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Rapture Hangover: Can Harold Camping Come Out To Play?
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 22, 2011
Modified May 22, 2011
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Photo: Laura Beck / SFist
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 22, 2011
Modified May 22, 2011
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Yesterday, even as frogs weren't raining from the heavens, locusts weren't swarming the subways, and earthquakes weren't sending cities crashing into the oceans, we still held out a little hope that we'd wake up to some sort of biblical fury today. Maybe just a little pestilence? Alas, the Apocalypse was a no-show yet again, leaving only sad, confused believers to be mocked in Times Square: "I don't understand why nothing is happening. It's not a mistake. I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said," said an exasperated Robert Fitzpatrick, the retired MTA worker who spent all of his money to publicize Judgment Day, at 6 p.m. in Times Square yesterday, as onlookers laughed at him. Watch a sad video of the confrontation below:
So today, many are wondering where the hell is Harold Camping, the originator of this particular Doomsday prophecy, and what excuse he has for being wrong about the Rapture for a second time. SFist contributor Laura Beck captured the above shot of the minister's Alameda home at 6:01 p.m. yesterday; according to Reuters, the curtains were drawn at Camping's house, and nobody was answering the door. Over at the Family Radio headquarters, there was a sign on the front door saying "The Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!"
The deafening silence has not been overlooked by some of his now-former followers: "I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God...[but] it’s God who leads you, not Harold Camping," said Keith Bauer, who had hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.
But maybe there were other points to Camping's second biblical folly beyond providing jokes for Twitterists...like say, a great new excuse to get out of jury duty. But leave it to Taiwanese animation masters Next Media Animations to point out what none of us could see right under our noses: never trust an alien with a bong.
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doomsday
harold camping
judgment day
next media animation
nma
oh well maybe next time
rapture
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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