Jane McCallion

So as we are all probably aware, the rapture didn't happen last night. I will admit that I thought it was a bit of a laugh at first, and generally mental, but as time went on I became more and more worried about the people involved. With it now being the 22nd everywhere, it's clear that Harold Camping's predictions didn't come true. While I never believed it was going to happen, there are many who did believe and who have been left disillusioned, for want of a better word.

For me, this is no time to gloat. There are people who have lost everything and even caused rifts in their own family. Aside from reading about people who have lost all their savings, there are also those parents who declared to their children, siblings and friends that they did not believe they were going to heaven. Whatever faith you are from – or none – you can’t ignore the need for compassion, even if it’s not for Mr Camping, but for those ‘true believers’ who have been left despondent and penniless.

Reuters reports (http://reut.rs/laAuGI) the story of a retired agency worker who spent $140,000 of his savings warning people of the impending Apocalypse. As the hour of the Rapture came and went, his only words were "I do not understand why nothing has happened." To me, this is the saddest part of it. While people were joking about the non-event, people who included me, there are other real people who have literally lost everything. I am not trying to be pious here – I’m sure I shall laugh heartily at the next Apocalypse – but we should not mock the people who really did believe: There is no reason to rub salt into a very open wound.

Whether you are religious, spiritual, atheist, agnostic or other, compassion towards others is a cornerstone of what we are. It is not up to us to judge those who followed Camping’s predictions (although we may, of course, wish to speculate on the motivations of the man himself), as this will achieve nothing. They will, currently at least, be crushed under their own disappointment. Now is our chance to show that, even if they judged us to be unworthy of heaven, we will not engage in the same kind of judging that we disapproved of. Be kind, be compassionate, and be prepared to help. Be human. You may one day be in need of such human compassion yourself.