Rapture Preacher Harold Camping's Radio Segment Canceled
Doomsday preacher Harold Camping, who is recovering from a mild stroke, will stop airing his Open Forum show at the end of this month.
Camping took questions live from listeners every weeknight on Family Radio's Open Forum program. Ever since the 89-year-old broadcaster suffered a stroke on June 9, Family Radio has been airing re-runs of his 90-minute program. Family Radio will air pre-recorded segments of the Open Forum program from Camping's May 23 to June 9 broadcasts to fill up the schedule until the end of June then wrap up the show, according to the Oakland Tribune.
"When those are completed, we will have other programming that is scheduled to run in that time slot," Family Radio's program department secretary Judi Rathbone wrote in an e-mail.
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Camping, whose speech was reportedly affected by the stroke, was recently moved from a local hospital in the Oakland, Calif., area to a nursing facility to recover.
"Mr. Camping has been moved to a Skilled Nursing Facility, where he is undergoing rehabilitation to regain his strength," Family Radio, where Camping serves as general manager and president, said in a special announcement posted Tuesday on its website.
"Mr. and Mrs. Camping greatly appreciate all the cards, letters and flowers they have received, as well as your continuing thoughts and prayers. God has been very merciful," the announcement stated.
When his prophecy for the May 21 rapture failed, Camping held a press conference to insist that his predictions were overall correct. He said he made a mistake in forecasting that Judgment Day for May 21 would be physical but clarified that the judgment did occur in a “spiritual” sense.
In the days following his public statement, Camping continued to assert his prediction that the End of the World is still on for October 21, 2011, but acknowledged that he moved the rapture date from May 21 to Oct. 21.
Up until his stroke, angry listeners have used the Open Forum segment as a time to directly chide Camping for shamelessly standing by his false teachings. The callers to the program also included followers of Camping, some who said they still believe in his predictions and others who told the preacher that they lost their faith.
Family Radio programs are broadcast on over 100 stations throughout the U.S. and reach listeners as far away as sub-Saharan Africa.
