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Infamous rapture proponent Harold Camping has had a stroke.

The radio preacher who sparked an international media frenzy by predicting the end of the world last month has suffered a stroke. Harold Camping was rushed to hospital from his Alameda, California home on Thursday night. The 89-year-old has survived the stroke - but there are fears that the gravelly, famous voice he used to make his predictions to millions around the world will never be the same.

End times proponent Harold Camping says he bears no responsibility for this.

Lyn Benedetto of Antelope Valley, Calif. slit the wrist and throat of her two daughters and then slit her own, claiming to prevent them from going through the “Tribulation” on May 21, 2011. However, her neighbor discovered the attempted murder and suicide early enough for ambulance to take them to a nearby hospital to be treated. At the Open Forum of Family Radio in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, Camping said he was not responsible for the acts committed by his followers. And he was also not prepared to tender any public apology or admit that he had made a mistake about his Doomsday prediction.

Camping: "Murdering is terrible. It is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. That would have been a horrible thing if she has done that. That will make me weep. That will fill me with sorrow that she would do that. The Bible teaches that we are to save life, not kill. If it is going to be death, leave it to God. God knows who He wants to kill and make alive. That is His business, not our business."

"Like many who heard about the prediction that a Biblical rapture world come upon us yesterday, I used the occasion to reflect upon my life. The rapture prediction put many of us in mind of our final judgment. Since no rapture took place and we are here continuing with our lives, I take from this a rededication to devoting myself to protect the institutions of the family which include marriage between a man and a woman, and to promote respect for all human life. To those who hoped that I would be taken away on the rapture day, please be assured that your negative blogging and tweeting comments have not distracted me. Instead I will proceed undeterred dedicated to my Christian beliefs." - NY Sen. Ruben Diaz.

Harold Camping remains in hiding, but shortly after 6pm yesterday news crews in Times Square descended on his NYC rep, Robert Fitzpatrick, a retired MTA worker who spent his entire savings of $140,000 to post rapture billboards and placards all over NYC transit.

The Guardian reports:

Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping looks likely to be less than rapturous after his prediction that the world would end on Saturday failed to materialise. The 89-year-old Californian preacher had prophesied that the Rapture would begin at 6pm in each of the world's time zones, with those "saved" by Jesus ascending to heaven and the non-believers being wiped out by an earthquake rolling from city to city across the planet. But as the deadline for the Apocalpyse passed in the Pacific islands, New Zealand and Australia, it became apparent that Camping's prediction of the end of the world was to end not with a bang but with a whimper.

Via Buzzfeed, here's the video companion to the SF Chronicle piece I quoted from earlier today.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that End Times proponent Harold Camping credits gay pride events and same-sex marriage for hastening the arrival of Saturday's rapture. Camping also says that 200 million Christians (only) will ascend to heaven in three days (time zone by time zone, beginning at 6PM, you'll recall) with the rest of us to be turned into pillars of salt, destroyed by earthquake, or burned alive in a hail of sulfur. All that will take place over the next five months because the Earth itself isn't scheduled to explode until October 21st.

According to End Times proponent Harold Camping, the rapture will occur promptly this Saturday at 6pm in each God-created time zone, giving those of you on the west coast an extra three hours to get right with Jeebus once people on the east coast start vanishing. Also, a massive earthquake will serve to announce the rapture's onset in each time zone. Just so you know.

JMG reader David tips us that over 40,000 folks have signed up to commit "post-rapture looting" this Saturday and pick up some "sweet stereo equipment" among other items.

"God has given sooo much information in the Bible about this, and so many proofs, and so many signs, that we know it is absolutely going to happen without any question at all. There’s nothing in the Bible that God has ever prophesied — there’s many things that he prophesied would happen and they always have happened — but there’s nothing in the Bible that holds a candle to the amount of information to this tremendous truth of the end of the world. I would be absolutely in rebellion against God if I thought anything other than it is absolutely going to happen without any question." - End Times "prophet" and leader of the May 21st movement, Harold Camping, speaking to New York Magazine. Camping adds that Jews will totally not be raptured.

Boy Culture's Matt Rettenmund tried in vain to get a logical answer out of one of the May 21st nutjobs. I've seen these people all over Manhattan in the last couple of weeks.

Porno Pete isn't too grateful to Jesus' General, who says he's leaving Pete his chaps when he gets raptured on May 21st.

I'm leaving my leather chaps behind. I don't have any room to carry them, and I'm afraid that if I wear them, my ass will get frostbitten as I'm raptured through the upper part of the atmosphere. That's why I've decided to leave my chaps for you. Let's face it, you're not getting raptured with your history of watching all that porn. It doesn't matter if it was only for research, you still give the rest of us rapturees the creeps. We don't need your kind creeping-up our Heaven experience. Yeah, I know it's unfair, but at least you'll get a good pair of chaps you can use on your homosexualist infiltratin' missions. That's worth a smile isn't it? Let me know where to send them so I can get them in the mail before the 21st.

We'd love to watch Porno Pete explain his opinion on chaps to a couple of Hell's Angels.

Less than three weeks left to plan that going away party.