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Doomsayer confused as world doesn't end (Meet the man who spent his $150,000 savings to warn us)
New York Post ^ | 05/22/2011 | Heather Haddon & Douglas Montero

Posted on 05/22/2011 9:49:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

That's a Wrapture.

When the world did not end at precisely 6 p.m. yesterday, Doomsday prophet Robert Fitzpatrick's fragile grasp on reality crumbled.

"I don't understand why nothing is happening," said Fitzpatrick, flipping through his Bible for clues to why Rapture failed to show up on time.

"It's not a mistake. I did what I had to do. I did what the Bible said," he said, looking increasingly disheveled and confused as he stood in Times Square before mocking crowds.

A kooky Christian cult predicted that corpses would line the streets and deadly earthquakes would swallow up sinners beginning at 11:59 p.m. Jerusalem time on May 21, 2011.

Fitzpatrick, 60, a retired MTA engineer who became the city's self-appointed siren of the Apocalypse, spent $140,000 of his life savings on 3,219 bus, subway and commuter-rail ads trumpeting the coming "global earthquake" and urging sinners to repent to Jesus.

Fitzpatrick is a follower of Harold Camping, 89, an Oakland, Calif., evangelist who promised that on Judgment Day the righteous would be sucked up to heaven while sinners -- even children -- were to rot among fires, earthquakes and tsunamis engulfing the Earth. People would slowly die off until Oct. 21, 2011, when God completely KO'd the earth and all of its inhabitants.

Even cynical city dwellers got into the spirit of Doomsday, with New Yorkers hawking T-shirts, holding Judgment Day parties and Mayor Bloomberg deadpanning that he'd suspend alternate-side parking if the Earth crumbled.

Fitzpatrick's self-published tome on his predictions, "The Doomsday Code," earned $1,400 in royalties, he said. But his publicity stunt wasn't about getting checks. On Judgment Day, after all, money wouldn't matter.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apocalypse; dommsayer; haroldcamping
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To: SE Mom
What a sad and confusing day for this fool’s followers. That otherwise apparently functional folks are able to be deluded so deeply is amazing. I haven’t read the numbers- were there really more than a couple of hundred who believed this?

The "delusion" is of a type, the only significant difference is in the "depth."
41 posted on 05/22/2011 11:13:28 AM PDT by Goldsborough
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To: SeekAndFind

Sad. The man should have spent less money on “end of the world prophesy” and more on psychiatric help.


42 posted on 05/22/2011 11:15:02 AM PDT by sjmjax (Politicans are like bananas - they start out green, turn yellow, then rot.)
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To: Finny
I am moved and touched that the guy spent $140,000 to try to warn his fellow humans -- including me -- about it.

Exactly. He was entirely convinced and wanted to 'warn (save)' people. FReeper Graybeard has the best idea and that is to pray for this man and the others that have been misled.

43 posted on 05/22/2011 11:18:12 AM PDT by Outlaw Woman ("...; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,... "Hosea 4:6)
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To: calex59

We all have a bad name with who? Secular nutjobs who have been spreading the apocalyptic gospels of Paul Ehrlich and Albert Gore for the last 40 years? Our name was already mud with them, long before anyone knew of Camping or his EOTW scam.


44 posted on 05/22/2011 11:18:15 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (Some men just want to watch the world burn.)
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
Christians have a bad name with a lot of people. If you haven't recognized that yet, you had better look around. There is a full court press on in the US to get rid of the Christian religion and in Europe Christianity is all but dead. A lot of it has to do with the left trashing Christians and brain washing children in school and every time some nut job predicts the end of the world they use that as a talking point to paint all Christians as nut cases.

Wake up and see the fight against Christians.

45 posted on 05/22/2011 11:29:33 AM PDT by calex59
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To: calex59

What do I need to wake up to? The fact that they’d be attacking us with or without Camping? I think that’s just what I said.


46 posted on 05/22/2011 11:32:20 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (Some men just want to watch the world burn.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Poor man, he didn’t read far enough .......”ye shall not know the day or the hour”.


47 posted on 05/22/2011 11:36:47 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: happilymarriedmom
My attitude about all this has been, if it causes one non-believer to open a Bible or to question their own beliefs, then thats a good thing.

How many will become even more cynical about religion as a result of this?

48 posted on 05/22/2011 11:40:59 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Steamburg

“Exactly how is this different from AlGore”

Gore and his flock aren’t intelligent enough to notice when reality disagrees with their prophecies of doom.


49 posted on 05/22/2011 11:50:43 AM PDT by Hunton Peck (See my FR homepage for a list of businesses that support WI Gov. Scott Walker)
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To: SeekAndFind

Mr. Fitz, your life just came face to face with HERMANEUTICS.

While you were checking your watch, the rest of Christianity was face-palming your ignorance.

Yes, it’s that important.


50 posted on 05/22/2011 11:51:21 AM PDT by Salvavida (The restoration of the U.S.A. starts with filling the pews at every Bible-believing church.)
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To: Outlaw Woman
'prediction' had just enough plausability to it that many probably believed it.

Uhhhhh. No. Sorry. Almost no one believed it. Or any of the other Huckster 'rapturism'.

The world will end, that is true. In about 1-2 billion years. We might do ourselves in first, though.

51 posted on 05/22/2011 11:59:37 AM PDT by EvasiveManuever (Shakespeare got it wrong. Not the lawyers... journalists.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Had he been a follower of the Lord instead of Camping he would not have wasted his time, money and effort and would not have ended up looking like a fool.


52 posted on 05/22/2011 11:59:44 AM PDT by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: EvasiveManuever
You're entitled to your opinion; that doesn't make it right. Someone believed him and we'll never know exactly how many.
53 posted on 05/22/2011 12:08:20 PM PDT by Outlaw Woman ("...; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,... "Hosea 4:6)
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To: SeekAndFind

He also ate crow.


54 posted on 05/22/2011 12:43:16 PM PDT by getarope (Paddle faster, I hear banjo music!)
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To: happilymarriedmom

I think you’re on the right track. I don’t think anyone knows when his personal, or our collective end will come. On the other hand, it is absolutely certain that each of our mortal lives is finite, and that one day the human race will exist no more. An occasional fire drill to bring that reality back to the top of our consciousness probably isn’t a bad thing.

To paraphrase and twist Chicago, “Does anybody really know what time it is? No, but it is later than you think”.


55 posted on 05/22/2011 1:10:59 PM PDT by Humble Servant
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To: SeekAndFind

Fitzpatrick, 60, a retired MTA engineer who became the city’s self-appointed siren of the Apocalypse, spent $140,000 of his life savings on 3,219 bus, subway and commuter-rail ads trumpeting the coming “global earthquake” and urging sinners to repent to Jesus.

Misguided ? Sure
But this is the work of a good guy


56 posted on 05/22/2011 2:33:55 PM PDT by daku
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To: SeekAndFind

For what it’s worth, the evangelical church down the street from me (big, busy congregation with 3 services scheduled for every Sunday) was completely VACANT today when I went by after church. Not just empty, but E M P T Y. No cars in the huge parking lot. LOL! Pastor must have told everybody to stay home and get ready...


57 posted on 05/22/2011 2:50:01 PM PDT by redhead (Get the GOVERNMENT out of our BUSINESS!!)
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To: Gator113; a fool in paradise; JoeProBono
Tomorrow's headlines today:

President Obama's Decisive Action Averts Rapture!

Grateful Nation Rejoices!


58 posted on 05/22/2011 2:58:45 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Revolting cat!

OMG that’s hilarious.


59 posted on 05/22/2011 3:07:31 PM PDT by Gator113 ("GAME ON." I'll be voting for Sarah Palin, Liberty, our Constitution and American Exceptionalism.)
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To: redhead

They might have moved their worship service to a venue that can accomodate more people for that specific day and combined all services together. I know of many churches that do that occasionally.


60 posted on 05/22/2011 6:33:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (u)
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