Just in case the antiabortion group Columbia Christians for Life (conveniently located at Christian Life and Liberty.net) hadn’t been ridiculed enough for exploiting the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina for political gain, the group is at it again.
First, the group alerted like-minded fundamentalists to the idea that the satellite image of the storm, as far as the group’s leaders are concerned, resembles a fetus. As they explained it, the storm destroyed New Orleans in part because Louisiana has 10 abortion clinics and the image in the clouds is “proof” that God is sending us a “message.”
Next, the group sent out a follow-up alert, explaining that God sent Katrina after Louisiana to prevent Southern Decadence, an annual gay-themed bash that was scheduled for Labor Day weekend in New Orleans.
Now, as Salon noted today, it’s back with yet still more lunacy.
“As sad as it is to see the heart-aching loss of life and the suffering of people in New Orleans, ” the Columbia Christians say in their latest e-mail message, “we can only give praise to God for sparing the lives of the innocent unborn who have been murdered by the tens of thousands in New Orleans and the rest of the state of Louisiana, year-after-year-after-year, despite prophetic warnings from men of God.”
The group continues: “God is not mocked. We reap what we sow … The city of New Orleans has sown innocent bloodshed and violence in the womb for years and years and has now reaped bloodshed and violence on her streets. May the people in the city of New Orleans be broken by God’s Holy Law, receive, by God’s grace, his gift of faith … and receive his great salvation through Christ alone, repenting of their sins, and receiving Jesus Christ (Yahshua Messiah) as their Lord and Savior. Hallelu-Yah ! Then, may New Orleans be delivered from her many sins!”
In truth, I realize that this is just some fringe group that keeps pumping out crazed missives because it enjoys the publicity. It’s not as if James Dobson or Pat Robertson were making these remarks; if they were, it’d be a far bigger deal.
But with that in mind, it’s worth noting that some of the bigger players have been walking down the same road, albeit with less inflammatory rhetoric.
[T]here has been enough speculation [about ascribing divine intent to natural disasters] that Focus on the Family, psychologist James Dobson’s Colorado-based Christian ministry, has been promoting media appearances by its director of “teen apologetics,” the Rev. Alex McFarland.
McFarland said in a telephone interview that theologians had debated for centuries how a good, wise and all-powerful God could allow so much evil and suffering.
“When someone asks ‘Why do innocent people suffer?’ I will gently remind them that we are not really innocent,” he said. “God did create a perfect world. But we humans introduced moral evil, sin, rebellion and disobedience. And after God judged human sin in Noah’s flood, the weather patterns that we know today developed.”
When told that some Bush critics linked the storm to global warming, Focus’ McFarland said “it’s sad that people would take the opportunity to spin this into some kind of political sound bite.”
“Are we taking the opportunity to make this into a religious sound bite? I suppose so,” he said. “But that is only at the prompting of people’s questions. Human suffering, and the longing for answers, and the desire to process this spiritually and emotionally — that’s a defensible reality. Whereas George W. Bush creating global warming, and consequently Katrina, is speculative at best.”
First, I’m glad a Focus representative can recognize his own hypocrisy. Second, why is global warming “speculative,” but weather patterns emerging from Noah’s flood not?