Family Radio's Harold Camping who believes the world will end today, May 21, 2011.

In just a few hours, if Harold Camping of Family Radio is correct, the world will begin to end.  The “rapture,” he says, is scheduled for 6 pm today, May 21, 2011.  (Anybody know if that’s Eastern or Pacific?  I wanna catch Bridesmaids before the apocalypse.)

All jokes aside, armageddon is serious business, especially for Camping, who has gotten more press out of this rapture scam than he probably should have.  I’d like to think the only thing he’s succeeded in doing with all of this doomsday hype is drive Britney Spears’ “Dancin’ ’til the World Ends” up the charts.  But Camping has actually driven families apart, and will likely have pushed at least a few to suicide by morning.

Camping believes that today – starting at 6 pm in each time zone around the world – “there will be a great earthquake, such as has never been in the history of the Earth,” according to Kevin Brown, a follower of Camping’s in New Jersey.  For those that aren’t raptured, “It’s just the horror of horror stories,” he told NPR, “and on top of all that, there’s no more salvation at that point.  And then the Bible says it will be 153 days later that the entire universe and planet Earth will be destroyed forever.”

The New York Times published a profile of the Carson family yesterday, a family split in half by Camping’s alarmist preachings.  A family of 5, the Carsons are divided generationally about whether or not the world will end today.  The parents, Abby and Robert, believe it will, and have been travelling across the country for the last two years, encouraging people to repent and get ready for the second coming of the Lord.  The Times writes, “They stopped working on their house and saving for college” for their teens, Joseph, Faith and Grace.

I wonder if Camping is prepared to accept responsibility for the thousands of lives he will no doubt have wrecked come Sunday morning.  If the Carson family is any indication, the mental health of some of his followers is already in jeopardy.  ”My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace Haddad (Carson), 16, told the Times. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes.”

It’s likely that many of Camping’s followers tuned-in to his preaching during a time of need or despair in their lives, like 33-year-old Stacey Douglas, who says, “I was in an abusive relationship.  One day, my son was playing with the remote and Mr. Camping was on TV.  I thought, This guy is crazy.  But I kept thinking about it and something told me to go back.”

It’s unclear what motivated Kevin Brown to follow Family Radio and its teaching, but the rapture prophecy has ruined his marriage.  According to NPR, Brown has “several young children, and none of them shares his beliefs.”  Asked how he’ll feel if he is raptured and his family is left behind, he says, ”I’m crying over my loved ones one minute; I’m elated the next minute.  It’s all over the place.”

27-year-old Adrienne Martinez told NPR, “Knowing the date of the end of the world changes all your future plans.”  Ah yes, but what if that date is wrong?  (As it so clearly is.)  Adrienne is pregnant and she and her husband Joel have a 2-year-old.  Adrienne told NPR, ”We budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won’t have anything left.”

And that’s the real danger of Camping’s preaching.  What will he do for people like Adrienne and Joel Martinez who have spent all of their money spreading his ill-conceived word and now have to try to raise a baby with nothing?  What will he do to soothe the mind of Kevin Brown, who says, “If I’m here on May 22, and I wake up, I’m going to be in hell.  And that’s where I don’t want to be.  So there is going to be a May 22, and we don’t want to be here.”

Is Camping prepared to share some of the $100 million of Family Radio’s money with all of the followers he’s let down?  Is he going to take responsibility for those that simply go crazy as a result of not being raptured?  Or is he going to say their suffering is all part of God’s plan, part of the “fiery test?”  For those non-believers that are living with Camping’s followers, rapture or no, it’s as if they’ve already been left behind.  Who will take care of them?

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