Our own Padre Mickey, Father Michael Dresbach, down in Panama comments on the people who got really left behind on May 21st. He reminds us that a lot of people invested literally all they had into this and are really suffering now. He speaks from experience.
When I was a child my parents belonged to the Assemblies of God church. When they were missionaries on Okinawa I went to a school which was run by evangelical, fundamentalist Christians, so I've been around this rapture stuff all my life. As a child I was always scared that I would be left behind when the Rapture took place. I was very relieved when, as a young adult, I did some research and discovered that the idea of a Rapture of the Saints was not a teaching of the ancient church but a nineteenth century invention. The return of Christ is the hope of the Church, but this Meet-Jesus-In-The-Sky-While-All-The-People-Who-Disagree-With-Me-Suffer-Terrible-Plagues-Oh!-Won't-THEY-Be-Sorry! stuff is something I left behind many years ago. I believe in living my life as if Jesus will return at any moment, but I don't spend any time worrying about it anymore.
I've had a lot of fun this week and especially yesterday and today mocking this belief system and I believe it deserves to be mocked, but now it's after 6:00 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time and nothing predicted by Harold Camping has taken place, just like the last time he made such predictions. However, last time the only people really aware of his heresy were those in the San Francisco Bay Area; this time, thanks to the innertoobes, his claims have spread around the world and many people have given up everything to spread the word. They've left their jobs, they've stopped saving for their children's education, and they've given their life savings to Family Radio to spread the word. I'm expecting a lot of people around the world who have been crushed, spiritually.
So, as my friends James Holloway and El Profesor Jay Johnson have pointed out, we are going to be dealing with a lot of people whose faith has been severely damaged. I believe we need to be there for them, we need to help them through their disappointment and the destruction of their trust (that's how I define "faith"). They were sincere, yet misled, and they have been spiritually abused, in a way. I spent some three years in a cult and I can understand their pain in realizing that all they believed was a crock. It takes a while to recover from such spiritual betrayal. We are also going to have to deal with Harold Camping. Will he be humbled by this experience and finally decide to quit treating the Bible like some cryptic puzzle he could only decipher with the right formula, or will he realize the error of his ways, apologize and perform retribution to those he led astray and STFU from now on? I must say that, from observing Brother Camping's past behavior, he's gonna figure that there was some mistake in his calculations and STILL work on figuring out when Jesus will return in the sky and kill everyone Brother Camping disagrees with. As extremely difficult as it will be, we will also have to treat Brother Camping in a loving manner. If we take this Christian stuff seriously, we have to do a lot of stuff we don't like. I'm actually hoping that this will be another nail in the coffin of Fundamentalist Christianity, but, since it is so much a part of the nationalism of the U.S.A., it may not make any difference in their belief that God created 'Murica.
Many years ago I helped administer a password protected website for people leaving Divine Light Mission/Elan Vital/The Prem Rawat Foundation, a psuedo-Hindu cult, providing a safe place for them to work through their issues. It wasn't as safe as we thought, but I believe many people were able to work through much of their spiritual betrayal. Perhaps we, the Christians who don't accept nineteenth century Christian innovations, can help these folks in such a place. I would be interested in hearing from anyone so inclined.
This is a sad situation, but also an opportunity for evangelization amongst The Churched, and opportunity to expose them to the more traditional and ancient traditions and beliefs of the Christian faith. I'm wondering how we will all deal with this situation. ¡Maranatha!
Rembrandt, the "Hundred Guilder Print" illustrating the entire 19th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, an image of Christ in solidarity with the suffering, the innocent, and the sinful.
Rembrandt, the "Hundred Guilder Print" illustrating the entire 19th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, an image of Christ in solidarity with the suffering, the innocent, and the sinful.
A week ago I received an unsigned, handwritten message that can only have been written by one of our neighbors, advising us of the Rapture. He spent Friday repairing his fence. I'll have to ask him tomorrow or Monday, whenever I catch him outside, if he was the author, and to the state of his faith.
ReplyDeleteI wish there were a place where people whose faith was destroyed by this fraud could congregate and be told how much God loves them. Oh, wait, that might be a mainstream church congregation. How is it, so many people have been left out of our sight?
@Pfalz
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the neighbour really believed in the Rapture, why would he bother repairing his fence?
There's a LOT of hypocrites in the churches out there. You just know they'll be coming out with excuses and other BS to justify the millions in life savings, college educations and homes given up that people have spent on the Rapture.
These "leaders" need to be held accountable for suckering so many people this way.