My Next sarcasm had to do with Pres . Obama's speech to the Middle- East . It blew my mind , NOW our NATION that is sinking in Debt and over taxation . Our Money is going there to support Egypt and Tunisia , how about sending a few billion to California ? All this foreign aide is bankrupting our nation , and our money is not food stamps we are giving these people , it always guns and ammunition . Just to keep them as allies on our side . The President expressed that Israel return to the pre-1967 boarders , giving a flicker to the Palestinian cause . The Obama speech was also misdirected . If the road to middle-east peace must be paved it must lead to Israel first. Israeli prime minister is furious. I understand that Obama wants to find a PEACEFUL SOLUTION to the Arab and Israeli conflict . Many Presidents have tried and tried , but lip service to the Arabs whom involved in this conflict are considered terrorist groups by the Israeli . Hammas and Hezbollah . President Obama is just shining up to the opportunity along the lines of the Arabic uprisings , which is overdue by an American President . Obama is no Jimmy Carter , and foreign aide poring into these nations is wasting American money . I resolve that we need to end the 'War on Terror' . With Bin Laden out of the way our nation has no excuse to be in , or any place near the middle -east . As a occupying power our government has to quit occupying Iraq , and Afghanistan .Send the troops home .
Oakland-based Family Radio sees donations soar as 'Judgment Day' approaches
Posted: 05/18/2011 05:39:09 PM PDT
Updated: 05/19/2011 09:23:28 AM PDT
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An evangelical group from Oakland has been putting up signs declaring that Judgment Day is...
Judgment Day is fabulous for business.
Just ask Family Radio, the evangelical nonprofit that has plastered billboards and driven vans across the Bay Area and the world proclaiming the end of the world will be Saturday. The Oakland-based nonprofit has raised more than $100 million over the past seven years, according to tax returns. It owns 66 radio stations across the globe and was worth more than $72 million in 2009.As The End nears, donations have spiked, a board member says, enabling Family Radio to spend millions of dollars on more than 5,000 billboards.
But it is not about money, say President Harold Camping and board member Tom Evans. It's about spreading the Gospel and saving as many people as possible.
What will the nonprofit do with the millions of dollars left in the bank Saturday?
"When Judgment Day comes, if someone is a billionaire, how will they take their money with them?" said Camping, 89, during a phone interview Tuesday. "If we have any money left, and we will because we have to pay bills up to the very end "... it will all be destroyed because the world will be in a day of judgment.
"The money is not important at all. It's a vehicle to spread the judgment and a vehicle of the Lord."
Camping, a Bible scholar and former civil engineer, founded the 24-hour evangelical broadcasting network in 1959. The station with offices on Hegenberger Road in Oakland reaches listeners around the world in 7
For years, the stations have espoused Camping's belief that May 21, 2011, is the date of the rapture, when true believers will be taken up to heaven.
For those left behind, there will be a tremendous earthquake followed by six months of mayhem, disease and destruction until Oct. 21, when the world ends.
Camping used mathematical biblical calculations to determine the date. He erroneously predicted Doomsday before, Sept. 4, 1994, but says he has corrected his miscalculation.
The recent marketing blitz has drawn international media attention and the Day of Reckoning date trended as the hottest Google search Tuesday.
In September, Family Radio's board members made a final push, dedicating all "extra dollars" to billboards and the Caravan project, which sent volunteers across the country in RVs painted with Apocalypse warnings, Evans said. The outreach has paid off.
"Donations have picked up, but not enough to offset the amount of money we're spending," said Evans, adding that the organization's money comes only from listener donations, not corporate or church sponsors. "The only reason we had those assets in '09 was God had been very generous to 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.
In 2009, Family Radio also reported employing 348 people earning more than $9 million in wages and benefits.
Camping, however, said he has been a full-time volunteer for five decades.
"I've never taken one nickel out of Family Radio," said its president, who lives with his wife in Alameda. "Many evangelists have become very rich, but my wife and I live very modestly."
In 2008 and 2009, he lent $175,516 to the organization, according to the tax returns.
Spreading the word of God also did not shield Family Radio from the 2008 stock market crash. The nonprofit reported $8.6 million in investment losses, dropping its stock portfolio to about $35.3 million that year.
It is sad, said a Pinole atheist, that Family Radio preys on fear, particularly during tough economic times.
"I'm concerned people will give their life savings to the organization and come Sunday, they'll say, 'Well, I'm still here and all I have is this Winnebago,' " said Larry Hicock, California director for the American Atheists, which is hosting post-rapture parties in Oakland and elsewhere this weekend. "This could be a Kool-Aid moment. It takes an incredible denial of reality to not have a Kool-Aid moment."
Camping bristles at talking about money or fundraising.
"We have no interest in talking about money. We never tell people what to do with their money, that's between them and God," he said. "We'll be paying all our bills to the last day and we're honest in everything we do."
Family Radio has no intention of giving away its money or assets before The End.
"There isn't going to be a Saturday. So certainly none of Family Radio's assets will be left because it won't matter," Evans said.
"The last thing people should be concerned with is what Family Radio is doing or what their assets are. They should be concerned with what I am doing and how I will stand before God."
For those left behind, there will be a tremendous earthquake followed by six months of mayhem, disease and destruction until Oct. 21, when the world ends.
Camping used mathematical biblical calculations to determine the date. He erroneously predicted Doomsday before, Sept. 4, 1994, but says he has corrected his miscalculation.
The recent marketing blitz has drawn international media attention and the Day of Reckoning date trended as the hottest Google search Tuesday.
In September, Family Radio's board members made a final push, dedicating all "extra dollars" to billboards and the Caravan project, which sent volunteers across the country in RVs painted with Apocalypse warnings, Evans said. The outreach has paid off.
"Donations have picked up, but not enough to offset the amount of money we're spending," said Evans, adding that the organization's money comes only from listener donations, not corporate or church sponsors. "The only reason we had those assets in '09 was God had been very generous to 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.
In 2009, Family Radio also reported employing 348 people earning more than $9 million in wages and benefits.
Camping, however, said he has been a full-time volunteer for five decades.
"I've never taken one nickel out of Family Radio," said its president, who lives with his wife in Alameda. "Many evangelists have become very rich, but my wife and I live very modestly."
In 2008 and 2009, he lent $175,516 to the organization, according to the tax returns.
Spreading the word of God also did not shield Family Radio from the 2008 stock market crash. The nonprofit reported $8.6 million in investment losses, dropping its stock portfolio to about $35.3 million that year.
It is sad, said a Pinole atheist, that Family Radio preys on fear, particularly during tough economic times.
"I'm concerned people will give their life savings to the organization and come Sunday, they'll say, 'Well, I'm still here and all I have is this Winnebago,' " said Larry Hicock, California director for the American Atheists, which is hosting post-rapture parties in Oakland and elsewhere this weekend. "This could be a Kool-Aid moment. It takes an incredible denial of reality to not have a Kool-Aid moment."
Camping bristles at talking about money or fundraising.
"We have no interest in talking about money. We never tell people what to do with their money, that's between them and God," he said. "We'll be paying all our bills to the last day and we're honest in everything we do."
Family Radio has no intention of giving away its money or assets before The End.
"There isn't going to be a Saturday. So certainly none of Family Radio's assets will be left because it won't matter," Evans said.
"The last thing people should be concerned with is what Family Radio is doing or what their assets are. They should be concerned with what I am doing and how I will stand before God."
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ANALYSIS
Obama Walks Tightrope With Middle East Address
President Obama will unveil new aid to Egypt and Tunisia.
With his long-awaited policy address on the Middle East on Thursday, President Obama is facing a difficult rhetorical assignment.
In the Arab world, his audience will be listening to hear how the president squares his backing of military action against Libya’s Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi while taking a far less aggressive posture in response to crackdowns by the regimes in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen. Israelis and Palestinians wonder whether Obama will weigh in with thoughts on restarting peace talks. And Americans will be focusing on how Obama pivots from a tumultuous period in the Arab world to explaining his long-term vision for U.S. involvement in the region.
Administration officials say Obama's speech will be wide ranging but will also go into details about ongoing efforts at political reform in the region, outline what his administration is doing to support human rights, and offer his views on the United States’ broader interests in peace and security in the region.
“The president views the situation in the Middle East as a moment of opportunity … as a real moment of opportunity for America and for Americans,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. “In the last decade, our focus in the region was largely on Iraq, which was a military effort, and on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the fight against al-Qaida. That fight against al-Qaida continues, but there is an opportunity in that region to focus on advancing our values and enhancing our security.”
The president will also unveil a series of economic development proposals for Egypt and Tunisia—two nations that he will hold up as stalwarts in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Administration officials say Obama will unveil plans to offer $1 billion in debt relief to the nations and another $1 billion in loan guarantees to help jump start economies that have been weighed by down corruption and high unemployment rates.
“We also know from our study of the past that successful transitions to democracy depends, in part, on strong foundations for prosperity,” a senior administration official said. “Reinforcing economic growth is an important way of reinforcing democratic transitions.”
The president sees this as a moment to take a deep breath and reflect. In the six months since a young Tunisian fruit vendor lit himself on fire in protest, pro-democracy uprisings have toppled two regimes and ignited popular revolts in Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria.
But he faces a skeptical audience in the Muslim world. A new Pew Research Center poll released on Tuesday that was conducted in six predominantly Muslim nations and the Palestinian territories showed widely-held negative views of the United States and a lack of confidence in Obama.
The survey was conducted in Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Palestinian territories from late March to April. Obama’s favorability and confidence numbers ranged from 13 percent in Jordan to 54 percent in Indonesia—a country where he spent four years as a child.
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