You're more charitable than I am; I totally think it's just "look at the fundie religious nutjobs!" Apparently the story's been popular, which is why everyone keeps hammering away at it. I suspect a lot of the people who've given up their lives and are actively a part of this are depressed or have mental illness, so I just think it's kinda gross the extent to which the story's been covered.

That's pretty much the interpretation I've come to when it comes to Revelation. At the time, learning about it with a youth minister who preached the Bible as being one hundred percent truth and no metaphor or allegory (which...I sometimes wonder how this dude ever managed to read the Bible, because seriously), I was just like, No. I cannot accept this. This makes no sense and I don't want this to be the way I look at the world. I mean, I didn't think of it quite so rationally, that was more subconscious, but yeah. Six years later and I was out!