Harold Camping, the unlicensed, uncredited, and self-ordained minister of May-Day Doomsday, is caught "flabbergasted." The world did not end, people are still moving to and fro in their busy, fruitless lives, ministers are still preaching the word, whether their hearers are moved into action or lulled into complacency.
What was this old falsehood thinking when he expounded with heady certainty a date which no one, not even Christ himself, knows?
It was all about the money, no doubt. It cost millions of dollars to mount an extensive ad-war of ministerial deception on the radio, with billboards, through the minds of desperate believers willing to believe anything that would remove them from the empty, hostile frustration of their lives.
People desperate for a quick fix have reverted to believing in soon-to-come end-times follies. Mr. Camping was more than willing to indulge them in their fantasies.
Then there is publicity. Mr. Camping and his "ministry" have dominated the airwaves for some time. I'm sure even TMZ will jump on the "hate-the-wacky-preacher" bandwagon, which is now rolling through the current news-cycle. Doomsday prophets market themselves widely, and they make good news, whether any of their predictions come true or not. As far as the media is concerned, as long as they have something newsworthy to bring to press, news organs are happy.
It brings one pause: perhaps the widespread phenomenon of false teaching is due in part to a ravenous media dedicated to printing whatever flippant froth it can foist on a foolish public, all the more fresh if it mocks religious sentiment of any denomination.
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