I’m tired of people making fun of Camping. Historically, date-setting groups rarely admit defeat, especially in such an open and public manner. Yeah, parts of the letter serve to save “face” in what must seem to them a most shameful situation, but until the rest of us get over our addiction to shaming others when they are down, I cannot be critical.

I’ll have to disagree partially, Caedmon. In the secular world, at least, poking your head up above the barriers, you should expect to get shot at. For us as believers, the mistake was all to painfully obvious, as Camping admits. Further, folks who have some inside line to the Camping operation are convinced it was at least partially grandstanding, not entirely sincere. Shaming is often the only restraint on very public stupidity. That so many Christians do seem to enjoy poking at the Campings of this world is a separate issue for me.

Caedmon, my “refreshing” comment is quite sincere. I’m glad he just said he was wrong and didn’t try to dodge the issue. I do think the church must publicly reject such date setting though… Family Radio did a lot of damage by its antics. But, I think we have to laud Camping for doing the right thing here.

Ed, quite true…