A reader writes:
I can understand empathy for deluded people who believe in the Rapture. But I am indeed laughing at them. Why? Because Rev. Camping made it clear that the reason the Rapture is coming now is because the world is so immoral that God must end it, like he did with the flood. And a prime cause of that immorality? Homosexuals gaining rights and respect around the world.
These people make a point of saying that they are more moral than you, and certainly more "worthy" than you. They are part of an elite – the very few people that God will choose to "save" while the rest of us wicked people writhe around in torturous conditions. What they wish upon us is far more than laughter and humiliation: it is a slow painful death, the "wages of sin" that we so richly deserve.
So no, I do NOT have sympathy for someone who delights in the thought of my torture and death while they party it up in heaven, and believe that this is all God's plan. It is, in fact, a very dangerous idea, and one that is rightly mocked and derided. You of all people who have come out so strongly against torture for revenge should be abhorred that torture for revenge is a central tenet of these believers.
Another writes:
End-of-the-world cults are a window into the mind of absolute certainty. How often does a fundamentalist (insert belief here) make absolute and inflexible claim? Answer: all the time; that's why they're called fundamentalists. Sometimes they are non-falsifiable claims such as moral claims. Sometimes they are historical or empirical claims, that they surround with such smoke an mirrors, that believers can't be talked out of anything. But it is rare that they put themselves so on the line, with such a concrete prophecy that there is almost no way to rationalize their way out of. We (and hopefully they) can now see the absurdity of their claim laid bare. I just wish they could so clearly debunk their own anti-evolution beliefs.
I noticed that Camping's last prediction of the end of the world was 1994 – also two years into the first term a new Democratic president.
Camping has yet to respond to his followers or the public in full:
[Family Radio’s international projects manager Matt] Tuter said Camping was expected to come to the Oakland, Calif.-based office Monday morning to work, but has yet to arrive. The international projects manager, who has worked with Camping for 23 years, said he has not been able to confirm with Camping that he will come to the office to comment on the situation at the set time of 5:30 p.m. PST.
Camping made a “mess” of the situation, Tuter told an on-site CP correspondent inside the Family Radio office Monday morning. … “Everything is ready, the crew is ready,” Tuter said to CP regarding Family Radio’s preparation for Camping to publicly respond.
The Dish 