Do you think any of the (remaining) 5/21ers have really thought about Camping's latest missive?

[brooklynite]

As I followed it, God held a "spiritual rapture" and the EOTE is still scheduled for October. BUT, in Monday's comments, he said that there's no longer a chance for salvation for anyone not already pure of heart. In other words, if you're fairly certain you're going to hell in a handbasket, there's absolutely no incentive to behave morally, since you're facing eternal punishment no matter what you do.

[Warpy]

1. They've had their eschatological rug pulled out from under them

so I imagine they're looking at the wreckage of their lives now that they've walked away from homes and families and blown their retirement accounts on Camping's billboards and wondering just what the hell they're going to do now.

Likely a few of them will keep the road trip going because they have nothing left to go back to. Others who still retain some means will likely sue him and lose because they did everything voluntarily.

Camping, of course, will go on his merry way and die a multimillionaire in a soft bed with a clear conscience.

[Stuckinthebush]

2. Doubling down

That's what many of his sad followers are going to do. Some have lost everything - money, family, reputation. So, the only thing for them to do is to push harder for October. When that one doesn't come, I think we will see some serious problems. Suicides and despair.

Religion. Bah.

[cleanhippie]

3. Well, its a sad story, but they all have "free will" and chose that path.

I have some pity for them, but thats all.

That being said, if they showed up at my door, asking for help, I would take them in. Its the Humanist thing to do.

[onager]

4. Got an update on that tonight.

Email from an unimpeachable source - my Mom! :-)

Naturally, in our benighted little corner of the South, Camping had some fans.

A group of them sold their homes or moved out of their rented properties. They sold all their furniture, or gave it away to the Salvation Army. Then they sat down to wait for the rapture on May 21.

She ran into some of them this weekend. They are homeless, broke, and begging in the streets.

Oh...and along with the begging - they are warning people that the real, no-shit Rapture will occur in October 2011. So everybody should sell their stuff and join them, or be Left Behind.

The place where she ran into them is way up in the Blue Ridge foothills, and has always been known as an area loaded with crazy Pentecostal churches (along with moonshiners, bootleggers, southern-fried outlaw bikers, meth cookers and other folks who like their privacy). When I was a kid, there was at least one locally famous snake-handling church in that neighborhood. It may still be there.

[brooklynite]

6. So, plenty of churches to take them in, then?

Christian Charity and all that?

[Mariana]

5. Did they really think about any of his previous missives?

I wouldn't expect them to break their pattern.