This story is not written with serious intent, though its tone is serious. Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending:
The Haddad children of Middletown, Md., have a lot on their minds: school projects, SATs, weekend parties. And parents who believe the earth will begin to self-destruct on Saturday.
The three teenagers have been struggling to make sense of their shifting world, which started changing nearly two years ago when their mother, Abby Haddad Carson, left her job as a nurse to “sound the trumpet” on mission trips with her husband, Robert, handing out tracts. They stopped working on their house and saving for college.
Last weekend, the family traveled to New York, the parents dragging their reluctant children through a Manhattan street fair in a final effort to spread the word.
“My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace Haddad, 16, said. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes.”
Thousands of people around the country have spent the last few days taking to the streets and saying final goodbyes before Saturday, Judgment Day, when they expect to be absorbed into heaven in a process known as the rapture. Nonbelievers, they hold, will be left behind to perish along with the world over the next five months.
With their doomsday T-shirts, placards and leaflets, followers — often clutching Bibles — are typically viewed as harmless proselytizers from outside mainstream religion. But their convictions have frequently created the most tension within their own families, particularly with relatives whose main concern about the weekend is whether it will rain.
Kino Douglas, 31, a self-described agnostic, said it was hard to be with his sister Stacey, 33, who “doesn’t want to talk about anything else.”
“I’ll say, ‘Oh, what are we going to do this summer?’ She’s going to say, ‘The world is going to end on May 21, so I don’t know why you’re planning for summer,’ and then everyone goes, ‘Oh, boy,’ ” he said.
The reporter “tells it straight,” as if these idiocrats aren’t just making fools of themselves. As it is, people will read the article, look up their address or phone number, and call these morons to laugh at them Monday morning. This should be in a tabloid.
It was funny until I read: “‘My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,’ Grace Haddad, 16, said.”
I spit on these parents.
Boy, I sure hope we don’t wind up with egg on our face on 22 May! Well, at least we’ll get another five months.
What’ll probably happen is that the Big Poobah will announce that Christ has postponed his doom to give the world ONE MORE CHANCE!! It happened in the 19th Century a time or two.
It may sound weird but for some reason whenever I ask one of these people for some of their money or possessions (which they presumably won’t need after the rapture) they are oddly resistant.
I am a little surprized that the secularist press doesn’t do more reportage about the extent that apocalyptic beliefs influence voting on issues like environmentalism, energy security, and Middle East foreign policy.
Do believers in an imminent apocalypse even bother to vote? What would be the point if you believe the end is nigh? And why would you care? A vote wouldn’t stave off the apocalypse.
I think John Kovalic has the right approach: http://www.dorktower.com/images/comics/DorkTower951.gif
“I am a little surprized that the secularist press doesn’t do more reportage about the extent that apocalyptic beliefs influence voting on issues like environmentalism, energy security, and Middle East foreign policy.”
Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your characterization of the press as “secularist.” I see our media pandering to nonsensical religious beliefs all the time.
I only wish the media reported more on the danger to the republic of placing power in the hands of people who think the world ending violently is a GOOD THING.
“Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your characterization of the press as “secularist.” I see our media pandering to nonsensical religious beliefs all the time.”
What about here–Sarah Palin was an active Pentecostal freak until she saw it as a political liability. Yet many here would vote for her without a second thought.
Remember the parable of the mote and beam, my friend!
This is the big joke of the moment. But ask yourself, how many Christians do you know who seriously believe this crap. I know a lot of Christians, even some Fundamentalists, and they consider this a joke.
Just saying.