Harold Camping thinks the time of the church has long ended. According to him churches are not only outmoded but evil and all those who lead them are also of the devil. He thinks that religion has no purpose and the fellowship and community and faith that is created and in our churches is all wasted energy and has nothing to do with our salvation. He is a man who thinks the same of the world. It has lost its meaning and is not long for this universe. I think it is next spring when the end will come, he claims. If there were not so many people listening to him I would easily dismiss him as a foolish and embittered old man who has grown tired of this life. However, he has an enormous following. The danger in this is that the bile that he is spreading is infecting us with fear.
The truth is that there is nothing to fear. Come next May when he tells us the end will finally come for this poor world, on the day after we will all still be here. There will still be a future. There is one thing that every doomsday prophet that has come our way has in common with every other doomsday prophet they have all been wrong. We are still here …..world with out end amen. It doesn’t matter who they were or how compelling (from Sabbatai Sevi to Harold Miller to Hal Linsey) they have all been wrong. And so will Harold Camping….even if you believe that the end will come sometime you would be hard pressed to find much sanity or logic in the calculations he has made. As a psychoanalyst I work with many people who are classified as psychotic (not in touch with reality is the short hand definition) and Harold Camping could easily qualify.
The questions is why then do so many believe that he has something to say? Why are there so many who believe that the end is near? It isn’t just the Family Radio crowd Christian and non-Christians have taken up the cause that seems to be all about frightening all of us out of our wits. We must like to feel frightened. There can be no other explanation for the popularity of the “Left Behind” series. We may like fear but I wonder if it does us any good. Times like this do not need another overlay of fear.
Faith for me is not about figuring out when the end is coming. It is not concocting ways to increase fear in our lives. It isn’t about the dark desperation that seems to hide in every soul. It is rather about feeling and finding the fullness of life. I don’t want some dour old man putting a damper on my celebration. Yes, all of us face trouble. All of us find ourselves in fear. All of us will despair at one time or another. Even Jesus did so. The more important truth though, is that faith in God gets us through. Faith in God gets us through in a way that redeems even our darkest moments into love or hope or wisdom. All of life can then somehow be affirmed as good. It is a miracle as great as the resurrection.
God put us here to love one another and love our God and drink deeply from this life. I choose that more than cowering in fear. Fear does no one any good and it is a complete lie anyway.
Which do you choose?
I have been reading all I can on this impending doomsday and I find your comments to be soothing and grounded in intellect and spirituality. You are right, I think, we follow fear and it somehow relives our own demons and dragons…