The rapture came and went. It was uneventful, for the most part. A couple hundred miles off the coast of New Zealand, an earthquake shook an uninhabited island. In Iceland, a volcano decided to fling a bit of ash. Locally? Some of our neighbors had a yard sale. No graveyards spewing out the dead and no “true believers” being whisked off to powwow with “God”. Around here we giggled, made a few jokes, and I drank a tiny bit of tequila.
I read a post on Facebook from one of my friends where he states that these are not stupid people (followers of Harold Camping). I completely disagree. People of intelligence research and check facts. One very easily found fact regarding Mr. Camping is that he’s made this “rapture” prediction before and many people were left hanging when it (not surprisingly) didn’t happen. Putting aside the fact that the entire concept of a rapture is complete and utter bullshit, an intelligent person would, at a minimum, realize Harold is a charlatan at best. People of reasonable intelligence also don’t put their children at risk. There are now families comprised of parents with no job and no savings. Their kids had no say in this matter and get to suffer the consequences of their parents stupidity.
And this is where I depart from pointing and laughing at Camping and his followers. Harold and the adults who were stupid enough to give up everything on some hocus-pocus numerology based on a book of fiction deserve every bit of what is coming to them. The children who had no say in how the rest of their lives would be played out don’t. At the very least, Mr. Harold Camping should pony up a large portion of the donations given to him and his “church/ministry” to ensure these kids are able to eat and have a roof over their heads. In a perfect world, they’d also be placed with people who use their heads for more than just a hat rack.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), we don’t live in a perfect world.
Update: Camping has finally decided to speak to the public. What he has to say is just plain insane. Not to mention he feels no responsibility to those who have been severely harmed by his insanity (read kids): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/harold-camping-speaks_n_865867.html
