or the sun spots look like you can connect the dots and come up with a six. What's happened now is we have a whole bunch of guys, that's all they do for a living. Their whole ministry (not just 1 or 2, there's about 20 or 30) is to gather support for their ministry. Because they're not prophets but they're bible teachers, trying to analyze the signs of the times that are in the paper each and every day so that somehow we don't miss the coming of Christ. It's caused us to just go a little crazy with this.....

The Bible says in the last days the very elect will be deceived. That's always been a hard Scripture for many people to understand, but after Y2K I'm starting to believe it's very possible. I'm amazed at what's happened here. The thing is, unfortunately, so many ministries are dependent on sensationalizing subjects in order to gain contributions. Now, not everybody. I'm not making an accusation, but the fact of the matter is look at all the ministries that if you sent a donation, you will get a book or something about Y2K. That has tended for us to be looking for something sensational because we are becoming like the secular news sources. Instead of being about ministry and Bible study, we're about something sensational in order to help our profit margin. I think that has got to be considered as one of the problems we have had happen as a result of Y2K.

CBD: What do you think is the effect of the message that is being sent out on the credibility of the Christian voice?

SH: That's one of the biggest dangers. There are two major things we are being damaged by Y2K with. One is the credibility of Christian sources. There's a cartoon that was in the Kansas City Star called, "Judges Opinion." A little boy turns to his daddy in the first frame and asks, "Is Y2K going to cause something horrible?" In the second frame, they're standing on a street corner, and the daddy turns to the boy and says "Son, it already has." And behind them is a huge crowd of really goofy-looking people holding up signs, "Y2K Nuts" "Y2K Survivalists" and in the middle of the group someone is holding up a Bible. That's exactly the results of what Y2K is bringing on our society. Chicago Tribune, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, they've all done stories not about America's reaction to Y2K but the Christian overreaction to Y2K. This is not legitimate persecution that we can be proud of. This is ridicule that we deserve. That's pretty sad.

The second aspect that's going to start becoming clear as we go farther along that I'm discovering from speaking across the nation on Y2K is we have maybe tens of thousands of victims of Y2K now, Christians who went overboard. I know Michael Hyatt has said, "If I'm wrong, people can just eat the food. If he's wrong, they'll starve and freeze to death." I could give him the names and addresses now of people who cannot just eat their food. A lady in Eugene, Oregon told me how life is over because of Y2K. It's not just because she sold her dream house, she quit her job before retirement, she cashed her IRAs at 10% loss, she pulled out of the stock market, she now has cows and chickens and 2 years of survivalist food. None of those are reasons of why her life is over.....The reason Y2K has destroyed her life, she now knows, is she'll never be able to witness again. She'll always be the crazy Y2K lady.

I'm running across this each and every day. I got an e-mail this week from a family thanking me that because last November, I spoke at Calvary Chapel in Las Vegas and through a lot of talking and a lot of praying, that was the turning point that brought their marriage back because Y2K had separated them. I met a couple in Indianapolis..... His wife of 35 years has not talked with him for four days. He told me, "I was no longer her spiritual leader." After 35 years she had never told him that. But because he wouldn't go out and get $200 of bullets, and he already got $200 worth of candles. He had been doing the whole thing. But he went out and got $70 worth of bullets and all the 380 shells Wal Mart had. They followed him out and wrote his license plate number down. That was it. He said this is all I'm getting. Because of that they hadn't spoken. Now she's seen my presentation since. And has e-mailed me and thanked me for bringing her back to her sanity. But this is happening across the nation.....I think when this is over we're going to discover tens of thousands of victims of Y2K hysteria. And unfortunately that has been in the Christian community. More so than the secular community Y2K has done more damage to the church than this great opportunity for ministry that some have claimed.

CBD: Has the tide turned at all? Are leaders of these various churches starting to listen to reason?

SH: It has turned, but it is going to continue to divide bigger and better. Right now in Texas and San Jose they are getting ready to hold a huge Y2K rally. They have over 200 booths. That's what drives this.

CBD: Economics?

SH: There's a market. You're having a rally of 200 booths of people selling Y2K paraphernalia and junk. The market is still driving it. But the surveys show that in January 31% of Americans overly worried about Y2K. It's dropped to 20%. The survivalists food sales have peaked and begun to slow down. So has the sale of gold. So the very fact that the overreaction we have to worry about is going to take care of itself. I think by November this is just going to be a big joke. Except for the people who aren't laughing because they're the victims.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), May 08, 1999

Answers

WOW,, NEWS FLASH!!!

Y2k silver bullit found, take a public opinion poll. Also good for impeachment trials.

LMAOROTF,,,

-- CT (ct@no.yr), May 08, 1999.

Dear Foghorn Leghorn: As I said previously who exactly are you trying to convince? Me or You?

-- Rancher (Chicken dinner @ My House......), May 08, 1999.

Is this the same majority of people who support the bombing of Serbia?

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), May 08, 1999.

I quit reading about the time, errr no, make that at exactly the time he made this flagrant misquote of the Bible

snip--

"The Bible says in the last days the very elect will be deceived. That's always been a hard Scripture for many people to understand, but after Y2K I'm starting to believe it's very possible." --end snip

None of the 4 versions I have make that statement. ST Mark 13:22

I would post it here but that would defeat a wonderful opportunity for those that really are concerened about "investigating" the TRUTH

I guess it rrrrreally pushes my button. Another one that brings me to a boil is * money is the root of all evil * WRONG!!!!! It's the !!!!!!!LOVE OF MONEY!!!!!!! that deserves rebuke. Ok I'll quit

My humble apologies

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 08, 1999.

Ignoring the thoroughly inaccurate exegesis of scripture, which is only one tip-off of how ignorant Hewitt is, let's go to the root of this post:

"A lady in Eugene, Oregon told me how life is over because of Y2K. It's not just because she sold her dream house, she quit her job before retirement, she cashed her IRAs at 10% loss, she pulled out of the stock market, she now has cows and chickens and 2 years of survivalist food. None of those are reasons of why her life is over.....The reason Y2K has destroyed her life, she now knows, is she'll never be able to witness again. She'll always be the crazy Y2K lady."

First of all, Hewitt assumes, of course, that Y2K is trivial and that her preparations were wrong.

Second, he assumes that someone deceived her.

Third, he treats her as a victim. Apparently, she was so helpless that she couldn't make these decisions for herself.

Fourth, .... why go on? It's endless.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 08, 1999.

"The Bible says in the last days the very elect will be deceived."

(Mat 24:24 KJV) "if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), May 08, 1999.

Very critical little "if" there, Mark, as well as a few other little nuances that make a big difference (the "elect").

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 08, 1999.

Hello all,

I always find it refreshing to read an article here, and then find by the comments that follow that the same things I am thinking are seen by you as well.

First and formost would be Mat 24:24. if it were possible I always love when people say 'the Bible says', and don't give scripture and verse. (sarcasm)

The obvious error in simple Theology 101 pretty much makes anything this person has to say mean 0, zilch, nothing.

The examples of people 'hurt by y2k' seem to be people lacking even basic wisdom. (Let's buy every last shell from Wally World at once and see if it doesn't draw a bit of attention.)

One of my favorite snippets from this article is : "This is not legitimate persecution that we can be proud of. This is ridicule that we deserve. That's pretty sad."

Sorry, the churches here are almost silent about y2k. Any preparation advice given by the 'Christian media' has been common sense advice which should be followed whether y2k were an issue or not.

I think it was long ago agreed upon in this very forum that Christians certainly have not cornered the market on 'Getting It'.

Here's another snippet I loved: "Except for the people who aren't laughing because they're the victims." The victim mentality is apparently embraced even in today's church.

Is there somthing to be learned here? Certainly. Use common sense. When all is said and done. You are not a victim, you are an adult that made choices, and are responsible for your actions. Use the brains God gave you.

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), May 08, 1999.

Gosh it's knee slapping fun to watch the doomers react to articles like this - fingers stuck in their ears shouting "I'm not going to listen anymore"...

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), May 08, 1999.

Another brilliant contribution from you-know-who.

-- Amused (amused@laughing.com), May 08, 1999.

Since I have become the subject of this discussion, I thought I would provide a response. In the first place, much is being said about the fact that the verse I "referred" to was not quoted completely, and therefore assumed to be incorrect. I would partially agree.

Understand that I do about 1 or 2 interviews a day. This particular interview was done very quickly over the phone. I do not know if I was quoted accurately or not, because I do not remember exactly what I said at the time. I AM aware of the exact verse, and the point of the verse is that in the last time, false prophets will come that will do a great job of broadcasting false information. To the point, that IF possible, the very elect would be deceived. Even in context, I have always found the verse hard to believe (although I believe the Bible in its entirety, and therefore of course DO believe it). The point I was seeking to make was that, after seeing how some have used Y2K to speculate the worst in order to sell their books and products, I now could unfortunately believe that we ARE very open to false teachings and such hype.

Please don't miss the point I was making, or the impact of my message. I was making the point that so many Christians are being misled, and I find that amazing. That was the purpose of my statement, and my position was the purpose of the interview. I am sorry that we did not have the time or space to go into a complete word study of the entire scripture in context.

One other comment worth making would be about the statement in this discussion that I am wrong that the Y2K hysteria is of a greater proportion within the Christian community. My point can be proved by simply compiling all of the many articles that have been done in the press centered on those that have over-reacted (such as Time, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Wired, Kansas City Star, and on and on). By far, most of these articles (and hundreds more like them) have not been about how Americans have over-reacted, but about how Christians have over-reacted. I just returned from a Barnes and Nobles bookstore. Although I was not seeking to do so, I made a mental note of the fact that while spending an hour in the bookstore, and making several purchases, I did not see ONE Y2K book. Yet, last week when I was visiting a Christian bookstore, I was amazed that a whole section had been dedicated to the subject in this small store.

Check out the many national Y2K Expos held around the country, like the one just held in San Jose last month. Take note from the list of speakers, how many of them are either Christian ministers (such as Ken Klein, or from Christian ministries, such as Shaunti Feldhahn.

It has been fun. If you wish to respond to me directly, you may wish to do so via email, as this is my first visit here, and I dont know if I will make it back.

-- Steve Hewitt (steve@ccmag.com), May 08, 1999.

Well, I guess Chicken Littlehearted is also from Der Boonkah. This article was discussed there during the last days, I mean, a day ago, prior to its appearance here. Theeeeeeeeey're trolling again. Ain't it original, the way they address us as "Paranoids-Wacko-Yourdonites"?

http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb237006

When this is over we're going to discover tens of thousands of victims of Y2K hysteria.....that has been in the Christian community. (cpr) (07-May-1999 23:39:07)

this is what it is all about,,,,are you listening Paranoids-Wacko-Yourdonites? (Doc Paulie) (08-May-1999 09:10:58)

But, check out the reaction of the EY.2k Believers (cpr) (08-May-1999 14:18:14)

Argentians worried...all of-em have access ya know (Doc Paulie) (08-May-1999 14:50:08)

Actually, it was 6-9 months after Meme Infection before it could be detected (cpr) (08-May-1999 15:20:06)

Another Jedi starts Hewitt's ball rolling at Sissy2k (cpr) (08-May-1999 15:07:25)

-- OutingsR (us@here.yar), May 08, 1999.

Thanks, Outings, for your great work. Keep it up. It shows what is really going on with many of the threads these days.

Steve --- you know better. The fact that the media trashes Christians routinely these days has zero to do either with Y2K or the position that most Christians are taking on Y2K, which is precisely as denial-bound as the rest of the world. Including you, apparently. It is true that some Christians are in the forefront of understanding, interpreting Y2K and encouraging ALL citizens to prepare. Great!

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 09, 1999.

"Der Boonkah"? Clever. Yeah the article was talked about over there. It was also talked about at Gary North's site:

Link

Guess I must be "from" there too, huh.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), May 09, 1999.

BigDog,

It depends on the media, and where you live. Here in Birmingham (the buckle of the Bible Belt), the media are very sympathetic to religion, and Christianity in general. The local TV stations do regular features on churches, missions, you name it.

We had Steve on our radio station not too long ago. It was a refreshing break from the endless string of Doomlits repeating the same tired examples from 97 and 98.

I agree with Hewitt in principle -- I'm personally distressed that so many of my fellow Christians have jumped on the Y2K bandwagon down here (they're the ringleaders in this area). I think they're setting us up to be a laughingstock once again, but there's nothing I can do about it ... except try to patiently explain how and why the Y2K thing has been blown way out of proportion.

A general note: I would ask you to go back through my posts and compare the number of times that I've called an opponent here a "moron" (or worse) -- and compare it to the number of times that I'VE been called the same (or worse).

(Compare what YOU have called ME to what I've called YOU, for that matter.)

I think the bottom line is, you have trouble believing that someone could have looked at the same evidence as you, read the same reports as you have, and yet, have reached the exact opposite conclusion.

As Christians, I'd think we should be used to that by now (do you dunk or sprinkle? Is Jesus coming back any minute, or after the Millennium?).

Just food for thought.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), May 09, 1999.

Steve Hewitt says "I AM aware of the exact verse, and the point of the verse is that in the last time, false prophets will come that will do a great job of broadcasting false information. To the point, that IF possible, the very elect would be deceived. Even in context, I have always found the verse hard to believe (although I believe the Bible in its entirety, and therefore of course DO believe it).

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 09, 1999.

""""YEP""""

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 09, 1999.

Mr. Poole says---I agree with Hewitt in principle -- I'm personally distressed that so many of my fellow Christians have jumped on the Y2K bandwagon down here (they're the ringleaders in this area)

!!!!!!yep!!!!!!

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), May 09, 1999.

What it boils down to is this:

There is a potential for problems related to y2k. Most computer users are working on fixing it so the potential will be minimal, if at all.

Ergo, the original problem is not as bad as it was in the beginning.

Add to that the political situation, and the potential ramifications that may result. By political I mean the Balkans, the blowjob, panic from y2k, school shootings, etc.

Then, once you have digested all that, realize that the world has gone through similar situations. Look at what happened then. See how the people of the day handled the problems they had.

Compare that with what we face.

Can you still say that preparation is unwarranted?

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), May 09, 1999.