Well, 6 pm has come and gone on the East Coast with nary a hint of Rapture. No earthquake. No one flying up into the sky. Not even a slight rain shower. Life just continued on as my husband, my friend and I enjoyed a glass of wine while all of our kids played together. Of course, I never expected anything to happen, but clearly there is a group of people who did. And as it becomes clearer and clearer to everyone that Harold Camping is a fraud, I’ve noticed how people love to make fun of these people who believed it would happen.
Don’t get me wrong — they’re idiotic. Even if you believe in a Biblical Rapture, the idea of a rolling global earthquake just sounds silly. But what happens to them now? And please don’t say “Who cares?” That seems to be what a lot of people are saying, unfortunately. Because I am a sap, I feel sorry for these people who have lost so much: homes, savings, family… it’s more than I can personally imagine doing for my faith. I hope they’ll get help if they need it. Their disappointment must be great. But instead of making fun of them, I think we really need to show them compassion.
Of course, there is still the click here to donate button on the radio station’s website, and there’s no message stating “We were wrong, sorry” or anything like that, so I can only imagine what the future is for this man. I would hope that he’ll take responsibility. While he does not believe in churches, per se, like it or not, he is the leader of an ersatz church. He is the leader of a flock of sheep (and you can take that metaphor as far as you want to go). He needs a better excuse this time than “miscalculation.”