Harold Camping Recovering From Stroke

False Rapture prophet Harold Camping reportly suffered a stroke last Thursday after his regular Family Radio broadcast and is now recovering at a California hospital. In my most recent article on Camping I accused him of being a confidence artist, and while I have enough compassion to wish him a quick recovery it doesn't change my assessment of his ministry or his methods. With his false predictions he exploited the beliefs of his followers in order to raise millions of dollars, more than he could ever have spent on advertising, and hoodwinked the most devout into working as unpaid press agents for his organization.

The Christian Post spoke with Camping's wife Shirley on Sunday who confirmed the radio evangelist is recovering well and that the stroke was a minor one. She refused to provide any other details about his condition.

When The Christian Post visited Camping’s home in Alameda, Calif., Sunday, a woman claiming to be Camping’s wife, Shirley, answered the door but never revealed her face.

Asked about Camping’s condition, the presumed Mrs. Camping reported to CP, “He is doing very well – not a serious stroke at all!”

Mrs. Camping didn’t reveal which hospital her husband was admitted to. But asked if he was still in the hospital, she responded, “The hospital doesn’t allow people in. So, I can’t tell you. Alright?”

She also said she has “no idea” when Camping would be released from the hospital, commenting “that’s too soon.”

Some have speculated that the stroke may have been divine retribution for the infamous false Rapture prophecy, but the fact is that Camping is 89 years old and minor strokes are relatively common in men his age. His wife strikes me as unusually evasive, but then I'm sure that donating millions of dollars to the Family Radio Ministry and watching the prophecy fail has probably inspired a lot of hard feelings among members of his audience. That's not even taking into account his most devoted listeners who walked away from their regular lives and spent so much time and energy spreading the word, all for nothing.