From its very beginnings Christianity has held physical death, spiritual resurrection and ‘end times’ prophecy as central. So it’s not surprising that contemporary Rome described St. Paul as the man responsible for spreading the ‘cult of death’ throughout the empire. Then again, life was cheap in the Roman empire. It was a different time with very different values.
For example, St. Paul and the early Christians expected the world to end within their lifetimes. Nobody could possibly be so silly in the 21st century – or could they?
Imagine if someone did believe that. What might they do?
Julianne McCrery is a 42 year old mother from Texas. At least she was a mother until last week. That was when she (allegedly) suffocated her 6 year old son, Camden Pierce Hughes.
http://sandrarose.com/2011/05/mom-may-have-sacrificed-her-son-in-preparation-for-the-rapture/
Police in Maine found the boy’s body at the side of the road on Saturday May 14th (one week before his mother expected the apocalypse to begin). He had apparently been well cared for throughout his short life and showed no evidence of neglect or mistreatment prior to his death.
McCrery herself was eventually found 2 states away in Massachussets, sitting in her car reading the bible. When approached by State Troopers she said:
“I killed my son. I want to kill myself,”
Those who know McCrery report that she is a religious zealot. She is a woman with a history of serious mental disorder and unstable emotional control. She is vulnerable. She is easy meat for evangelists offering salvation to those who will believe.
According to friends she may well have killed her son in preparation for the rapture prophesied by Harold Camping to herald the beginning of Armageddon on May 21st.
Clearly that did not happen (nobody has miraculously ascended into heaven and the dead have not risen as predicted). Indeed, we’re all still here – except for little Camden.
Mr. Camping and his followers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising the prophecy, many selling all they have to fund their evangelism. These people are destitute today. But at least they’re still alive.
Camping himself has been unavailable for comment today. Even his website ( www.familyradio.com ) is oddly devoid of post rapture updates. It will be interesting to hear Camping’s eventual explanation to his many followers.
I wonder what comforting words he’ll have for McCrery as she mourns her son’s futile death.
As you ponder Camping’s response you may be interested in this US news report. A woman attempts to kill her two daughters and herself to escape the coming ‘tribulation’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VgXMhBLp7M&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Filed under: mental health, plausible nonsense, skeptic Tagged: | abuse, armageddon, atheist, camping, capacity, creationism, damnation, deliberate, delusion, diagnosis, dogma, evangelism, evangelist, evidence, harm, harold, ideology, jesus, law, liar, mental, mental health, myth, paranoia, pastor, psychiatry, psychosis, rapture, religion, Religious, saved, schizophrenia, serious and enduring mental illness, stress, testament, vulnerability
[...] give any deep analysis of this one. Just remember that what drove all this lunacy – in which people died, remember – was that some guy read the Bible, and had a sincere faith in the conclusions he [...]
Right now Nato kill far more people in your name – including children – and perhaps many of those who succumb to apocalyptic prophecy do so in reaction to the way we’re conditioned in our death culture to ignore killing and suffering as long as its wreaked on others by worldly authority we believe in or bow to.
How are you really any better than Harold Camping? I mean, really?
Hi Dave,
Thanks for commenting.
I think you’re making big assumptions about what international events I might agree or disagree with.
Ho hum.
Cheers,
Stuart
Hi Stuart ,
Not making any assumptions at all , i simply asked you a straightforward question which i see you chose not to answer.
Hi David,
To answer your question I think the difference is two fold:
1 I try to base my beliefs upon evidence;
2 I do not take pleasure in imagining the destruction of those I disagree with.
Where Camping & I are similair is the idea that, whatever our differences, we both have strong opinions and try to act in accordance with them.
Cheers,
Stuart
Stuart,
Very much doubt you could prove the majority of the beliefs and ideas you subscribe to – the greatest minds on the planet would struggle with that – but you clearly do get some pleasure out of the destruction of others as evidenced by your ‘Rapture, the cult of death & the murder of the innocents ‘ blog post which is shot through with emotive phraseology – not just play on OT lingo – speculation about motivations , intent and liability and, dare I say it, a fair sprinkling of zealous too..
On the other hand, the powerful roles zeal and prophecy play within the culture get scant coverage, we’re just conditioned to pick up around the marginal and extraordinary, usually messianic and apocalyptic religious sects out there..
Have you ever heard of Shabbetai Tzvi?
Hi Dave,
I think it might depend upon what you mean by proof. In this context there’s also an issue about the ‘burden of proof’. I’m sure you are familiar with the idea that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
I’m afraid you’re very wrong when you assert that I gain pleasure from the destruction of others. Actually one of the main reasons I object to the Abrahamic religions in the first place is the implicit approval of divinely ordained discrimination, alienation and eternal damnation.
If you look at my latest post on cognitive dissonance and the ‘paradoxical reaction’ of Camping’s followers you’ll find I am far from ready to tear them down. I am however more than ready to make clear what I consider to be the folly of such zealousness and the convoluted psychological mechanisms people employ to maintain it.
http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/cognitive-dissonance-paradoxical-reactions-after-the-rapture/
The earlier posts linked below may give you an insight into my thoughts on this.
http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/emotional-management-28-delusion-formation/
http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/emotional-management-29-delusional-self-censorship/
I appreciate you may disagree with me – that’s fair enough – but it’s absolutely incorrect to assume that I delight in the misfortune of other people.
Its common that people in these death cults “know” they will be lifted
up and saved because they believe and the disbelievers (everyone else) will suffer. There was one incident when I was a boy where the
cult was in a house next door to the one I was living in. At 5 PM that
evening they were all waiting ro be raptured dressed in sheets up on the roof. This cult was called “The Children of God” and was located in a small town in southern British Columbia, Canada.. Think of the great disappointment when nothing happened! I believe that the people in these cults do delight in the coming misfortune of others in their zealous belief that they are right, special and chosen. It appears easy to brainwash people who are not raised to be questioning and skeptical. In the 21st century science has explained so many things but to turn a phrase around– there are none so blind as those who will not see.