Drafted by Damozel | Do you know why God struck New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina, allowing a number of the very poorest of its citizens --- the same poor to whom Jesus was always reaching out --- to die horribly and others to lose the little they owned?
Pastor John Hagee — whose endorsement Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said this past Sunday he was “glad to have” — told NPR’s Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.” (Think Progress)
This is the doctrine of that segment of American christianity (or 'Christianism') I call 'the Church of Christ without Christ.' And I am going to apologize in advance for the incoherence of this post. It's very hard to type when your hands are shaking with agitation.
I hate to see the teachings of Jesus maligned by those who profess to speak in his name.
It is not Hagee's place as a Christian to presume to know God's judgment of others --- as I'd have thought Christ made quite clear --- nor is it the place of an American to comment smugly on the catastrophe that destroyed the lives of many fellow Americans.
How do his statements, by the way, not qualify as 'hating America'? What's the difference between shouting 'God damn America,' and arguing that the destruction of one of its major cities was the product of a curse? How is this not also 'hate speech'?
Right wing talk host Dennis Prager seems to have recognized a connection.
Prager...ask[ed] if all natural disasters are a result of “the divine hand” and if there is “any natural disaster that is not the result of sin?” Hagee responded by saying “it’s a result of God’s permissible will” and “that there was going to be a massive homosexual rally there the following Monday,” which he said “was sin”:
PRAGER: Right, but in the case, did NPR get, is this quote correct though that in the case of New Orleans you do feel it was sin?
HAGEE: In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened.
PRAGER: No, I understand.
HAGEE: It was scheduled that Monday.
PRAGER: No, I’m only trying to understand that in the case of New Orleans, you do feel that God’s hand was in it because of a sinful city?
HAGEE: That it was a city that was planning a sinful conduct, yes.
Unconvinced by Hagee’s explanation, Prager said “frankly” that critics “can get you” for those comments “because people don’t like to hear that sort of thing (Think Progress).
Do people who shrug off this nonsense as mere nonsense not see the danger? What would be the logical consequence if all Christians accepted Pastor Hagee's view of cause and effect? What happens if people sincerely believe that God will randomly single out an entire city in which a homosexual rally has been scheduled, killing the innocent as well as ---- if not instead of --- the guilty? What would be the consequence to the city's gay citizens?
McCain ought to be ashamed of himself for pretending to agree with Hagee and his ilk. Whatever you might say, or try to say about Obama's connection to Reverend Wright, Obama has never pandered to voters who share Wright's views. He has never pretended to incorporate Wright's views of America into his campaign for the sake of garnering votes.
I don't believe for a moment that McCain shares Hagee's view of what Jesus (or God) would do --- in fact I would go so far as to say I am certain he does not --- so what is McCain thinking by carrying on pretending to be part of that wing of Christianity?
Yet another reason for Democrats to distrust McCain: what Bush-like outrages will he foist on the rest of us in the name of pandering to the so-called 'Christian' 'Right'?
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In general, ANY branch of ANY religion that believes in an active, all-powerful and all-knowing God, who punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous while they still live, has a serious issue dealing with the realities of our world. Someone needs to buy Hagee and his ilk a copy of "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Harold Kushner.
Posted by: Adam | April 24, 2008 at 11:51 AM