Preachers Line Up Against May 21 Leader

Talk about defending the brand: Christian writers are coming down on Harold Camping with the fervor of Disney lawyers quashing a Mickey Mouse painting at a daycare center.

Camping is the self-taught biblical scholar and radio mogul who says the Rapture is happening on Saturday, May 21, at exactly 6 p.m. local time, whatever your local time is. He’s been delivering this prediction for several years, a recalibration from his earlier prediction that the Rapture would happen in 1994. 

He’s been spreading the word via the 66 stations in his Family Radio Network, on his website www.familynetwork.com, and through billboards in several major cities. His prediction is based on some tangled algebra that sets numerical values for concepts such as "atonement" and "completeness," assumes that Jesus was crucified on April 1, 33 AD, and figures that these numbers actually represent something of importance.

Camping has also declared that every church in the world is false. One might expect that mainstream Christians would either dismiss Camping or ignore him. One would be wrong.

From seminaries, pulpits and personal websites, the condemnation of Camping’s prediction is almost universal. Why are they bothering?

“There is some branding differentiation going on, in that traditional Christians would not want to be lumped in with Camping,” said Mara Einstein a media studies professor at Queens University and the author of "Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age."

“You might compare this to most Muslims not wanting to be associated with the 9/11 hijackers — an extreme case, for sure, but in the same vein,” she said. “Another example you might use is the Susan G. Komen [Foundation] going after anyone that uses the term 'for the cure'" when discussing breast cancer.

While the reactions to Camping are accumulating as the predicted date draws nigh, the rebuttals started years ago. The website for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals has a point-by-point response written in 2004 by a pastor and a philosophy professor.

"We had people writing the organization asking for a thorough evaluation of Camping's thought and, being the organization we were, we felt that we ought to provide it,” said Mark Talbot, a philosophy professor at Wheaton College.

The theological equivalent of brand confusion was a factor in choosing to respond, he said. “His exegesis somewhat took the form of better exegesis, if someone didn't know enough to see the differences."

May 21st Doomsday: Does Harold Camping’s Ministry Have Money

 
May 21^st, Doomsday is one of the hottest search topics in Google.
So in case you haven't heard by now, Harold Camping is the preacher who claims to have the calculations set on May 21, 2011 as The Judgment Day, Rapture Day, Doomstay  -or whatever you want to call it. Camping's apocalypse hype is getting worldwide attention.

Harold Camping, 89, is a former civil engineer and Bible scholar. He is president of the religious non-profit Family Radio based in Oakland, California which fervently preaches the message about the end of the world, now days away. He and a caravan of trucks have been plastering over 5,000 billboards, spending millions of dollars to spread the message.
So, where do they get the funding for all this?
Tax returns indicate that the radio ministry raised a staggering $100 million dollars over the past seven years. The ministry also owns 66 radio stations worldwide valued at $72 million in 2009.
Not to mention donations have soared as well. The contribution comes from radio listeners, according to Tom Evans, board member of Family Radio.

However, Camping claims that it is not about the money, but spreading the message and saving as many people as possible.
"When Judgment Day comes, if someone is a billionaire, how will they take their money with them? If we have any money left, and we will because we have to pay bills up to the very end "... it will all be destroyed because the world will be in a day of judgment.
"The money is not important at all. It's a vehicle to spread the judgment and a vehicle of the Lord."
According to Camping, "I've never taken one nickel out of Family Radio. Many evangelists have become very rich, but my wife and I live very modestly."
"We have no interest in talking about money. We never tell people what to do with their money, that's between them and God."
And in case one might wonder, Family Radio has no intention of giving away their money before May 21.
The explanation?
"There isn't going to be a Saturday. So certainly none of Family Radio's assets will be left because it won't matter," says Evans.
"The last thing people should be concerned with is what Family Radio is doing or what their assets are. They should be concerned with what I am doing and how I will stand before God."