Apology retraction

Dear Editor:

In 2011, I participated in a campaign with Family Radio and Mr. Camping, who is dead now. They believed that the world was coming to an end on May 21, 2011. Obviously it did not happen, thank God.

A year later I apologized to Downey for my participation in that campaign. After my apology I have been slandered twice in your newspaper and in December 2013 my wife was slandered.

That got me thinking about what kind of people are in Downey. A city that I have spent 67 years of my life. Your reporter who interviewed me called me a radical. If I am a radical, so are most of the hundreds of thousands of pastors in the world, because most of them believe in the "Eminent Return of Christ." That is a phrase in most of their statements of belief, in their confessions. Also, millions of Christians believe in that statement.

Because Christ did not return on May 21, 2011, does not mean that all is well. He is coming, very soon! But I am not going to warn you again and I am not going to give you a date. Go to your pastors for the warning.

I was only thinking of my family and my community -- that is not a sin and does not require an apology, so now I retract my previous apology.

Rev. Audie Derryberry Downey

********** Published: Feb. 27, 2014 - Volume 12 - Issue 46