Are economic,
environmental
and social
calamities
converging to
herald the
end of the world
as we know it?
By Bryan Gottlieb
and Beth Robinson
www.redthreadmagazine.com
Nether the coming year will
bring the apocalypse, the
dawning of Aquarius or sim-
ply continued global warming,
economic destabilization and
social unrest is a matter that
should be resolved once and for
all by late December 2012 — or
until the next round of doomsday predic-
tions, if you don't believe the hype.
Troll the Internet for "2012 prophe-
cies" and be prepared: Results turned up
130,000 entries ranging from "Mayan End
Time Prophecy" to "Identity of the Anti-
christ Revealed"; and with many a modern
Nostradamus analyst throwing a chapeau
into the ring of prognostication, the ques-
tion as to whether our days are numbered
has been asked as often as it has been —
conflictingly — answered.
So, what's the deal? Is the planet
scheduled for demolition on or around
next year's winter solstice? And why do so
many seem to think it is?
Religious and mystical traditions
around the world, and across the ages,
each express visions of the "end of times"
and/or the beginning of new ages. In our
time, when Earth and her human inhab-
itants seem to be erupting in upheaval,
many look to ancient traditions, or mod-
em interpretations of ancient traditions,
for explanation.
Unsurprisingly, this latest round of
doomsday brouhaha comes on the heels
of some well-publicized recent fizzles. For
instance, who could forget the crescendo
leading up to last spring's Rapture event?
In case you were distracted by less im-
portant things, the world was bombarded
by a media blitz courtesy of Christian
radio host named Harold Camping who
prophesized a fastidiously timed apoca-
lypse that was slated to engulf mankind on
May 21, 2011, at precisely 5:59 p.m.
The Rapture, of course, is belief in the
final assumption of Christians into heaven
during the end-time, according to theol-
ogy based upon New Testament passage
1 Thessalonians. Mainly anticipated by
evangelicals, the practical mechanics of
Rapture seem akin to a scene out of any
Star Trek episode — where Captain Kirk
is transported away, seemingly out of thin
air, just seconds before calamity strikes.
Needless to say; by 6.p.m on that fateful
day in May, there were many disappointed
evangelicals who — perhaps foolhardily
— believed the 89-year-old doomsday
prophet.
What most listeners didn't know
was that Camping, then-president of a
California-based Christian programming
network called Family Radio, had made
similar predictions in the past — as many
as two dozen according to the Associated
Press; his earliest forecast apparently
dated back to 1978.
Why, then, was last May's purported
Rapture so influential? Family Radio em-
barked on a reported multimillion-dollar
ad campaign, purchasing space on more
than 5:,000 billboards and employing 20
RVs to carry the message.
Camping urged listeners to "drain their
bank accounts" prior to their orientation
meeting with St. Peter. After the religious
ordnance failed to detonate, Camping
explained that his math was off. Callers to
his radio show, Open Forum, seemed less
than amused.
"You're really pathetic, you know? I
wasted all my money because of you. I was
putting all my money and my hopes on
you ... I wish I could see you face to face,
I would smack you. Mr. Camping, you
always say a lot of (redacted). I lost all my
money because of you, you (redacted)," a
caller said, according to The Christian Post.
Undeterred, Camping issued a new
proclamation that the previously sched-
uled Rapture would occur on Oct. 21, 2011.
Shortly thereafter, the now nonagenarian
retired from his position as president of
the broadcast network he helped found.
Lest you think evangelical Christians
have a lock on failed end-times predic-
tions and/or messianic longing, one need
look no further than the Crown Heights
section of Brooklyn, N.Y. — home of the
late Rebbe.
While rebbe, or ray, are terms of endear-
ment some religious Jews use toward
favored or esteemed clerics, in this case
the proper noun sets him apart. Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to
Lubavitchers worldwide simply as Rebbe,
was one of the best-known modern day
spiritual leaders in the Jewish world.
As the religious leader of the Lubavitch-
ers — the most visible of the ultra-Ortho-
dox Chasidic groups — Schneerson en-
gendered a devotion arguably unrivaled in
the modern-day Jewish diaspora. During
the 44 years he spent at its helm, Schneer-
son rebuilt a movement nearly destroyed
during the Holocaust and turned it into a
thriving, worldwide outreach machine.
Schneerson used newspapers and bill-
boards, and his "mitzvah mobiles" — RVs
that took the Lubavitch message to the
streets — to draw nonreligious Jews to the
movement.
With a network of missionaries, called
emissaries, and religious institutions
ranging from yeshivahs to Chabad Houses,
Schneerson created a network that pro-
vided. a Jewish presence in places where
otherwise there was none — from Shang-
hai to Katmandu.
When he died on June 12, 1994, at the
age of 92, the signs of messianism began
appearing in his synagogue at 770 Eastern
Parkway. Banners stretched a message
across the walls that reportedly read:
"Long live the Rebbe, King Moshiach.
Forever and ever."
The inherent problem with Schneer-
son being the Messiah, of course, is that
the man died more than 17 years ago and
has, according to all accounts, remained
interred within his granite mausoleum in
neighboring Queens.
Membership in a monotheistic religion
is no prerequisite for messianic/end-times
angst. In 1997, a onetime mental patient
named Marshall Applewhite, leader of
a new age religious cult called Heaven's
Gate, along with 36 followers, downed a
lethal cocktail of Phenobarbital and vodka
to catch a ride toward a higher plane of
existence courtesy of the spacecraft they
believed was flying behind the Hale-Bopp
cornet.
Professor Howard Lupovitch, Waks
Family Chair at the University of Western
Ontario, describes the common thread in
mystical traditions as "some kind of unity,"
often a unity with God.
"It's the great human security blanket.
It's a way to excuse or explain difficult
situations," the professor explains. "There
are people who are anxious to trade the
present for the future."
It's no wonder. What don't we have to
worry about? Current news headlines
describe the economy with words like
"turmoil," "emergency" and `"crisis:' Add in
tsunamis, global warming, earthquakes,
melting polar caps, rising oceans, near-
Earth object impacts and what appears to
be a 500,000-year-overdue reversal of the
Earth's magnetic poles. If it's not bad, it
certainly doesn't sound good.
But is it apocalyptic?
THE MAYANS: SOOTHSAYERS OR
SCAREMONGERS?
Over the last decade, endless books and
websites have been dedicated to discussion
of predictions transpiring in 2012. Most
of these prophecies seem to anchor their
credibility around the notion that the end
of the ancient Mayan Long Count Calen-
dar completes its current 5,125-year cycle
on Dec. 21, 2012.
The Mayans, lauded for their advanced
mathematic and astronomic prowess, were
not the first civilization to create calendars
based on star charting — just the most well
THE FINAL COUNTDOWN SEE PAGE 24
RED TifitrilD I December 2011 23