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<DIV class=timestamp>May 19, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s
Ending</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Ashley Parker"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/ashley_parker/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>ASHLEY PARKER</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>The Haddad children of Middletown, Md., have a lot on their minds: school
projects, SATs, weekend parties. And parents who believe the earth will begin to
self-destruct on Saturday. </P>
<P>The three teenagers have been struggling to make sense of their shifting
world, which started changing nearly two years ago when their mother, Abby
Haddad Carson, left her job as a nurse to “sound the trumpet” on mission trips
with her husband, Robert, handing out tracts. They stopped working on their
house and <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about paying for college."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/planning/paying-for-college/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">saving
for college</A>. </P>
<P>Last weekend, the family traveled to New York, the parents dragging their
reluctant children through a Manhattan street fair in a final effort to spread
the word. </P>
<P>“My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace
Haddad, 16, said. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly
believes.” </P>
<P>Thousands of people around the country have spent the last few days taking to
the streets and saying final goodbyes before Saturday, Judgment Day, when they
expect to be absorbed into heaven in a process known as the rapture.
Nonbelievers, they hold, will be left behind to perish along with the world over
the next five months. </P>
<P>With their doomsday T-shirts, placards and leaflets, followers — often
clutching Bibles — are typically viewed as harmless proselytizers from outside
mainstream religion. But their convictions have frequently created the most
tension within their own families, particularly with relatives whose main
concern about the weekend is whether it will rain. </P>
<P>Kino Douglas, 31, a self-described agnostic, said it was hard to be with his
sister Stacey, 33, who “doesn’t want to talk about anything else.” </P>
<P>“I’ll say, ‘Oh, what are we going to do this summer?’ She’s going to say,
‘The world is going to end on May 21, so I don’t know why you’re planning for
summer,’ and then everyone goes, ‘Oh, boy,’ ” he said. </P>
<P>The Douglas siblings live near each other in Brooklyn, and Mr. Douglas said
he could not wait until Sunday — “I’m going to show up at her house so we can
have that conversation that’s been years in coming.” </P>
<P>Ms. Douglas, who has a 7-year-old, said that while her family did not see the
future the way she did, her mother did allow her to put a Judgment Day sign up
on her house. “I never thought I’d be doing this,” said Ms. Douglas, who took
vacation from her nanny job this week but did not quit. “I was in an abusive
relationship. One day, my son was playing with the remote and Mr. Camping was on
TV. I thought, This guy is crazy. But I kept thinking about it and something
told me to go back.” </P>
<P>Ms. Douglas and other believers subscribe to the prophecy of Harold Camping,
a civil engineer turned self-taught biblical scholar whose doomsday scenario —
broadcast on his Family Radio network — predicts a May 21, 2011, Judgment Day.
On that day, arrived at through a series of Bible-based calculations that assume
the world will end exactly 7,000 years after Noah’s flood, believers are to be
transported up to heaven as a worldwide earthquake strikes. Nonbelievers will
endure five months of plagues, quakes, wars, famine and general torment before
the planet’s total destruction in October. In 1992 Mr. Camping said the rapture
would probably be in 1994, but he now says newer evidence makes the prophecy for
this year certain. </P>
<P>Kevin Brown, a Family Radio representative, said conflict with other family
members was part of the test of whether a person truly believed. “They’re going
through the fiery trial each day,” he said. </P>
<P>Gary Daniels, 27, said he planned to spend Saturday like other believers,
“glued to our TV sets, waiting for the Resurrection and earthquake from nation
to nation.” But he acknowledged that his family was not entirely behind him.
</P>
<P>“At first there was a bit of anger and tension, not really listening to one
another and just shouting out ideas,” Mr. Daniels said. </P>
<P>But his family has come around to respect — if not endorse — his views, and
he drove from his home in Newark, Del., on Monday night in a van covered in
Judgment Day messages to say goodbye to relatives in Brooklyn. “I know I’m not
going to see them again, but they are very certain they are going to see me, and
that’s where I feel so sad,” he said. “I weep to know that they don’t have any
idea that this overwhelming thing is coming right at them, pummeling toward them
like a meteor.” </P>
<P><A href="http://oregonstate.edu/cla/philosophy/campbell">Courtney
Campbell</A>, a professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University,
said “end times” movements were often tied to significant date changes, like
Jan. 1, 2000, or times of acute social crises. </P>
<P>“Ultimately we’re looking for some authoritative answers in an era of great
social, political, economic, as well as natural, upheaval,” Professor Campbell
said. “Right now there are lots of natural disasters occurring that will get
people worried, whether it’s <A class=meta-classifier
title="More articles about Tornadoes."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/tornadoes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">tornadoes</A>
in the South or earthquakes and tsunamis. The United States is now involved in
three wars. We’re still in a period of economic uncertainty.” </P>
<P>While Ms. Haddad Carson has quit her job, her husband still works as an
engineer for the federal Energy Department. But the children worry that there
may not be enough money for college. They also have typical teenage angst —
embarrassing parents — only amplified. </P>
<P>“People look at my family and think I’m like that,” said Joseph, their
14-year-old, as his parents walked through the street fair on Ninth Avenue,
giving out Bibles. “I keep my friends as far away from them as possible.” </P>
<P>“I don’t really have any motivation to try to figure out what I want to do
anymore,” he said, “because my main support line, my parents, don’t care.” </P>
<P>His mother said she accepted that believers “lose friends and you lose family
members in the process.” </P>
<P>“I have mixed feelings,” Ms. Haddad Carson said. “I’m very excited about the
Lord’s return, but I’m fearful that my children might get left behind. But you
have to accept God’s will.” </P>
<P>The children, however, have found something to giggle over. “She’ll say, ‘You
need to clean up your room,’ ” Grace said. “And I’ll say, ‘Mom, it doesn’t
matter, if the world’s going to end!’ ” </P>
<P>She and her twin, Faith, have a friend’s birthday party Saturday night,
around the time their parents believe the rapture will occur. </P>
<P>“So if the world doesn’t end, I’d really like to attend,” Grace said before
adding, “Though I don’t know how emotionally able my family will be at that
time.” </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>Juliet Linderman contributed
reporting.</P></DIV></NYT_AUTHOR_ID><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
<DIV
class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT><BR>
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