Christian Subversion And Missionary Activities - 6

[Husky]

Apparently freaky religious nutcases in Amrikkka think the world is going to end tomorrow. Not only that, they got their little pet natives mobbing at the rate of some 5000s or so in puny Vietnam, causing the govt there to take note.



1. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/94851...-preacher/

It's the end of the world, says preacher

AP

May 20, 2011, 4:50 pm



[...]

The prediction originates with Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer from Oakland, Calif., who founded Family Radio Worldwide, an independent ministry that has broadcast his prediction around the world.



The Rapture — the belief that Christ will bring the faithful into paradise prior to a period of tribulation on earth that precedes the end of time — is a relatively new notion compared to Christianity itself, and most Christians don't believe in it. And even believers rarely attempt to set a date for the event.

[color="#800080"](Define "rarely".... Quite a number of amrikkkan christian cults swear by it. And they are trying to spread it/their cults in other western countries too.)[/color]



Camping's prophecy comes from numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible, and he says global events like the 1948 founding of Israel confirm his math. But even some Christians who believe the Rapture will occur think he's wrong.



The Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" series of Christian prophecy novels, said Camping "trivializes the very serious study of Bible prophecy by ignoring Jesus' statement that everyone seems to know except him, and that is that no man knows the day nor the hour" that Jesus will return.



Camping has been derided for an earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994, but his followers say that merely referred to the end of "the church age," a time when human beings in Christian churches could be saved. Now, they say, only those outside what they regard as irredeemably corrupt churches can expect to ascend to heaven.



Camping is not hedging this time: "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment," he said in January.



Such predictions are nothing new, but Camping's latest has been publicized with exceptional vigor — not just by Family Radio but through like-minded groups. They've spread the word using radio, satellite TV, daily website updates, billboards, subway ads, RV caravans hitting dozens of cities and missionaries scattered from Latin America to Asia.



"These kinds of prophecies are constantly going on at a low level, and every once in a while one of them gets traction," said Richard Landes, a Boston University history professor who has studied such beliefs for more than 20 years.

[color="#800080"](In short: christians, like islamics - taking their cue from christianism/islamism - hate life. It's a death-centred religion, like the GrecoRomans used to say.

Wish the sheep would jump already - without taking the rest of the world with them, as they have a tendency to do.)[/color]



The prediction has been publicized in almost every country, said Chris McCann, who works with eBible Fellowship, one of the groups spreading the message. "The only countries I don't feel too good about are the `stans' — you know, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, those countries in Central Asia," he said.



Marie Exley, who left her home in Colorado last year to join Family Radio's effort to publicize the message, just returned from a lengthy overseas trip that included stops in the Middle East. She said billboards have gone up in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.



"I decided to spend the last few days with my immediate family and fellow believers," Exley said. "Things started getting more risky in the Middle East when Judgment Day started making the news."



McCann plans to spend Saturday with his family, reading the Bible and praying. His fellowship met for the last time on Monday.



"We had a final lunch and everyone said goodbye," he said. "We don't actually know who's saved and who isn't, but we won't gather as a fellowship again."



(Is that last line a Collective Suicide threat? Got to admit, it sounds so promisingly definitive "we won't gather again...".

Oh make it so. And they can take any Indian-origin belonging to this particular rapture cult with them. Yes, time for them to get themselves raptured along with their masters who set their time-table. What's the phrase? Gawdspeed.)



In Vietnam, the prophecy has led to unrest involving thousands of members of the Hmong ethnic minority who gathered near the border with Laos earlier this month to await the May 21 event. The government, which has a long history of mistrust with ethnic hilltribe groups like the Hmong, arrested an unidentified number of "extremists" and dispersed a crowd of about 5,000.



No such signs of turmoil are apparent in the U.S., though many mainstream Christians aren't happy with the attention the prediction is getting. They reject the notion that a date for the end times can be calculated, if not the doctrine of the Rapture itself.



"When we engage in this kind of wild speculation, it's irresponsible," said the Rev. Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. "It can do damage to naive believers who can be easily caught up and it runs the risk of causing the church to receive sort of a black eye."

(The church already does that to itself pretty well. Doesn't require help in it.)



"I believe Christ could come today. I believe he could choose not to come for 1,000 years," he said. "That's in his hands, not mine."

(Hedging his bets, huh? Clearly, future-forecasting isn't christianism's forte. But they *will* keep trying.)



No one will know for sure whether Camping's prediction is correct until Sunday morning dawns, or fails to dawn. In the meantime, there will be jokes, parties, sermons and — in at least one case_ a chance to make a little money.



Bart Centre, an atheist from New Hampshire, started Eternal Earth-bound Pets in 2009. He offers Rapture believers an insurance plan for those furry family members that won't join them in heaven: 10-year pet care contracts, with Centre and his network of fellow non-believers taking responsibility for the animals after the Rapture. The fee — payable in advance, of course <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> — was originally $110, but has gone to $135 since Camping's prediction.



Centre says he has 258 clients under contract, and that business has picked up considerably this year. But he's not worried about a sales slump if May 21 happens to disappoint believers.



"They never lose their faith. They're never disappointed," he said. "It reinforces their faith, strangely enough."

(What's so strange about that? Sheep are easy to fleece for a reason... They're given entirely over to belief and delusions. Happens when your pseudo-religion is based entirely on "faith" - which is of prime importance when everything's centred around an invisible/non-existent "gawd" character and narrated by a book that declares said entity's absurd - I mean "infallible" - word.)

About the red bit: Interesting, isn't it, how the peddlers of the christian disease cause tornadoes in Vietnam and Laos. = Direct consequence of christian missionising = direct consequence of christianism.

And now you can guess the religious affiliation of those in Vietnam whose identity has been concealed under the above-mentioned casual-sounding "Hmong ethnic minority/ethnic hilltribe groups like the Hmong".

The Amrikkkan christos are a lost cause. But in case there's no self-rapture in the offing, should make the cult's convert sheep in Asia swear to forswear christianism if this latest rapture delusion didn't happen.





2. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8251780...apocalypse

US offers coping tips on 'zombie apocalypse'

16:56 AEST Fri May 20 20118 hours 16 minutes ago



AFP



With rumours swirling in conspiratorial corners that the end of the world is nigh, the US government this week posted some online counsel on how to be prepared in case of a zombie apocalypse.



"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example," said an official blog post by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan on the Centres for Disease Control website.



"You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency," says the blog.



The tongue-in-cheek post makes no reference to fervent allegations by some preachers that the world will end on Saturday May 21.

(Can they put it in writing that they will successfully do themselves in if their spiel turns out to be wrong? The wheel of fortune becomes too easy to play for Everyman if there's no suitable repercussions for wild claims... After all, they predict/threaten massdeath willy-nilly. They can at least provide their own... Willing - *and prepared* - as they already are. No?)



It does however point to numerous examples of "the rise of zombies in pop culture... (giving) credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen."

[color="#800080"](Rapture and zombies fears, eh? Makes sense.)[/color]



The blog points readers to emergency preparedness tips that the CDC has long advocated, such as having an emergency kit at one's home containing water, food and supplies "to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp," it says.



"(Or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored)."

Knowing an evacuation route, having a designated meeting place with family and a list of emergency contacts are also high on the list.



"If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak," it promises.

Explains why I kept hearing rapture jokes from my friends here (agnostics, of course) all week. Being slow to comprehend, I've at last worked out what the refs were to.



Next the christians=madmen will be back all through 2012 whining their heads off that "The End is Nigh! Nigh, I tell you! And we really really *really* mean it this time. Not like last time when we only really x2 meant it." (enz)





3. Sadly, not everything is harmless fun.

Still at http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8251780...apocalypse



In other news for May 20, 2011 (in the links to the side at the url) - some pure vomit:

More world news:

Sweden: 23 women suspected of child porn

Five shot dead in Syria protest: witnesses

Malaysians protest against Aust refinery

Tents set up for homeless in Turkey quake

Malaysians protest against Aust refinery

Philippines brothel raid: Aussies arrested

Taliban bomb targets US cars in Pakistan

N Korea stages trial over S Korea songs

Obama, Netanyahu at odds on Mideast peace

Gusmao accuses UN of trampling on Timor

Christianism trickling down into society again? Bold bit is like the run-up to those holy christian nuns (catholic, IIRC) some years back in the US who sexually abused=raped little deaf boys. That's what happens when you're possessed by the (non-existent, of course) holy spook.

Maybe the rapture will get them tomorrow. And take them straight to the non-existent quartet of jeebus=satan=holy spook=gawd in the firey pit of non-existent "heaven". :fingers crossed: