May 21, 2011 \u2014 the date that Harold Camping predicted would be Judgment Day \u2014 came and went with none of the fanfare that Camping and his followers were expecting, i.e., the kind that might announce the return of Jesus Christ. The day, however, was full of a different kind of fanfare as the the \u201cnon-believers\u201d reacted to Camping\u2019s predictions with a range of opinions, much of it of the disparaging variety. Of course, the issue isn\u2019t completely<\/em> settled \u2014 Camping made a secondary prediction that the Earth would be destroyed on October 21, 2011 that some of his followers are sticking with \u2014 but hopefully, most of us have returned to normal, everyday lives. That being said, are there any lessons that could be learned from this (non)event?<\/p>\n For starters, one can hope that Camping will learn some humility, i.e., that one shouldn\u2019t go around predicting when Jesus is coming back. However, given that this isn\u2019t the first time that he has made such predictions (he previously predicted that Judgment Day would occur in 1994), that he says that judgment did <\/em>occur on May 21 but that it was a \u201cspiritual judgment\u201d<\/a>, that he still stands by his prediction for October 21, and that he refuses to take any sort of responsibility<\/a> for those who gave up everything because of his prediction, this doesn\u2019t seem too <\/em>likely.<\/p>\n At the very least, one can hope that Camping\u2019s followers have learned that a little legitimate Biblical interpretation (that, for example, doesn\u2019t ignore a couple millennia worth of tradition), not to mention some skepticism and incredulity, can go a long way. Even a cursory reading of the Bible\u2019s statements regarding the end times and the return of Christ, along with a brief look at Camping\u2019s history (such as his history with the Christian Reformed Church) should\u2019ve raised a few more eyebrows among the (former) faithful. As my friend Eric wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n Harold Camping was not a Christian. At least, not an orthodox one as far as I can tell from his teachings. His bizarre ideas included denying the trinity, telling people to leave the church, and saying that Jesus died twice. I realize that it\u2019s tempting for those skeptical of religion to take any wingnut who purports to hold some creed as a prime example of it, but there are historical beliefs which characterize Christianity, and someone who denies many of them is probably not a great exemplar of the faith\u2019s views.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But what about those of us who weren\u2019t taken in by Camping\u2019s predictions, who shook our heads in confusion and bemusement and\/or posted snarky comments on Twitter and Facebook as we watched Camping et al. spread the word? The New Republic\u2019s Tiffany Stanley has some stern words<\/a>:<\/p>\n Do the end-timers seem ignorant? Yes. Are they insane? Possibly. But should our reaction to them be chuckling glee or something more like sadness? Pay attention to their individual stories \u2014 their willingness to sacrifice everything in anticipation that their earthly lives are over \u2014 and I dare you not to feel the latter. Ashley Parker of The New York Times<\/a><\/cite> writes about a mom who stopped working, and stopped saving for college for her three teenaged children. One of the kids admitted, \u201cI don\u2019t really have motivation to try to figure out what I want to do anymore because my main support line, my parents, don\u2019t care.\u201d At NPR<\/a>, Barbara Brown Haggerty reports on a young couple, with a toddler and a baby on the way, who are spending the last of the savings. The wife says, \u201cWe budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won\u2019t have anything left.\u201d<\/p>\n Laughing at religious fanatics is nothing new. And, at some level, there\u2019s nothing wrong with it. But this story didn\u2019t just take off in popularity because people wanted a quick laugh or some insight into a quirky subset of our country. There\u2019s a cruelty underlying our desire to laugh at this story \u2014 a desire to see people humiliated and to revel in our own superiority and rationality \u2014 even though the people in question are pretty tragic characters, who either have serious problems themselves or perhaps are being taken advantage of, or both.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As a Christian, I\u2019m often of two minds when it comes to responding to folks like Camping. On the one hand, because I am a Christian, and because I want to be as faithful as possible to the Bible, I want to speak out against those who twist it so clearly and obviously. Sometimes I want to speak out in anger because of the damage that such twisting does, not simply to the lives and reputations of those who get sucked in, but to the reputation of Christ\u2019s Gospel and God\u2019s kingdom. And sometimes I want to speak out with sarcasm and snarkiness because of the absurdity and foolishness on display.<\/p>\n On the other hand, I feel compassion and sympathy for these individuals. I came from a church background that, while nowhere near as extreme as Camping\u2019s teachings, did emphasize the Judgment Day, the Rapture, etc. in ways that I now believe were detrimental. So I understand the fear, urgency, and excitement that these people undoubtedly felt as the date drew near. I can only imagine the disappointment, shame, and foolishness that they must feel now, and I hope they are quickly surrounded by Christians who will take them in, support them, and show them kindness and encouragement rather than sarcasm and derision. (This goes for Camping as well, for that matter.)<\/p>\n Finally, I hope this might prove to be a learning experience for the media. GetReligion<\/a> \u2014 which does a fine job at pointing out how the press can over-simplify when it comes to reporting on religious issues \u2014 has written several articles concerning the Camping-related coverage (example<\/a>, example<\/a>, example<\/a>). In one of their most recent posts<\/a>, GetReligion linked to this article by J. Terry Todd<\/a> which, like the Tiffany Stanley article above, addresses some concerns with the coverage:<\/p>\n The flood of queries on Google loosed an avalanche of utterly predictable blog postings and news coverage, devoid of historical context and serious analysis. The same could be said for coverage in the dailies and cable news shows. Almost all of it, of course, was marked by a whiff of superiority and a tone of condescension, intended to put distance between \u201cus\u201d (the rational public) and \u201cthem\u201d (the purveyors of prophecy belief and their gullible consumers).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Religion is a tricky, complicated matter to discuss, no doubt about that. Dealing with deadlines, especially in this ultra-wired and highly connected world of ours, means that you must rush stories out the door, and sometimes you can\u2019t get in all of the angles you\u2019d like to. And of course, controversy sells newspapers and ad space. But it is nevertheless frustrating when the people reporting on an issue such as this fail to include some amount of historical, social, and theological context when reporting on Camping. For example:<\/p>\n Many of the stories that I read regarding Camping\u2019s predictions barely included any of the above, all of which can be turned up by spending no more than ten minutes on Google. Instead, the stories were little more than fluff pieces full of generalizations and snarkiness that sometimes didn\u2019t even get the basic facts of Camping\u2019s predictions correct. Yes, the Camping story is pretty sensationalistic and easy to ridicule, regardless of your own personal belief (or lack thereof). But that\u2019s precisely why some measure of context and balance is so important: they help cut through the sensationalism and snarkiness and get at both the truth and real human heart of the matter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Talk about a teachable moment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223,"featured_media":11385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,11],"tags":[550,1038],"class_list":["post-11357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-general-culture","category-headline","tag-harold-camping","tag-rapture"],"yoast_head":"\n\n