If I believed in God I would pray for Harold Camping to be sent straight to hell. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Or in Camping’s case do not collect the millions of dollars taken in on his run up to the Rapture. His Family Radio organization filled a 2009 tax return with $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks. Apparently threatening to end the world is extremely good for business. He’s done it twice.
While I poke fun of people naïve enough to fall for the Rapture hype; far worse are the evangelical preachers like Camping who exploit their followers in the name of God. Unfortunately, religion, by its very nature, creates the power imbalance that leads to exploitation, whether financial, sexual or politically.
The true believer gives power to the God of their choice; sadly God comes with an entourage. The handlers interpret God’s word, set the goals and determine the pay scale. The believers always foot the bill. No business model makes more money with less overhead than savings souls. And there are always more souls to save. Camping’s followers believed they were helping save people from hell by donating money to his Rapture, an event that didn’t take place, and conveniently, doesn’t come with a money back guarantee.
Recently I watched the 1972 docomentary Marjoe, which follows former child preacher Marjoe Gortner on his last revivival circuit tour. Marjoe was a child preacher who raked in millions in donations that went into his parent pockets. As an adult, he colludes with the film makers to reveal how revivals work and how preachers use melodrama, theatre, sentimentality and good old fashion lying to rake in thousands a night, usually from people who can least afford to donate.
Marjoe, a confessed non-believer, exploses exactly how religious fraud works: by selling people false hope and reinforcing the beliefs they have; always with a call for donations to continue the Lord’s work. We see him and the other preachers counting buckets of cash each night, a sweaty Rapturous glow on their faces. Yet when the movie came out -and even now on websites- Christians claimed Marjoe was an insincere conman, not like their churchs. They swear on a Bible that their own preacher is sincere, that their religion is not exploitive, that their donations are going to good works. Their passionate denial (and random Bible quotes) are a testimony not just to their faith, but their inability to admit that maybe their religion is just as exploitive as Harold Camping or Marjoe.
In the weeks to come Harold Camping will talk his way out of his failed Rapture prediction. Maybe his math was off (again). Maybe God took pity on his people as he watched them give away their money or dison their heathen relatives. Or perhaps God was only testing his followers, like a fire drill for our souls. One thing we do know there will always be other Harold Camping and there will always be true believers willing to do anything to save their soul, even if it means denying all common sense. There is a reason is it called “blind faith”.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
I’m Enjoying the End-Times Fever
According to the website the Rapture will occur today at 6 pm, local time. Yes, it said local time. Why should those snobby Euro-Christians get raptured first? Everyone knows America has the best born-agains. USA! USA! According to Rapture “expert” Harold Camping about 200 million people will be raised up to Heaven, leaving 7.8 billion of us to be punished by God. Vengeance is mine, sayeth Lord.
Those of us who are rational struggle to understand the End-Times Fever. Why do so many believe in the Rapture? Obviously, there are a lot of sad little people in the world. And by sad I don’t just mean stupid but unhappy. People whose lives are so miserable they cannot wait for it to end. And what could be more appealing to the poor, the downtrodden or the just plain dumb than instant heaven? Why struggle with a job, a mortgage, car repairs and kids, when you can go to your eternal reward today?
Other Rapturists are simply full of hate. They hate secular society because it doesn’t fit into the tiny Christian shoebox where they live. These people are happy to sit at the right hand of the Lord, but even more delighted to watch their enemies get tortured by Satan, at the bequest of their all loving Father. And their enemies are legion: gays, abortionists, sexual active women, blacks, Jews, liberals, Hollywood, Obama – you name it and they can tell you why that group deserves to burn in hell. And they can tell you when – after 6 pm today.
Conspiracy theorists love to feel important. And the Rapture is the mother of all conspiracies: a special few who know the truth about hidden powers, evil plans, and events only they can understand. And most importantly secrets. Rapturists have secret and you don’t. They want to tell you the secret but if you don’t believe them, it’s because you are too blind to see, or you’ve been duped by Satan or Obama, who many Rapturists feel are the same person.
Think how special the Rapture crowd feels. Out of the billions on the planet, they are the chosen ones. “God loves everyone”, but a Rapturist knows “he loves me more than you.” How reassuring to be that special. Moderate Christians dismiss the extremist Rapture crowd for not being loving and Christ like. But Jesus himself really set the tone here. After all if you claim to be the Son of God and tell the world they have to believe in you to get to Heaven, then don’t be surprised when your followers become arrogant. Christians can sugar coat their beliefs with that “gosh I’m just trying to be a good person” rhetoric, but bottom line they know that they are the Chosen Ones because the Bible, the Pope, their parents or voices in their head tell them it is so.
“How silly,” main stream Christians say, “to believe that Jesus will literally come down and take people away.” Is it any less absurd to think Jesus died and after three days rose from the grave? That he had special powers to raise the dead, cure blindness and turn water into wine? But, Christians protest, Jesus was the son of God and God can do anything. Except, I guess, vacuum 200 million believers into the sky at 6 pm today. Apparently that’s just too much to believe even for most believers.
The amazing thing about religion is not the moral code, the sense of community, or the will to do good. No, the true miracle of religious belief is that people want to believe so badly that they filter reality through a sieve, only keeping what fits, and rationalizing the rest. As a non-believer, I’m not waiting for Heaven, not at 6 pm today nor the end of my life, but at 6:05 I look forward to hear the believers explain why God changed his mind.
Those of us who are rational struggle to understand the End-Times Fever. Why do so many believe in the Rapture? Obviously, there are a lot of sad little people in the world. And by sad I don’t just mean stupid but unhappy. People whose lives are so miserable they cannot wait for it to end. And what could be more appealing to the poor, the downtrodden or the just plain dumb than instant heaven? Why struggle with a job, a mortgage, car repairs and kids, when you can go to your eternal reward today?
Other Rapturists are simply full of hate. They hate secular society because it doesn’t fit into the tiny Christian shoebox where they live. These people are happy to sit at the right hand of the Lord, but even more delighted to watch their enemies get tortured by Satan, at the bequest of their all loving Father. And their enemies are legion: gays, abortionists, sexual active women, blacks, Jews, liberals, Hollywood, Obama – you name it and they can tell you why that group deserves to burn in hell. And they can tell you when – after 6 pm today.
Conspiracy theorists love to feel important. And the Rapture is the mother of all conspiracies: a special few who know the truth about hidden powers, evil plans, and events only they can understand. And most importantly secrets. Rapturists have secret and you don’t. They want to tell you the secret but if you don’t believe them, it’s because you are too blind to see, or you’ve been duped by Satan or Obama, who many Rapturists feel are the same person.
Think how special the Rapture crowd feels. Out of the billions on the planet, they are the chosen ones. “God loves everyone”, but a Rapturist knows “he loves me more than you.” How reassuring to be that special. Moderate Christians dismiss the extremist Rapture crowd for not being loving and Christ like. But Jesus himself really set the tone here. After all if you claim to be the Son of God and tell the world they have to believe in you to get to Heaven, then don’t be surprised when your followers become arrogant. Christians can sugar coat their beliefs with that “gosh I’m just trying to be a good person” rhetoric, but bottom line they know that they are the Chosen Ones because the Bible, the Pope, their parents or voices in their head tell them it is so.
“How silly,” main stream Christians say, “to believe that Jesus will literally come down and take people away.” Is it any less absurd to think Jesus died and after three days rose from the grave? That he had special powers to raise the dead, cure blindness and turn water into wine? But, Christians protest, Jesus was the son of God and God can do anything. Except, I guess, vacuum 200 million believers into the sky at 6 pm today. Apparently that’s just too much to believe even for most believers.
The amazing thing about religion is not the moral code, the sense of community, or the will to do good. No, the true miracle of religious belief is that people want to believe so badly that they filter reality through a sieve, only keeping what fits, and rationalizing the rest. As a non-believer, I’m not waiting for Heaven, not at 6 pm today nor the end of my life, but at 6:05 I look forward to hear the believers explain why God changed his mind.
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