The Associated Press is featuring an article about Marie Exley. Marie seems normal enough, she's a 32-year-old Army veteran from Colorado Springs, except for one thing... She believes the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011.
To get the word out, they're using billboards and bus stop benches, traveling caravans of RVs and volunteers passing out pamphlets on street corners. Cities from Bridgeport, Conn., to Little Rock, Ark., now have billboards with the ominous message, and mission groups are traveling through Latin America and Africa to spread the news outside the U.S.
"A lot of people might think, 'The end's coming, let's go party,'" said Exley, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq. "But we're commanded by God to warn people. I wish I could just be like everybody else, but it's so much better to know that when the end comes, you'll be safe."
In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible.
This entry isn't to bash religion or to promote atheism, it's simply to point out the fine line between faith and crazy. A large group of people believe on May 21 they'll be taken up to heaven, while everyone else will remain on earth for a period of torment, concluding with the end of time. If you heard that from a homeless guy downtown, you'd label him crazy. I don't see the difference between the homeless guy downtown and folks like Marie Exley.
She's crazy. And when May 21 comes and goes and Harold Camping's cult is still with us, they'll make up a different date.
People will believe and do some crazy shit in the name of God.
