STEREOTYPES OF DOOM
So, you want to be a doomsday prophet. Who do you turn to? Why not turn to the best? No one follows the Official Doomsday Prophet Code of Conduct any better than William Bent. Here's a brief outline of what you can learn from Mr. Bent:
- Claim that God spoke to you and told you that you're the Messiah.
- Change your name.
- Attract a small following and move to a compound.
- Molest underage girls.
- Predict doomsday.
Sure, there's other doomsday prophets out there, but few follow the Code better than Mr. Bent. Once a Seventh Day Adventist preacher, Bent split from the church in 1987. In June of 2000, God decided to let Bent know that he was the Messiah.1 Since then, it seems that God speaks with Bent quite a lot: "At each step God gave me instructions and I had to obey them precisely."2 These instructions included the molestation. Bent told his congregation that "God told him that he was supposed to sleep with seven virgins."3
God also let him in on the date for doomsday: October 31, 2007.4 (Damn, I missed another one. But then, so did Bent and his followers.)
Mr. Bent/Trevesser has been sentenced to 18 years (8 years suspended). He reacted by saying that the courts have again crucified the son of God.5
Here's how long since Bent's doomsday has come and gone:
| Doomsday | Years | Days | Hours | Mins | Secs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 31, 2007 |
