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We all joke about it but there's probably lots of people that took him seriously.

Now that the world hasn't ended, many are claiming he is a fraud and a con man. Did Harold Camping or his Family Radio statement benefit financially from making this claim?

If so, how? Through donations? Publicity?

Sklivvz
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Samuelson
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    The news report of at least some people that gave *all* their belongings to Harold Camping. Let's see what we can dig up. – Lagerbaer May 25 '11 at 14:34
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    I've removed the "any other way" from the question: he obviously profited by having media coverage (hence notoriety). – Sklivvz May 25 '11 at 14:42
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    @Sklivvz - now we know how to popularize Stack Exchange sites! – user5341 May 25 '11 at 15:16
  • local newpaper claimed Harold invested 140.000$ of his savings in this worlds end. it seemed even probable he beleived in the end himself. – Andy May 25 '11 at 15:35
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    Does attention count as profit? – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft May 25 '11 at 16:34
  • Regardless of whether he profited or not, Camping should pay(or at least split the cost with) Robert Fitzpatrick the 140k he spent putting ads in New York announcing the end of the world. http://www.91pan.com/post/new-york-man-spends-life-savings-ahead-of-may-21-doomsday-i-am-concerned-are-you/ I don't know which one made the dumbest move.... –  May 25 '11 at 19:20
  • sick of him... how can people believe in a liar who lies and get caught twice already... – Sufendy May 26 '11 at 02:28
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    "Doomsday date was miscalculated, says Harold Camping" - What, *again*? Oh, wait, he just moved it to October this time. Hilarious! I love doomsday predictions. I wonder what he will say in October. :-) – Lennart Regebro May 26 '11 at 05:05
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    I'd love to see a Xeno's Paradox of date predictions from the guy... each one shorter and shorter than the last. – aslum May 26 '11 at 05:55
  • @aslum - Ha ha. –  May 26 '11 at 07:36
  • @sklivvz : but did he even "profit" from the media coverage even from a non-financial point of view? I mean, I'm sure he has lost a lot of cred amongst his devotees – Samuelson May 26 '11 at 08:16
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    Nitpick: his 5/21 prediction wasn't the end of the world, it was the rapture (Christians taken to Heaven, world continues existing). Along with that, he predicted the actual end of the world in October. His post-5/21 revision is essentially "Rapture wasn't quite as expected, world still ending in October". – Kevin May 26 '11 at 15:05
  • Let me add that the silly part of predicting the rapture for 5/21 is not the date part, it's the rapture part. – Lagerbaer May 26 '11 at 20:01

1 Answers1

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It would seem not. Certainly not much.

Donations to Family Radio were huge over the last few years, but it does appear that the money was spent on advertizing the date of the Apocalyse, which was of course the point. This article talks quite a bit about the finances of Family Radio:

In 2009, in the last Family Radio tax return that was made public, the group collected $18.4 million in contributions, and earned more than $1 million in investment and other income. That year the group spent $36.7 million, and $41.2 million the previous year.

"Donations have picked up, but not enough to offset the amount of money we're spending," said [Family Radio board member Tom] Evans

In other words, Family Radio was spending more than it earned on the Apocalyse.

Camping says that he works on a voluntary basis for Family Radio. Charity Navigator, with which Family Radio has a 4 star rating, backs this up.

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DJClayworth
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  • if that's true, kind of have to feel sorry for him. He's a good, but deranged man. Unless of course, he happened to own shares in the companies he chose to "advertise" with? – Samuelson May 26 '11 at 23:06