The Irony of Katrina, Churches, and Insurance
Aaron Kinney Permalink
8 comments
Hurricane Katrina is a natural disaster of epic proportions. Residents of New Orleans were hit particularly hard when nearby levees ruptured, causing flooding of 80% of the below-sea-level city. The rescue and recovery efforts are just beginning, and will require billions of dollars and many months of work. We can only hope that the refugees and victims of this disaster are able to get the timely help they need.
An atheist will categorize this as a natural disaster, but Christians are categorizing this as an act of God. Click here to see what Christians have to say about Katrina. Assuming that the Christian God exists, then this would most definitely be an act of God (then again, if the Christian God did exist, what wouldn’t be an act of God?).
Some news stations have been showing footage of the destruction with commentary along the lines of “not a single house or church is left standing.” While watching television these past few days, I have noticed that many news organizations have specifically reported that churches have been destroyed along with everything else.
Which brings me to my point. The churches that have been devastated in this disaster will need to be rebuilt by their preachers and their congregation. These churches have insurance, and they will or course be making insurance claims to get money to finance rebuilding efforts.
Now comes the irony. Many of the insurance policies held by these churches contain clauses excluding “Acts of God.” Finally, realize that if the Christian God really does exist, then this too is God’s will.
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8 Comments:
Jack you bastard spammer! For a second I thought you actually liked my post! :(
Which brings us to the obvious follow-up question... if the destruction of New Orleans was the Christian god's will, why are they so eager to rebuild it?
Either A) they are willfully acting counter to his will or B) they believe in a bipolar deity.
Das Hammer,
I am very eager to accomodate your request. I am, after all, a friendly guy. But I must ask you this in the name of clarity:
How exactly do I go about not pissing you off?
I just found out that this post is up at the Carnival of the Godless at atheism.about.com
I have no idea who submitted it, but whoever it is, THANK YOU! :)
Thought it would be relevant. Made me laugh personally, especially when presented when some other information.
Repent America issued a press release Wednesday. In it, they implied that Hurricane Katrina was a judgement from God on New Orleans, particularly on Southern Decadence, New Orleans' annual queer end-of-summer bash.
Eh, they're just some tiny fringe group, right?
Well, Agape Press, the American Family Association's news service (and nobody can claim that the AFA isn't right in the heart of Christian activism) posted an article misleadingly titled New Orleans Residents: God's Mercy Evident in Katrina's Wake. They don't just imply.
The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.
“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."
Last I checked, this isn't what Christianity is about. I thought Christianity wasn't about exploiting human suffering.
Take a stand.
Linked from http://www.livejournal.com/community/challenging_god/
One comment in it:
Anti-gay activist group, Repent America, has claimed that God destroyed New Orleans because it welcomes gay visitors. A few choice selections from its press release include:
"Southern Decadence" has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an "exciting event". However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin.
And
"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage.
If this group sounds familiar, they are the same group who held up banner declaring homosexuality to be sin at a day designated by the Philadelphia Phillies for gay fans to come to the park. They also attend gay events with bullhorns to drown out the entertainment with anti-gay slogans.
Ironically, they may have misheard what God was saying with this storm. Had they listened closer they might have realized that the part of the city with the least damage was the French Quarter and that so far most of the deaths have been in Mississippi (not a state famous for it gay excesses).
Had God been truly trying to make a point about The Gays, he could have just skipped the South altogether and send a tornado after wedding chapels in Massachusetts. But, then again, maybe God finds gay people much more to his liking than bigots.
I don't like to be glib about a natural disaster that has shattered thousands of lives and killed hundreds. But it seems important to point out that there is a growing trend - from Fred Phelps to Pat Robertson and all the anti-gays inbetween - to blame every disaster on The Homosexual Agenda. And the irony is that God seems determined to prove them wrong.
Link: http://www.livejournal.com/community/challenging_god/645167.html?thread=20128047#t20128047
Great irony in this post Aaron! I love it; especially since that "AoG" crap has always been ridiculously offensive to me.
Brandon's comments were awesome as well. I especially love that the French Quarter, NO's most notoriously rambunctious section, was left unscathed in the essentials by this tragic storm.
But, then again, maybe God finds gay people much more to his liking than bigots.
Certainly the idea of an all knowing being encompasses the knowledge that a personally sexual orientation is irrelevant to their level of morality.
Last time I looked, New Orleans was free of psudo-christian shitheads too.
Its free of them now LOL.
Looks like God is pissed at his own creation again!
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