Boston Has Millennium Clearinghouse BOSTON (AP) -- In a small office on the Boston University campus, the interests of religious zealots, UFO fans, survivalists and computer aficionados bracing for the Y2K computer bug intersect. With less than a year to go until the arrival of 2000, the Center for Millennial Studies has emerged as an academic clearinghouse for people pondering how society will make the shift to the 21st century. Will Christ make a second coming? Will good triumph over evil? Will computer glitches shut down everything from airports to Wall Street? ``We want to be the place where, in the next few years and far beyond, anyone who wants information about what occurred will look in our computers, at our files,'' Richard Landes, the center's founder, said in Saturday's editions of The Boston Globe. Last week, Landes, 49, a medieval history professor at BU, traveled to Jerusalem to spend New Year's Eve interviewing a group of fundamentalist Jews awaiting the arrival of the Messiah. He plans to also be in the holy city on Dec. 31, 1999, when thousands of pilgrims from all over the world are expected to come in anticipation of salvation, destruction or the arrival of celestial beings. Religious zealots and mainstream believers alike attach great significance to the arrival of the 21st century, although they disagree on exactly what will happen. Much attention has been given to the Y2K problem, the term coined to describe computers' inability to deal with dates after Dec. 31, 1999. However, Landes and his colleagues are tracking some more eccentric folks as well. For example, there is a group in Indonesia hunting out witches to prevent them from doing any millennial mischief. Another in the American West believe Y2K is an omen that the Earth is nearing its end, with destruction to come at the hands of aliens sent by God to punish humanity for ruining the environment. Most of the center's time is spent on more concrete matters, however. In particular, Landes says he hopes his research will persuade municipalities, businesses and individuals to take the Y2K problem even more seriously than many already do. And he says the center's monitoring of religious organizations could serve as an early warning system against violence, anti- Semitism, and other negative responses he expects from people who will disappointed when their expectations aren't realized. ``Disappointment is the big black box in millennium studies,'' says Landes, who bases this assessment on his study of previous millennial movements. ``If you think it's your movement, and God is on your side, the letdown could be enormous.'' For example, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has produced a video in which he says that ``Y2K may be God's instrument to shake this nation.'' In addition to maintaining a site on the World Wide Web, the center keeps newspaper clippings, videotapes, pamphlets and other literature produced by millennium junkies. It also publishes a quarterly newsletter, hosts a monthly discussion group, runs periodic educational programs and sponsors an annual conference. Landes figures his operation will thrive at least two more years, since the new millennium technically begins Jan. 1, 2001. And the center is already planning its conference for 2002. The tentative title: ``Disappointed Millennialism.''
