IN MAY OF this year, the Reverend Harold Camping and his followers awaited a Rapture that would carry the faithful straight to heaven and leave the sinners to suffer in the hellfire of an abandoned Earth. Camping remained adamant in the face of widespread cynicism, telling New York magazine that, “It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. … The Bible is not—God is not playing games … It is going to happen.” Although the day came and went, distinguished media outlets conducted interviews with Camping in the hopes of unseating his convictions, while other papers printed pieces with titles such as “Apocalypse, Now?” Despite a recalculation that set the date of Judgment for October 21, Camping was eventually moved to a nursing home.
