W**********r
发帖数: 8927 | 1 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/19/MN1
May 21, 2011: rapture or party time?
Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2011
If everything goes as Oakland minister Harold Camping predicts, the Bay Area
will suffer a world-ending earthquake around 6 p.m. Saturday, God-fearing
Christians will ascend to heaven and everyone else is in big trouble for
eternity.
And if Camping is wrong, the American Atheists will gather in an Oakland
hotel meeting room Sunday to celebrate.
"We're confident we'll still be here," said Larry Hicok, the California
director of the American Atheists who scheduled the 200-member meeting to
coincide with Camping's forecast that the biblically ordained rapture is at
hand. "But if it does happen, we wanted a front-row seat."
The 89-year-old Camping first declared that May 21, 2011, would be the end
of the world nearly 15 years ago, shortly after his earlier 1994 Judgment
Day prediction passed without incident. In spite of his track record, his
latest Armageddon announcement has attracted a constant stream of national
media reporters, bloggers and documentary film crews to his headquarters
near Oakland International Airport.
"God is utilizing the media," Camping said from the offices of his Family
Radio last week, after concluding a Skype interview with a popular website.
"And my, my, has the media been busy with me."
Around the world
Camping's radio and television shows are broadcast in dozens of countries,
and his organization has paid for 5,500 billboards to advertise the rapture
date on every continent except Antarctica. Armadas of RVs painted with
Scripture have crisscrossed the country to enlist new believers before it's
too late.
Tom Evans, 51, who has worked for Family Radio for 25 years and has a wife
and two children ages 3 and 7 months, said it was difficult to explain the
assurance he felt within, knowing that Jesus Christ will return Saturday to
retrieve saved souls.
"You can understand it intellectually, but to really know it is going to
happen, you have to understand it spiritually," Evans said. "You have to
feel it."
To answer one popular question: Camping has not sold his Alameda home, nor
has he given away his possessions, although media reports suggest a handful
of believers have cashed in and pulled up stakes in anticipation of the
final day.
Camping says God wants people to live every day humbly and as evenly as the
next.
New Zealand is first
Saturday, said Camping, "will start like any other day. There's no reason to
behave or act differently."
New Zealanders will be the first to know, Camping said. At 6 p.m. their time
- 11 p.m. Friday in the Bay Area - a great earthquake will shake the island
asunder, triggering an apocalypse that rolls relentlessly our way.
"It will continue across the Earth at such a rate," Camping said, "every
Richter scale in the world and every news organization in the world will
have no doubt - Judgment Day is here."
It will reach San Francisco around 6 p.m. PDT. The saved Christian souls
will ascend to heaven, including those dead and buried. All others will
remain as the Earth falls into fiery chaos.
To answer a second popular question: Camping and his followers will not
gather at one location Saturday, preferring to stay home with their families.
Camping lives with his wife and says only one of his eight adult children
shares his convictions. Few of his grandchildren have contact with him.
His follower Evans plans to huddle at home with his wife and children.
"I know I want to be with them when it happens, God have mercy," he said.
Mocking and concern
A few nonbelievers have suggested throwing a party outside Family Radio's
headquarters Saturday night, mimosas in hand. Other skeptics, however, say
the fact that Camping has assembled a dedicated following is nothing to
laugh at.
Pastor Dave Nederhood, who knew Camping before the minister split from
Nederhood's Christian Reformed Church in Alameda nearly 20 years ago, said a
cult of personality surrounds Camping that makes this "every bit as
dangerous as a Jim Jones or a Heaven's Gate situation."
Nederhood said Camping encouraged his followers to isolate themselves - "to
stay at home and listen to Family Radio all day" - and of the few he's met,
he's picked up on some "serious psychological damage."
"I just really feel a sense of sadness and apprehension for the people who'
ve taken a big bite on this hook," Nederhood said. "All kidding aside, what
are some of these folks going to be doing on Saturday when the one person
they followed told them they would be in hell if they wake up on Sunday, May
22?"
E-mail Justin Berton at j*****[email protected].
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/18/MN1N1JFUB4.DTL#ixzz1MrcFAwCp | f********t
发帖数: 6999 | | n***b
发帖数: 5914 | | y***y
发帖数: 4957 | | s*********n
发帖数: 2283 | | r****o
发帖数: 3918 | 6 哈哈哈。赞 ~\(≧▽≦)/~
【在 s*********n 的大作中提到】
: Just a reminder ...
| o****e
发帖数: 4946 | 7 "And donate EVERYTHING you have" 真是搞笑无极限啊
【在 s*********n 的大作中提到】
: Just a reminder ...
| f*****a
发帖数: 781 | 8 Donate your brain?
【在 o****e 的大作中提到】
: "And donate EVERYTHING you have" 真是搞笑无极限啊
| f****a
发帖数: 4708 | 9 How can they donate sth they don't have?
【在 f*****a 的大作中提到】
: Donate your brain?
| W**********r
发帖数: 8927 | 10 他说湾区周六要大地震，周日早上我们到这来确认一下，呵呵
【在 s*********n 的大作中提到】
: Just a reminder ...
| S****s
发帖数: 235 | 11 末就末吧，最好是下午。让我把毕业礼服穿一下就可以了。 | q*c
发帖数: 1172 | 12 faint, 下周我还要去yosemite呢，路应该还在吧。 | W**********r
发帖数: 8927 | | g*******r
发帖数: 140 | |
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