Harold Camping 'flabbergasted' rapture did not come

By Will Kane

San Francisco Chronicle

Alameda, Calif. -- The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda a day later, very much alive but not so well.

''It has been a really tough weekend," said Harold Camping, the 89- year-old radio preacher who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Massive earthquakes would strike, he said. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until Oct. 21, when Camping promised a fiery end to the world.

But on Sunday, almost 18 hours after he thought he'd be in Heaven, there was Camping, "flabbergasted" in Alameda, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket.

Birds chirped. A gentle breeze blew. Across the street, neighbors focused on their yard work and the latest neighborhood gossip.

''I'm looking for answers," Camping said, adding that meant frequent prayer and consultations with friends.

''But now I have nothing else to say," he said, closing the door to his home. "I'll be back to work Monday and will say more then."

Camping's followers will surely be listening.

''I'm not as disappointed as everyone since I didn't fully believe him," said one, who asked to remain anonymous Sunday because he worried he would be shunned for admitting he was "upset" with Camping.

The middle-aged Oakland resident said he'd been listening to Camping since 1993, when he said the world would end in 1994.

That was strike one, the man said. And this is strike two. Even so, he said, that doesn't mean the message is wrong.

''I just know he's biblically sound," the man said. "I've never been one of these guys who think everything he says is true.

''I don't think I am going to stop listening to him," the man added, heaving a deep sigh before continuing: "I don't know, I gotta listen to him on Monday, see what he says on the radio."

Outside Camping's compound near the Oakland airport, which was locked and dark on Sunday, a different religious group waited for dejected believers.

''I would encourage them not to lose their faith because they listened to a wolf in sheep's clothing, and Jesus said there would be wolves in sheep's clothing," said Jackie Alnor.

Alnor, a resident of Hayward who blogs about the rapture, said Camping had twisted the word of God by trying to predict the end. Only God knows when the world will end, she said.

''He's in big trouble with God," she said.

If that isn't bad enough, she said, Camping's false prophecy could have bigger impacts on religion.

''It's given people who hate Christianity an excuse to hate it even more," she said. "People can just paint with broad brush strokes."

Across town, a group of atheists gathered in Oakland's Masonic Center to observe the promised rapture in their own way.

''The issue is, the Bible is mythology," said Larry Hicok, state director of the American Atheists, bluntly laying out his case.