by Matthew Raley While Harold Camping's teaching increasingly resembles Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch, Family Radio (FR), the ministry that Camping leads, is averting its eyes.

According to the Christian Post, longtime FR employee Matt Tuter is saying that the ministry has more to offer than its #1 show. "Family Radio is a fine ministry. Other than Harold Camping's program, the other programs are normal."

Tuter is clearly frustrated, declaring that he is not a Camping follower, and that neither are most other employees. He portrays the board of FR as responsible for Camping's hermeneutical enormities, and the article reports that board members have not shown up at the offices since last Thursday.

FR's website has purged any mention of Camping's judgment day claims, undergoing a redesign complete with a button saying, "What's new?" The board is AWOL. Employees are pointing fingers.

This ministry is in profound denial.

The most illuminating comment Tuter makes is that Camping has predicted The End 10 times, only a couple of which have been announced publicly. "I was here for nine out of the 10," Tuter says.

Why? What possible motivation could have induced Tuter and all the other sceptics at FR to stay beyond Fail #2?

People make silent agreements to ignore lunatic vanity in the service of some "higher cause." I doubt the cause was high enough in this case. I doubt it ever is.