And next time you torment a fat kid, remember it’s for the good of all humanity.
On Facebook my holy-rollin’ cousin was nice enough to describe the victims in this whole thing: those who gave all their belongings up, and…:rolleyes: those who view this as another reason to write off christianity.
Well he’s not exactly wrong. One guy spearheaded this whole thing, and the vast majority of Christian churches and leaders not only didn’t believe but actively discouraged it. Writing off Christianity because of Harold Camping’s nuttery is like writing off Islam because of Osama Bin Laden. It’s viewing the worst and least supported example of someone claiming leadership in a group as if their position is mainstream or representative, when in fact, they’re just the opposite.
As for the people who gave up everything, keep in mind that for the believing Christian, the return of Jesus is the ultimate in good things, it means getting to go to heaven without the whole bother of having to die. It means reunion with your departed loved ones. It means living forever with the god you believe in wholeheartedly. It’s hard not to imagine that a large number of the people who were taken in by Camping’s foolishness are people who don’t feel like they have much to live for here on this corrupt, ugly Earth, and definitely not anything that could compare with living eternally in paradise with their creator. Camping gave them hope in the best thing they could imagine; all I can muster for them is compassion. They were duped, badly duped.
I’d initially been inclined to find that those who believed what Camping preached were complete fools. And I’m a Christian myself.
But this post has given me the compassion I didn’t feel before. I was acting “smarter than thou” to those poor folks.
Thank you tumbledown for the best post on this subject that I have seen.
And this is exactly my major problem with religion: rather than encouraging people to improve their lot here on Earth, it gives them some vague promise of “Oh well, it’ll all be peachy after you die.” Which, as a motto to live your life by, is not the greatest IMHO.
With a few tweaks, this is also the basic justification for becoming a suicide bomber - you get to escape your miserable existence with an instant free pass to eternal bliss. The only difference is that in the Christian version God does the smiting of the wicked whereas in the Muslim version you have to do the work yourself.
The part about being “badly duped” also applies.
Hey…maybe …just maybe…we were too fat to be Raptured.
Just a thought.
Why is it so hard for these people to believe that the rapture already happened, 1500 years ago. This is it. This is all there is.
If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball.
Not sure what you mean. I think writing of Christianity for this thing is a bit ridiculous. I mean, clearly this dude does not represent the mainstream Christian point of view.
I do agree that anyone writing of Christianity for this is not a victim though. They’d have to be looking for a reason to write it off to use this.
Camping has shown himself and claims to be “flabbergasted” that the rapture did not go off as predicted: http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/05/22/harold_camping_judgement_day_christian_radio_mogul_nowhere_to_be.html.
I’m curious to see what he has to say beyond that. Thanks for the link.