At Apocalypse Central, Preparing for What Happens, or Doesn’t

Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals outside the Family Radio headquarters in Oakland with plans for vegan Last Supper meals.

By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: May 20, 2011


OAKLAND, Calif. — If Harold Camping and his followers are correct, Gertrude Stein’s famous comment about Oakland — that there is no there there — may finally be true. If not, some local churchgoers say they will set up encampments outside the headquarters of Mr. Camping, the self-proclaimed biblical soothsayer who has prophesied the end of the world on Saturday, with an eye toward consoling the disappointed.

In a state where fringe leaders like the Rev. Jim Jones and fringe groups the Heaven’s Gate cult have often found followers, and whose beliefs ended in mass suicide, not everyone is laughing about the prediction.

“They are going to be reeling,” said Pastor Jacob Denys of Calvary Bible Church in nearby Milpitas, so he and about 20 volunteers planned to spend Saturday outside Mr. Camping’s compound to let “them to know that God still loves them.”

On Friday, the only concrete sign of anything out of the ordinary was in the window of Family Radio — Mr. Camping’s radio enterprise, which has helped pay for and promote the May 21 prediction — announcing that the offices were closed.

“Sorry we missed you!” the sign concluded.

Family Radio’s representatives did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment on Friday. But whether or not the shuttered offices indicate Mr. Camping’s own pre-apocalyptic plans, what is certain is that the prediction has gained a life of its own.

And not surprisingly, some of the reactions have been light-hearted, especially considering history’s long list of swing-and-a-miss prophets. A Facebook page devoted to “Post-Rapture Looting” had assembled more than 500,000 promised attendees by Friday afternoon. “When everyone is gone and God’s not looking,” the page reads, “we need to pick up some sweet stereo equipment.”

On Friday, there was little activity at the compound, which includes a two-story suite of offices and a large cinder-block warehouse near the Oakland airport. Between the two buildings is a parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence, topped with razor wire, containing several vehicles the Family Radio group has used to promote the May 21 prediction.

Inside the offices, a reception desk was unstaffed and the door was locked. Several boxes filled with brochures were visible, showing slogans like “Gay Pride: Planned by God as a Sign of the End.” A calendar on the desk had a red circle around the 21st with a note reading: “Rejoice!”

During a visit on Monday, Mr. Camping told a group at the compound that after Saturday there would be no chance left for anyone else to repent and be saved once the event began. “When the Judgment Day begins, there will be no more salvation, no more possibility of becoming right with God,” he said.

A former civil engineer, Mr. Camping, 89, built a small nonprofit empire in radio, going from a single station in San Francisco to more than 200 radio stations and a pair of television stations, according to The Bay Citizen, which also reported the organization’s most recent I.R.S. financial disclosure filings, showing $34 million in investments, $56 million in assets and $29 million in mortgages.

Mr. Camping has used those resources to buy billboard space across the country and print millions of pamphlets warning of doomsday and explaining his mathematical calculation for picking May 21, 2011: a complex formula involving the biblical flood survived by Noah; a 7,000-year clock ticking from that moment; and the subtraction of a year due to a difference between Old Testament and New Testament calendars.

Mr. Camping’s math has proved to be flawed before. He also predicted the end of the world in 1994. But this time around, Mr. Camping said he was supremely confident. “We’re just a few days away,” he said Monday.

Pastor Dave Nederhood, of Christian Reformed Church in Alameda, said he had met Mr. Camping on several occasions and had followed his radio broadcasts about the apocalypse closely.

“My concern is for the people that have bought into his lie and have sold their belongings, quit their jobs, left their churches and their families and now they are sitting at home listening to Family Radio and waiting for the end,” Mr. Nederhood said. “I’m terribly concerned.”

Although the Family Radio headquarters were mostly abandoned on Friday, the company’s flagship station — KEAR, 610 AM — continued to broadcast religious music, interspersed with sermons and biblically flavored life lessons.

There were also a few curiosity seekers who had made the pilgrimage, including one woman who refused to give her name but peered into the darkened building.

“Is this where,” she asked, “the world is going to end?”


Scott James and Malia Wollan contributed reporting.


A version of this article appeared in print on May 21, 2011, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: At Apocalypse Central, Preparing for What Happens, or Doesn’t.

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