A Time Not To Mock

Ok, so we've had our laughs at the expense of these people, but as Sunday 22nd May dawns we must remember that there are a lot of genuine, kindly, and bewildered people now in need in comfort. The rapture didn't come. Most of us never thought it would. But many thousands of sincere and devout believers have built their hopes and dreams around this day for many years now. Savings have been blown "Spreading the good news" and lives have been dominated by the certain faith they had that yesterday would be the last day. This morning they will be hurting. They will be confused. They'll need love and comfort. They'll be trying to make sense of the fact that their lives will continue on this pale blue dot we call Earth. Many of them will rationalize the non event; hardy any will abandon faith, such is the power of faith itself. Perhaps in time they can morph into believers of the more conventional kind. The cherry picker's, the moderates. Make no mistake, the anguish they feel today will be intensely real, possibly made worse by the fact that Harold Camping himself has disappeared off the radar. There may have been no earthquakes, no Zombie apocalypse, no sound of the trumpet heralding Christ's return. But the emotional disappointments these sincere, and for the most part kindly people are experiencing now must be seismic in proportion. In the UK there are probably no more than a few hundred who had believed this prophecy, but in the States and other parts of the world many tens of thousands were convinced. If you should meet one, I'd suggest that whatever your view on religion, however foolish and untrue and damaging you perceive it to be, today and the days ahead should be devoid of gloating. These people may be credulous. They may be fools. But they are human, and we need to be sensitive to that.