Evangelist Harold Camping seems to have gone into hiding. Camping, head of the Oakland-based Family Radio Christian broadcast company, has of course just had his dreams thwarted. When Camping made a prediction that the rapture would occur on May 21, 2011, and that approximately 200 million people would be whisked by Jesus into heaven, he surely counted himself among that number. But how could he? He’s been seen in more than one picture wearing clothes made of mixed fibers (an act expressly condemned by Leviticus as an ‘abomination’”).
One of the many factors that Camping used to predict the event that would never come was his overt detestation of homosexuality. Using gross pseudo-intellectual misinterpretations of the Bible, he cited the gay pride movement as a sign of the impending apocalypse. Meanwhile, CA based gay actor George Takei is promoting acceptance, making YouTube videos, and taking names. Gay pride one, Christian cults zero.
When religion gets involved in social issues, bad things happen. Fred Phelps and his gay-hating cult protested in San Jose just earlier this year. They, like Camping, were faced with native resistance that chose love, acceptance, facts and rationality over hatred, fairytales, unfulfilled prophecies, and stupidity as a virtue.
This, among others, is a reason why the recent non-rapture is being celebrated. Every time that Christians make themselves look bad, more people are willing to take a look at what is now a mainstream movement of intelligence and acceptance. While the Bible is still a very popular text, we have more and more people discarding its ideas of hatred toward fellow man. This is what makes the yearly San Jose pride parade possible.
The Bay Area has rid itself, at least temporarily, of yet another vitriol-spewing extremist, and is left in his wake with hundreds of highly disoriented followers. Good luck, San Jose. And may your billboards be eternally filled with whatever it is that does not involve the rapture.
