"It is all my fault."
After the catastrophic miscalculation of Pickett’s Charge led to the slaughter of his soldiers and the loss of the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee met the bloody survivors returning from the field of fire, telling them, one by one, “It is all my fault!” To Pickett, whose division was all but wiped out, he said, “Upon my shoulders rests the blame.”
I am no admirer of Robert E. Lee, but this was his finest moment as a leader, and an example for all leaders who are followed in faith and meet disappointment or worse. I wrote two days ago that Harold Camping, the evangelical broadcaster who proclaimed with absolute, 100% certainty that his calculations foretelling the end of the world on May 21 were correct, had better be prepared to be held accountable when we were all still here on May 22. He wasn’t. From Reuters:
” With no sign of Judgment Day arriving as he had forecast, the 89-year-old California evangelical broadcaster and former civil engineer behind the pronouncement seemed to have gone silent on Saturday. Family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was playing recorded church music, devotionals and life advice unrelated to the apocalypse.”
By mid-day, it was already May 22 across the International Date Line, and there was no word from the man whose promise had led some rash believers to abandon their earthly goods and quit their jobs to await the coming Rapture. It was as if General Lee, watching his army get cut to pieces by Union artillery, suddenly remembered that he had an appointment in Richmond to re-arrange his sock drawer.
The last time Camping predicted the End of Days, in 1994, he explained that he had “miscalculated.” That wasn’t good enough either. There are situations when the consequences of being wrong are so momentous that making a mistake is not acceptable, excusable or forgivable, and it is the ethical duty of a leader to accept full responsibility for negligence and incompetence. Lee had much the harder job in 1863, for blood was on his hands. Thousands of his followers had died believing in Lee’s military genius when he ordered a frontal attack, up-hill and in an open field, against a secure enemy position, defying all conventional military wisdom and the advice of his subordinates. Still, predicting the end of the world when many people trust you, then being complete wrong and looking like a fool while making one’s followers—and to many, one’s religious faith—look foolish as well is a significant blunder that calls for immediate apologies and expressions of regret.
Camping was cowardly. He ducked his Robert E. Lee moment. His failure to make a statement of accountability by now cannot be excused, and is proof that he is ethically unworthy of trust, belief, or leadership.
Ethics Alarms 
But Jack, have you considered the possibility that he isn’t with us any more, leaving just us sinners behind?
I did, and I nearly included that speculation. I’ll publish an immediate retraction if that’s the case.
Well, now we know.
I am curious if any of the “believers” gave their entire life savings, etc. to Camping’s Church, to help those who might, somehow, be left behind. Did he profit by this? I don’t think we will hear from Camping for a while.
If he was the only person to be “lifted” maybe he is receiving a tongue lashing right now for pride.
Some followers made the decisions to sell/give their possessions away, quit jobs, sell their houses waiting for the Rapture; but, I can’t help feeling sorry for them. Maybe pity is the word. My thoughts and concerns are for their children?
At the very least, should not the rapture have included all unborn babies, resulting in mass spontaneous miscarriages with no trace of the fetus?
You’re a very sick man.
Sick? I think you meant accurate. Well, unless fetuses aren’t babies yet…
Under rapture theology, unborn are without sin, so…
Have some sympathy for the damned.
Well… unborn children ARE people. They’re also about as innocent as it gets. So, if the Rapture had occurred, they logically WOULD have been elevated. Not aborted, by the way. That’s a pretty sick way of characterizing an immaculate miracle.
Of course, none of thast happened. Nor did any responsible Christian leader think it would. Camping was just a modern day version of the “backwoods preacher” who had more zeal than common sense. It should be further pointed out that this sort of thing likewise extends to the secular realm!
So, you’re saying the fetuses would rip through their mother’s stomachs?
If you believe rapture will occur sometime, you’re religious. If you believe you know when it will occur, you’re crazy. There’s something wrong with that.
Frankly, TGT, that was an idiotic post. Try to keep your fanaticism in check a little, huh?
What was idiotic? The part where I note that the rapture seems pretty brutal, or the part where I point out the inconsistency in determining what is crazy?
You might consider refraining from commenting on things that you either have no knowledge of or hate so bitterly that you can’t evaluate to make a relevant remark. Have a nice day.
Ad hominem. Appeal to special authority. What wrong with either of my statements?
If a fetus is ascending and the prospective mother isn’t, what happens?
Sorry, that was more poisoning the well than ad hominem.
“Poisoning the well” is what you do most often, TGT. Again… idiotic comment. Good God!
Warning people that you often argue in bad faith (with evidence) is not the same as poisoning the well.
Warning. Warning. Evil conservative dude who dumps on my allegations.
That’s not at all what the warning says or implies. If someone argued for liberal/libertarian positions as often and as badly as you argue for conservative religious positions, I’d warn about them, too. It hasn’t happened yet.
For someone who “argues so badly”, I certainly seem to have your ear.
I don’t like misinformation.
Even with the boilerplate response, when I see an invalid argument, I still normally respond to point out the problems with it.
Maybe a little self-evaluation might be in order.
If you have evidence that I’m using invalid arguments, please tell me so I can correct it.
By it, i mean my arguments.
By that, I mean ethically. You accused me of using invalid arguments in a blanket statement. I suggested that you might first re-evaluate your own arguments… with the strong hint that hypocrisy might be a factor that you hadn’t noted.
I accused you of using invalid arguments in many specific statements. I then used a blanket statement to reference those many specific statements.
You are making a general statement that some of my arguments are invalid. I am respectfully requesting that you tell me which arguments these are so I can make amends in the specific locations of these arguments and so I can avoid such invalid arguments in the future.
Whenever I catch you in an unguarded moment of fanaticism, you retreat under the same verbal smokescreen!