Dear Harry (can I call you that? I feel like we've grown pretty familiar in the last 17 years you've been predicting the Rapture would occur),
We live in a very scary world. Wars don't seem to have end dates anymore. They drag on for years without any given side saying, "OK. You won." Why? Because we no longer fight against something specific. We fight against terror and individuals who would like to inspire terror through aggressive actions. We call those people terrorists. Do you dislike terrorists, Harry? I don't like them, that's for sure.
I have to say, both on Sept. 6, 1994 and on May 21, 2011, I feel like you did something that was not so great. In fact, I'll say it was pretty awful. Let's disregard for the moment that you led people (good people, honest God-loving people) to take their life savings and put it into propagating a message that you falsely led them to believe would be helpful to others. Let's set aside the fact that you have cited the gay pride movement as one of the signs of the apocalypse. Let's instead focus on what I perceive as the biggie: You're a fear monger.
You trade in fear. You use it to manipulate good people to believe what you believe and tell them that if they don't they will die a horrible death. Earthquakes, locusts, you name it. You have claimed that if I don't get all of my friends and family into your specific branding of God's plan, then they are screwed. Utilizing the people who would believe that, you attempted to strike fear into the heart of our great nation. For weeks we would hear that millions of lives would be lost if we did not follow what you believe. That is why I believe that you, Harold Camping, have terrorized America.
Here's the thing: you thought you were doing the right thing. I get that. I really do. You wanted people to seek God's love and then be saved. It's the whole "If you don't do exactly what I believe, you are damned" side of the coin that I think is really aggressive and hateful.
It's a shame we live in a culture where thousands, if not millions, of people nervously checked their watches at 6 p.m. on May 21. We live in a culture of fear. You're not helping us move beyond fear. You're indulging in it. Stop attacking our nation with your aggressive campaigns.
Peddle in love, not hate, Harry. You are getting on in years, and I doubt you want to be remembered as a fear-monger. Also, I for one would appreciate an apology. I'd do the same for you if I falsely predicted you were going to be killed for your beliefs.
Yours sincerely,
Follow Lodro Rinzler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lodrorinzler
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Harold Camping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." -- Matthew16:28
"But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God." -- Luke 9:27
"Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." -- Matthew 23:36
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." -- Matthew 24:34
"Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." -- Mark 9:1
"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done." -- Mark 13:30
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled." -- Luke 21:32
"Behold, I come quickly." -- Revelation 3:11, 22:7, 22:12
"Surely I come quickly." -- Revelation 22:20
You write that Camping "led (...) good people, honest God-loving people to take their life savings and put it into propagating a message that (he) falsely led them to believe would be helpful to others".
What is "good" about people who are ready to believe that their god will torture for eternity, starting with earthly tortures during the months leading to the final apocalypse, all unbelievers who don't believe as they do?
Unbelievers who presumably were created by their god to start with.
Isn't christianity supposed to teach one to love thy neighbor?
I fail to see any love or even goodness.
I see only sick, sadistic minds, worshipping a god as mentally sick as they are.
Pity they also imposed their mental sickness on their helpless children.
Harold Camping must obtain a serious understanding of the law of causation and then tell us all the interactions of the world on him that prompted him to come out with his predictions, where are the calculations?.....Who authenticated them?.... What exactly went wrong?..... What is he planning to do about the damage he has caused to so many lives?.... He needs to answer these questions and then tell us the lessons he has learnt if indeed he wishes to salvage his reputation.
The fact that he has not contradicted you – it is not possible that he has not read your piece - shows perhaps that he is thinking on the above lines and preparing his answers, in which case we will all be his well wishers.
Otherwise the impression that he did something awful - and may do it again – will remain.
In the Shadows: Tales of Ashik
Ashik Jaya
Mr. Cramping did instill fear or hysteronics in those people who were scared- they did itbto themselves. You seem to forget that this country's optimism is at an all time low. Why? It is because they cannot put their hope and faith in anything. One cannot place hope or faith in one's family as it is the most dysfunctional of all the permanent social institutions. One cannot put hope or faith in marriage because the divorce rate is so high. One cannot put hope and faith in a job because it might be eliminated the next month. So with pessimism folks turn to God, but one loses hope because mean spirited knucklehead crawl out their holes in the wall to tell the world that. "God. Isn't dead...he never existed! Don't blame Mr. Camping for the hysteria- blame your fellow Americans that lust after every pleasure and perversion. Come December 2012 the hysteria will return and Mr.Camping will have nothing to do with it. We have set the stage for the hysteria that is to come.
In the Shadows: Tales of Ashik
Ashik Jaya
I'm guessing that since you're able to still write with your computer, still have running water, electricity and food in your refrigerator, you can be philosophical. I would bet that philosophy would be thrown out the door if you had lost your job, your house was just destroyed, you came down with an illness and could not turn to anyone for help...because they were all in the same boat.
In this case I would expect that he apologize to his followers who depleted their life savings based on the idea that they would be leaving their mortal bodies on May 21st. Camping has explained that May 21 was a silent judgment on all of us. That doesn't pay the rent for people who are now trying to get all the way to October 21 on zero dollars. In fact, this new idea that the rapture is delayed five months only prolongs those people's suffering, assuming they still believe his word.
...It seems there is good reason to do so.
They are worshiping a false god.
Why do these "prophets" who claim to know the scriptures inside and out always ignore Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." What kind of hubris makes a man believe he knows the mind of God?
it could start, for example, with understanding history and the scientific facts of the universe to come to the conclusion that Christianity is no more factitious than Greek mythology (once followed as devoutly as Christianity) nor Harry Potter. For the same reason that religious fundamentalists around the globe are committing atrocities in the name of God (because they feel it is the "right" thing to do), he is manipulating the minds of the less researched/intelligent. Religion should no longer be a valid excuse for tormenting the masses (be it via inspiring fear, fraudulent collection of funds, or war).
How long will it take for people to realize this?
harry's got me on tilt
s not the word of God then. it's the word of men who thought if you sailed far enough into the ocean, you'd fall off the edge of the world. God would have known the true age of the earth.
One of the main facts of christianity are true for all denominations/sects/etc...
believe or burn