Rapture Believers React to Still Being Here

Confusion, acceptance from those who thought world would end
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2011 9:29 AM CDT
Rapture Believers React to Still Being Here
Members of the Calvary Bible Church appear at the closed Family Radio station offices of Harold Camping in Oakland, Calif. on May 21, 2011, to offer support to victims of the radio evangelist.   (AP Photo/Dino Vournas, File)

So, how do rapture believers feel today, considering the fact that they’re still firmly on earth? A sampling of reactions from the Huffington Post, Reuters, the AP, and the Los Angeles Times:

  • John Ramsey, 25, quit his job, donated thousands of dollars to Camping’s Family Radio, and took to the streets of Manhattan with his family to spread word of the coming end of days. Now, he and his mother must find new jobs and his 19-year-old brother, who quit high school, might re-enroll. The good news is, Ramsey’s wife will get to have her baby. “Life goes on,” he says. “I get to be a dad.”
  • Peter Lombardi, 44, who took an “indefinite break” from his job last year, acknowledges that perhaps “no man knows the day or the hour” the world will end. He spent yesterday peeling Judgment Day stickers off his minivan, but says he’s “not disappointed.” He does want an explanation from Camping, to whom he donated money: “I don’t think they were scamming me, but I am definitely waiting to see what they say … on the radio show.”

  • Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent much of his life savings on advertisements for the rapture, stood in Times Square at 6pm and simply said, “I do not understand why … I do not understand why nothing has happened.” He added, "I can't tell you what I feel right now. Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."
  • Keith Bauer, 38, loaded his family into his SUV and drove from Maryland to California to await the end of days. Though he “had some skepticism,” he says he truly wanted to believe, since he figured “heaven would be a lot better than this earth.” Even so, he says he’s not upset with Camping. “Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country. If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me."
Click for one more sad story of a Long Island firefighter who ordered pizza with a New York reporter Saturday, even though he wasn’t sure he’d have time to eat it. (More Harold Camping stories.)

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