This is the complete text of the Letter To The Editor I wrote today… I doubt it will be good enough for print but I thought I’d put it online for your viewing pleasure!!
I am writing because as a Christian, an ordained minister and a generally sensible human being I was bewildered and dismayed by the furor raised over statements made by a relatively unknown and unwelcome minister from the USA.
Why bewildered? Who is Harold Camping that anyone should value what he said? I only know of Harold Camping because of his previous Rapture claims and because of my association with a minister/counselor who spent a lot of time and effort counseling and healing lives that this man’s nonsense had destroyed. The sheer amount of human wreckage that this man has made in Jesus’ name should be enough to have him chased from any pulpit on this planet.
Why dismayed? Because in much of the reporting I read & watched this was hailed as a “Christian” event. Lumping Christians together with these people is like lumping all Muslims in with Terrorists. The media makes a great effort to separate the worst of the Muslim faith from its best and I was disappointed by how many media organizations chose not to do the same for Christians at this time.
Harold Camping and others like Fred Phelps and the ilk of the Westboro Baptist “church” only exist because people pay attention to them. Giving them time to speak their blasphemous and offensive diatribes only gives them strength and coming up with clever protests (like making donations in their names to ministries they hate) only fuels those fires. These are that special breed of person upon whom reverse psychology has no effect because they cannot grasp it. They will never learn the error of their ways and your attention only strengthens their resolve – like a child who thrives on negative attention and so continues to act out.
Proof positive of this: Harold was back in the media Monday announcing that it was his math that was off and the end is coming in October of this year. I got news for you Harold something about you is indeed horribly off base and has been for a long time – but it’s not your math.
