For three months I wrote and posted articles in the series 21 REASONS WHY MAY 21, 2011, IS NOT THE END. In some of them I was sarcastic and made fun of Harold Camping and his preposterous prediction. I laughed along with others who made him the butt of their jokes. Yet now that Camping’s Doomsday has come and gone (just as I predicted) I have a strange sense of melancholy about the whole affair.

Primarily this involves my sadness for the victims of this outrageous debacle. I mentioned this several times over the last three months, but my feelings intensified on Saturday, the 21st, as I knew that thousands were waiting for something to happen, and I knew they would be crushed when it did not take place as promised.

A number of “rapture parties” were held all across the country as I reported in one of my posts. Many, however, like the Baptist church in the following photo focused on the seriousness of what this event would mean to the “true believers.” the resulting embarrassment and overwhelming doubts are indeed a true concern.

I have followed up on the various post-doomsday news reports and have watched some of the heckling on YouTube. Surprisingly (especially for a die-hard conservative like me), some of the best news stories were coming from the Huffington Post. I want to share some excerpts with you. First there is this personal story of one family who bought into the lie:

May 21 ‘Judgment Day’ Believers React To Being Alive On May 22

by Reporter Jaweed Kaleem

‘Judgment Day’ came and went on Saturday, and John Ramsey hasn’t been able to sleep.

The 25-year-old Harrison, N.J. resident had rearranged his life in recent months to devote himself to spreading a fringe California preacher’s prediction that May 21 would bring worldwide earthquakes and usher in a five-month period of misery before the world’s destruction.

Like many of those convinced of the Rapture was pending, Ramsey quit his job, donated “a couple thousand” to Harold Camping’s Family Radio network and convinced family members to join him to spread news of the Rapture on Manhattan streets.

His family nervously huddled in their apartment living room Saturday, holding their Bibles open, switching between CNN, Facebook and Google for news of quakes in the Pacific.

They cried. They hugged. They argued. But mostly, they waited. Nothing happened.

On Sunday, a dejected Ramsey said he faces a “mixed bag.”

He has to find a new job. So does his mother. His 19-year-old brother, who had quit high school the year prior (“It’s pointless to graduate,” the brother had said), is thinking of re-enrolling or finding employment.

His wife, Marcia Paladines, had come to accept that she might never meet her unborn baby, whom she and Ramsey had named John Moses. Now, she’s praying for a healthy birth. The child is due as early as Friday.

“Life goes on,” Ramsey said Sunday. “I get to live. I get to be a dad.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I guess no man knows the day or the hour,” said Peter Lombardi, a 44-year-old from Jersey City, N.J. who had had taken an “indefinite break” from his job in April to preach about May 21.

He had fitted his Dodge minivan with stickers proclaiming the “awesome news” of Judgment Day and paraded with neon green Caravans through Manhattan’s business districts to hand hundreds of fliers about the date. On Sunday, he was peeling the stickers off.

Lombardi said he is going back to work — he owns a construction business — and said he has “no regrets.” He added, “I’m not disappointed. I’m still living today.” He believes Camping and others must have read the Bible incorrectly.

Lombardi had donated $1,100 to Family Radio in recent months to help the organization purchase thousands of billboards and other ads throughout the country, but said he doesn’t expect any of his money back.

“What can you do?” he said. “I don’t think they were scamming me, but I am definitely waiting to see what they say Monday on the radio show.”

“It’s not [Camping's] fault,” said Ramsey, who added he also won’t ask for his money back. “Nobody held a gun to my head. I read the Bible. The math added up. I don’t think anybody would do something like this without meaning it.”

Ramsey and his family are featured in this video:

Another article from CTV had these observations:

‘Rapture’ believers left confused and philosophical

OAKLAND, Calif  (AP)— The hour of the apocalypse came quietly and went the same way — leaving those who believed that Saturday evening would mark the world’s end confused, or more faithful, or just philosophical.

Believers had spent months warning the world of the pending cataclysm. Some had given away earthly belongings. Others took long journeys to be with loved ones. And there were those who drained their savings accounts.

All were responding to the May 21 doomsday message by Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction.

“I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God,” said Keith Bauer — who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 5,000 kilometres to California for the Rapture.

He started his day in the bright morning sun outside Camping’s gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International.

“I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth,” said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he “worked last week, I wouldn’t have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen.”

According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although some believers said Saturday the exact timing was never written in stone.

He had been projecting the apocalyptic prediction for years far and wide via broadcasts and websites.

In New York’s Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o’clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

“I can’t tell you what I feel right now,” he said, surrounded by tourists. “Obviously, I haven’t understood it correctly because we’re still here.”

Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.

It is heart-wrenching to watch and listen as these victims try to come to terms with there shattered illusions. But what is even more sad are all the folks who, although they were not ensnared by Camping’s message, continue to believe what they think the bible says about the Second Coming and the Rapture, as can be seen in this video:

But what about Camping himself? How did he respond to his failed prediction? According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Camping is not admitting defeat, but is rather revamping his message and looking forward to October 21, 2011, the date he and his followers have said would mark the End of the World:

Radio host says world’s end actually coming in Oct

by Garance Burke

OAKLAND, California (AP)—As crestfallen followers of a California preacher who foresaw the world’s end strained to find meaning in their lives, Harold Camping revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.

Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before global cataclysm struck the planet, said Monday that he felt so terrible when his doomsday message did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions — some of it from donations made by followers—on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 recreational vehicles plastered with the Judgment Day message.

Follower Jeff Hopkins also spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to power his car so people would see its ominous lighted sign showcasing Camping’s May 21 warning. As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile (160-kilometer) round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day, spending at least $15 on gas each trip.

“I’ve been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I’ve been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car,” said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, New York. “I was doing what I’ve been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I’ve been stymied. It’s like getting slapped in the face.”

 

Camping, who made a special appearance before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire Monday evening, apologized for not having the dates “worked out as accurately as I could have.” Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, the light dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a “spiritual” Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ’s judgment, he said.

The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God’s judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there’s no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.

International reporting has carried this bizarre story. Here’s an article from the Brisbane Times in Queensland, Australia:

US preacher resets Doomsday after failed Rapture

(AFP) The end of the world is still coming, just a little later than originally planned, said a US radio minister after his prediction that Judgment Day would come last weekend flopped.

“We are not changing a date at all; we’re just learning that we have to be a little more spiritual about this,” Harold Camping, the 89-year-old founder of the global evangelizing Family Radio network said in a 90-minute radio broadcast late Monday.

“But on October 21, the world will be destroyed. It won’t be five months of destruction. It will come at once,” he said.

Camping had insisted that the so-called “Rapture”—when good Christians are swept up to heaven and the not-so-good stay behind to suffer until the end of the world — would begin with powerful earthquakes at 6:00 pm local time on Saturday in each of the world’s regions.

Those not taken to be with God on Saturday were to suffer hell on earth until October 21, when God would pull the plug on the planet once and for all.

When the Rapture hour came and went with no skyward departures or earthquakes, Camping initially said on CNN that he was confused.

It isn’t the first time he has miscalculated the end of the world.

Nearly two decades ago, Camping wrote a book entitled “1994″ which predicted the world would end then.

Following Saturday’s failed Rapture, T-shirts were on sale online, including one that said: “I survived the Rapture and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

One article was to me the most poignant. Again, this is from the Huffington Post:

Desiring the End of the World

by Paul Brandeis, Senior Religion Editor

Why are we so fascinated with the May 21, End of the World phenomenon? For many of us, the spectacle of these people with their doomsday signs and complicated calendar calculations provides good comic relief and finger pointing — “look at the freaks.” But as a piece by HuffPost Religion writer Jaweed Kaleem shows, the followers of Harold Camping and his end-time crusade are real people whose conviction of the impending end of the world was seemingly inspired by a deep desire to create meaning and certainty in life within our difficult and chaotic world.

Eschatology is the fancy term religious scholars use to talk about the end of the world. It is derived from the Greek word eschaton, which means the last or the end. Eschatological thought in the Bible is consistently marked by a sense of desperation concerning the way the world is, as opposed to the way the world ought to be. Apocalyptic scriptural references anticipate that God’s reign will break into this world; a promise that ultimately provides hope in the future as it projects a time of radical departure from the difficult realities of the present.

I can see the attraction of this kind of thinking. If the believer white-knuckles it and holds the line, then God will come and break into the world, relieve their suffering, bring justice to an unjust world, and lift those who believed into an exalted role in the new creation. The more I think about the people who are placing their hope in the current end-of-the-world scheme, the less I want to laugh at them and the more I feel compassion for them.

My guess is that people who put their trust in these movements have a sense of powerlessness, and they need to believe in a radical solution to their current situation. While the rich and powerful make fun, the followers of Camping and the May 21 movement are largely working-class people who feel that they have less and less of a voice or place in this world. Like buying a lottery ticket, they are placing bets on a instant transformation of their personal situation where the last will become first, and the rich will be sent away empty.

But it is not only the materially wealthy who desire these radical changes. People can be in hopeless personal situations with family, or face depression and feel like there is no way out. The end of the world seems like a positive and real option when you are at rock bottom and don’t know how to rise up. Or maybe they are people who are simply looking for a reason to make their lives matter in the face of the alienation of our modern world, or the day-to-day tedium and challenges. Seeing a clear end date on the horizon makes every day count.

But here is the tragedy—every day does count. And people should have hope for the future, and our lives canhave meaning. And you don’t have to believe in an end-of-the world scam to get it. On Sunday May 22, my hope is that Camping’s Christian followers find meaning and hope in a new way. Instead of following a false prophet like Camping, these Christians should turn towards Jesus whose message in Luke 17:21 is very clear:

“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among* you.”

We should not expect or hope for some cataclysmic event to bring about a better world—the Kingdom of God is among us if we have eyes to see it. We can live in God’s realm and find meaning through living out the commandments of love, forgiveness and peace. We can find spiritual and psychological relief when we offer prayers of gratitude for the blessings of family, and for the beauty of this world’s ecology, which cries out for redemption, not destruction. We can find purpose in our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are suffering and by working to extend God’s blessings to those whom Jesus called “the least of these.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., taught that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. God’s realm of justice already exists—we just have to decide to live there. So, let’s extend a hand to these folks who are going to be so disappointed on May 22 and invite them to be part of the great work of this life, right here, right now.

Yes, Mr. Brandeis got it exactly right. He has expressed my sentiments to a tee.

So, will I be chronicling Harold Camping’s new march to an October Doomsday? No, in fact, I got a little weary there toward the end swelling on this foolishness. Plus I got sense enough to know that very few people will heed the warning of common sense.

In my series of articles, I gave 21 solid reasons why Harold Camping would prove to be a false prophet. This situation has indeed been a test-tube experiment in doomsday mania, and I was happy to have the opportunity to follow it and offer some wisdom along the way. If the public, particularly Christians, were armed with the information and principles that I have expounded, no future date-setter would be able to get to first base with such crack-pottery. But as you saw in the last video, a huge segment of the population, both in and out of the church, truly believe that the Bible teaches that there will be a future Second Coming and Rapture. People have been chasing after this kind of nonsense for 2000 years. What would make any of us think that they are going to change?

All Scriptures, unless otherwise noted are from the author’s paraphrase, The Dayspring Bible.
http://dayspring.org

© Copyright 1999-2011, Dayspring Bible Ministries, All rights reserved.

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