It is possible to draw comparisons between this scenario and the way Amway leaders encourage success and money.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog thelookout/20110523/ts yblog thelookout/doomsday-prophet-followers-flabbergasted-world-didnt-end
However, while it's difficult to feel sorry for someone who has caused so much anxiety with his or her apocalyptic prophecies, 89-year-old Harold Camping's latest revelation that he is "flabbergasted" that the world did not end last weekend comes across as quite sad.
The first time Camping emerged from his Alameda, California house to speak with a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle was on Sunday. "It's been a pretty terrible weekend," he remarked after talking to the reporter. The president stated that he was seeking answers and that he had nothing else to say at this time. He added that he will make an official statement later today.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Camping's public relations assistant, Tom Evans, stated that the group is "disappointed" that 200 million true believers were not lifted up to heaven on Saturday, while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine ravaged the Earth. Despite the fact that Evans and his family were "very upset," Evans maintained that "the word of God remains true." "It's clear that we went too far, and that's something we should take away from this." The group put up 2,000 billboards around the country warning people about the rapture, and Camping, an uncertified fundamentalist minister, spread the news on his radio show to further propagate the message.
Camping's Family Radio, which broadcasts on 66 radio stations across the United States, appears to have changed itself quite rapidly. According to Business Insider, the station's website has been purged of all references to the Day of Judgment. Before the rapture took place on May 21, the site's homepage showed a countdown clock to the event.
The incorrect prediction, on the other hand, may not be as readily erased from the memories of Camping's followers. A 38-year-old tractor trailer driver named Keith Bauer planned a road trip with his family to see the Grand Canyon before the world ended, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.
In the words of the newspaper, "with maxed-out credit cards and an ever-growing stack of bills, he claimed, the rapture would have been a relief."
Bauer, on the other hand, is not enraged by Camping's incorrect prediction. It was reported that he had said, "The worst-case scenario for me was that I got to visit the country." "If there is anyone I should be enraged at, it should be myself."
In New York, Robert Fitzpatrick, who had spent $140,000 of his life savings to publicise the rapture, claimed he was taken aback when everything returned back to normal on Saturday. (This is similar to persons who are CORE yet do not achieve success in Amway.)
Reuters interviewed him as he waited for the event in Times Square. "I don't see why...," he told the news agency. "I'm perplexed as to why nothing has happened thus far."
On Sunday, a reporter from National Public Radio spoke with two Camping devotees. "One man, his voice quavering, expressed his continued optimism that they will be able to go away one day. Another believer said that their prayers were answered: God postponed judgement so that more people may be saved, but the end is 'imminent,' according to him "She shared her findings.
As Camping's press secretary told NPR, he believes Family Radio will reimburse followers who have spent their savings in anticipation of the rapture, but that it is impossible to guarantee.
Protesters gathered outside Camping's radio station headquarters over the weekend to mock the bogus prophecy that was made. Some of them hoisted a toy cow with balloons in the air to mock the notion that only a small group of people would ascend to paradise. In the meantime, other religious organisations attempted to recruit disillusioned Camping devotees.
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