No Good Deed

Twitter was the first to bring me the news. It was on Friday, May 20 when I read a tweet that caught me off guard: the rapture is happening. And it was happening tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Well, today is now Monday, May 23, and so far no earthquakes have happened, no Christians have disappeared, and we all know that the prediction made by Harold Camping of Family Radio was a complete and total failure. The majority of people, including Christians, saw that coming. But there was a small group of people who didn't. And as you can imagine, those people are devastated.

When 6 p.m. EST past and nothing happened, I knew it was safe to say that Camping's predictions were wrong. I immediately opened up my browser and began scouring the web for news articles about the failure of the rapture. I specifically was looking for the reactions of his followers and of Camping. I found an article of a woman saying the time was wrong, and that just because the rapture didn't happen yet didn't mean it wasn't going to happen later that day. But here we are, more than 24 hours later, and still, no rapture.

Initially this has all been amusing to me. I thought (still think) Camping was a little looney, and I laughed when I saw that he had already made a failed prediction back in 1994. I logged online Saturday evening because I wanted to see what these nut cases had to say. I poked my finger and laughed.

My amusement was uncalled for.

Afterward it began sinking in with me that a tragedy had really happened in all of this. This wasn't just some crazy guy out shouting that the world was coming to an end. This was a preacher, who had loyal followers. Followers so loyal that some of them gave up their life savings to put up billboards and advertisements about the day of the second coming. Followers who gave up their lives in order to save others. Followers with good intentions. Followers who are now penniless, being mocked, and have had a decent blow to their faith. And nothing about that is funny.

I'm not sure who is at fault here. It would be easy to blame Camping, and many people are. One person said he thought Camping was an atheist, who used his rapture prediction as a way to draw in donations to his ministry. Perhaps he is an atheist with bad intentions. Personally, I don't think he is. I think he is a Christian, who really felt he had both God and the Bible figured out enough to know what God was going to do next. My guess is he felt God was telling him to figure out the date of the second coming and to share that date with others. His message was a success. His prediction? Not so much.

Part of me does blame Camping. I am not in the position to judge, but considering the fact he already made a prediction and was wrong, you would think he would take that as a hint that perhaps God doesn't want him to figure out the second coming. I'm hoping after this one, he gives up on the crystal ball for good. We'll find out later what he has to say.

The followers are at some fault too. They didn't have to listen to Camping. They didn't have to give up their jobs, money, and time. They had a free choice, and so it would be easy for us to say, "This was your decision. Sorry it didn't work in your favor, but it's not our fault. Good luck." And I'm sure some people out there are thinking that. But I hope you're not one of them.

Whether you're a Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, witch, whatever, I hope you recognize the tragedy in this. I hope you realize the power that lies in faith and the damage it can produce when it's misdirected.

I am not sad that the rapture didn't happen. I am rather glad Camping was wrong because it is proof that no one can predict the ways of God. But what upsets me is the damage that's been done. It breaks my heart to think that someone out there gave up their life savings to spread the word of something they truly believed was going to happen. It takes a lot of guts and courage to abandon your money and life to try to help others for something you believe in. Having to confess you were wrong and deal with the consequences will not be an easy one, and I am praying these followers will be able to get their lives back in order without the criticism of ignorant people. I am also praying they haven't lost complete faith in God.

Faith is a messy thing. It brings people together. It gives us hope. It makes life worth living. But it's also dangerous. It can lead to the devastation these followers are facing, that Christianity is facing. And the worst part is, we never know whether our faith is being misdirected or not. We just have to have faith that we are right. We have to trust our hearts and hope with all of our might our guts aren't the ones taking us down the wrong path. All we can do is listen to our moral compass and pray it is pointing in the right direction.

I am sad that these followers, and Camping, had so much faith in the second coming and it turned out wrong. Especially when, the followers at least, had good intentions. But no good deed goes unpunished.