BENTONVILLE — This might be my last column. That’s because we’re now just five days away from the end of the world as we know it.
Five days, that is, if you believe Harold Camping. He’s a talk-radio personality and president of Family Stations, Inc., which operates 66 Christian radio stations in the United States. Camping has been saying for quite some time that May 21 is Judgment Day. (Before this he had pegged 1994 as the year doomsday would occur, but never mind that.)
Don’t believe it? See for yourself at www.familyradio.com, where you’ll find a countdown to the big day. Think of it as New Year’s Eve, except that the excitement goes beyond just a ball dropping in Times Square.
Look on the bright side. Maybe you don’t have to worry about finding a gift for your Aunt Mildred’s birthday next month, after all. And you might as well blow off that dentist appointment you had scheduled this week.
According to Camping, there will be a great earthquake this Saturday that will throw open all graves and instantly transform the remains of the believers into “glorified spiritual bodies” to be with God.
“On the other hand the bodies of all unsaved people will be thrown out upon the ground to be shamed,” the Family Radio website states.
Anyone who survives the earthquake will live “in a world of horror and chaos beyond description” until Oct. 21, when God will put an end to our planet once and for all, the website states.
Camping reportedly arrived at this prediction after spending thousands of hours studying and analyzing the Bible.
End-of-the-world theories have been around since, well, the beginning of the world. But Camping is not just some guy standing on a street corner wearing a sandwich board; his company has invested massive amounts of money into billboards and recreational vehicles to spread the word.
One billboard reads, “Judgment Day May 21 … Cry mightily unto God.” The recreational vehicles sport the message: “Have you heard the awesome news? The end of the world is almost here!”
I suppose we are all entitled to our own definitions of “awesome.” For me, “awesome” is a jumbo hot fudge sundae with extra whipped cream, or catching a foul ball at a baseball game. The end of the world? Not so much.
Somehow Camping has managed to convince a legion of followers that he is correct. Many have quit their jobs to tour the country spreading Camping’s message. That’s dedication to a cause. If I were so convinced that the end of the world were near, I wouldn’t be wasting time telling others about it; call me selfish, but I’d probably be lying in a hammock on an island in the Caribbean right now with a tall drink in my hand, waiting for the world to die. With my family at my side, of course.
In case it’s not clear by now, I am skeptical of Camping’s prediction. I am not the biblical scholar that he claims to be, but I don’t see the end coming this week. I’m just not feeling it.
Maybe it’s Judgment Day fatigue. Much has been said about 2012 being the year of the apocalypse, a date linked to the ancient Mayan calendar. You might recall that Hollywood produced a movie based on that premise.
Now Camping is trying to convince us that we won’t even make it to 2012.
It seems like just yesterday that we were all worked up about Y2K and the disasters that would befall us once we had finished partying like it was 1999.
Admittedly, 2011 has been a weird year — at least in the Acts of God Department. In Arkansas alone, we’ve seen earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and major snowstorms. And the year’s not even half over. I suppose you could argue that we’re building up to some kind of cataclysmic event.
Still, God wouldn’t unleash holy terror this week, would he? I’d think he would at least want to wait to see how the NBA playoffs turn out.
What will Camping and his followers say if Saturday comes and goes without a Rapture? One wonders whether Camping is really rooting for his prediction to come true so that he won’t have to answer the inevitable questions if it doesn’t.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I’d recommend that you all keep your jobs — just in case there’s another Monday.
DAVE PEROZEK IS AN EDITORIAL WRITER FOR THE BENTON COUNTY DAILY RECORD.