God's wrath

[judecorp]

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

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."

The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. "It's time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won't have to deal with that wickedness," he says.

Believers, he says, are God's "authorized representatives on the face of the Earth" and should say they "don't want unrighteous men in office," for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. "We don't want a Supreme Court that is going to say it's all right to kill little boys and girls, ... it's all right to take prayer out of schools, and it's all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that."
Discuss.

Comments

[drainbead.livejournal.com]

Why does God always use the wrath of nature to wipe out the "red" states?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Good point.

God hasn't smited (smote?) the Liberal Bastion of MA yet.

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

That's because he's totally smitten with us. Remember, Jesus was a liberal, tax-paying, pacifist Jew. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'm such a huge fan of Jesus!

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

He's a fan of you, too. He told me.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yay! :)

[peaceorchestra.livejournal.com]

The...fuck....?

*makes stabby motion in the air*

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know, same old thing. It all comes down to prayer in schools and the gays, don'tcha know?

[peaceorchestra.livejournal.com]

The gays, OHHH NOO THE GAYSSSS *flails* How horrible of them to make this hurricane happen! WOE IS US, THE CHRISTIANS.


Seriously. Dramatic much?! That's all they do is put on these tragedys and everyone dies of angst.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Well, to their credit, this would be a tragedy even without the drama and rhetoric. The tragedy is already out there, and it was out there before our government botched it up, and it was out there before the religious right got going, and it was out there before New Orleans became a free-for-all.

What is sad is that a tragedy, a natural disaster, is used to further an agenda. And I'm definitely guilty of this as well as the Religious Right, because for certain my pointing out our administration's inactions is politically bent.

I do wonder, though, why this particular "Christian" is speaking about how New Orleans got what it deserved - especially since the majority of people stranded/dead/suffering are poor, elderly, minorities, or a combination thereof - groups that by and large (especially in the South) tend to be Christian.

If God wanted to smite the queers and the heathens, wouldn't he have sent pestilence during Southern Decadence, when the queers and godless flooded the city and many of the god-fearin' folk would be staying away? Why would God smite his most devoted servants to make a point to those who don't believe? Is New Orleans the new Jesus?

[prettyvacantone.livejournal.com]

I figured it was coming.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

I always wait for that fateful day when any Big Issue becomes wrapped up in the evils of sodomy and the lack of prayer in schools. It just seems so ridiculous to me, that these activities go on in many other places that are not "suffering God's wrath," yet people continue to buy this rhetoric.

Today is a nice, sunny day here in Massachusetts. Does that mean that today, up here, God loves sodomy?

[prettyvacantone.livejournal.com]

I think that god most definitely loves Boston's sodomy. It's his big secret. ;)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I love secrets!

[avoteforla.livejournal.com]

Hi; new, here -- pointed your way by cathboblet.

The "Reverend" here is not clear on the basic concepts of Christianity. Namely, love. He may need to pick up his beloved Bible again, and read the gospels and 1 Corinthians 13, rather than review Deuteronomy and Leviticus for the fifteenth time. To the world, he's presented as uninformed, bigoted, and, frankly, a huge asshole. And, well. If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and it sounds like a duck...

People like him make me so, so angry.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Hi. I was wondering how you came my way!

Love in some people's Christianity is a card that is held and played only at select intervals, I've noticed. While the majority of Christians I know live their lives by Christ's example (which, last time I checked, was kind of the point), it appears that there are masses that I /don't/ know who haven't quite grasped this concept.

I'm sad that for some people, it is much more "productive" to use God to make a bad situation worse than it would be to show a little compassion where it is desperately needed. Nothing shouts un-Christlike like inaction in the face of great need.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Love in some people's Christianity is a card that is held and played only at select intervals, I've noticed. While the majority of Christians I know live their lives by Christ's example (which, last time I checked, was kind of the point), it appears that there are masses that I /don't/ know who haven't quite grasped this concept.

Yup. And they are a great embarassment to the rest of us. I feel like they are co-opting my religion to use as a platform for hate. I am not sure how they get this from Jesus' words, which include phrases like "the two greatest commandments are love God with your whole heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself." I teach any student I've ever had in religion class that those words are the heart of what we believe and how we are to act in the world. If we base our actions in love at all times, we will keep any other commandments. If we base our actions in love, we will be doing what Jesus told us to do. And if we base our actions in love, then we have no room for hate in our hearts.

But the folks who want to believe as the guy who wrote that spew do not listen to me.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

You are such an amazing person with an incredible spirit. Your students, and all of the people around you really, are very lucky to have you in their lives. I know I am.

[damdyke.livejournal.com]

Sometimes ignorant, imflammatory opinions like this one infuriate me so much that I find myself speechless. Especially because he really believes that what he's saying is true and that just dumbfounds me.

All I can say is that that's not *my* God.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It dumbfounds me, too... not that one person can say it, but that MANY will agree with it. One person with one opinion doesn't surprise me all that much - I'm sure it can be said sometimes that what I think or say is "out there." The difference, I guess, is that when I'm being irrational people call me out on it rather than rally behind what I say.

The same exact argument has been made over many tragedies over many years. How many more natural disasters and unnatural disasters be blamed on gay pride, prayer in schools, and abortion? Dear god, these issues exist in every state, in every town... yet the "lost cause" liberal states are often spared from such activity.

I know that, as humans, it is important to our well-being to know the /cause/ of something. Indeed, I believe religions were started for just this purpose. The random tragedy is much more difficult to deal with than the "intelligently designed" one, I suppose. But I think it's time to find a new cause than the Angry God who would rather smite an entire area rather than make a point through peaceful divine intervention.

Where is God's Love in the flooded attics of New Orleans?

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

*sputter*


I can't even...

ugh.

All i can say is, when that guy head off to the Afterlife,
he's gonna have a helluva surprise waiting for him.

Heaven is one giant pride parade. ;)

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

HEADS off.
st00pid typo.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Heaven is one giant pride parade. ;)

SWEET! I love getting mardi gras beads from drag queens!

[katy-kate.livejournal.com]

What I really hate is that the religious folks in america don't speak up and call this bullshit.



I'm religious. This is BULLSHIT. That man does NOT speak for me.

(I just wanted you to know this because he really pissed me off.)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I am right there with you!!

[(Anonymous)]

My children go to catholic school, I go to church, I volunteer in the school and church. In my son's Cub scouts(which is held in the catholic school) a little boy has 2 moms. My cousin (who passed away last week at the age of 40)was married just under 2 years to his partner of 17 years, had a huge wedding, in a huge hall. My uncle (gay) passed away from stroke 4 yrs ago. According to this man, they deserved to die and My son should be nowhere near the little boy and his moms????

THAT IS NOT WHAT MY GOD SAYS, IF THEY TAUGHT THAT IN HIS SCHOOL HE WOULD BE OUT OF THERE IN A BLINK OF AN EYE.

Not all Christians feel that way. Trust me. GOD=LOVE

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I spend 13 years in Catholic school and I certainly didn't get any smiting messages in school.

Then again, I used to think the Catholics were super conservative but they more I learn of the Fundamentalist Christians, the more I love my Catholic roots.

As I read this...

[aliandra.livejournal.com]

I fought not to cry.

And I'm glad that you, and those who have been reading your journal, realize this is total BS. That this man has *NO* idea of God's nature, of his Love for his creation.

That he thinks that Katrina killed thousands, and affected more, just because he prayed that God would 'smite the evil.' You /know/ this man spent many days on his knees, doing just that. How sick and twisted....

In an odd way, I flash back to the Southpark, "The passion of the Jew" were Cartman decides that the Passion is meant to spur him on to hating all jews. MISS THE POINT MUCH?

Any who seek the face of the Lord will find him...and I promise you, he's not hurling hurricanes down on people to 'teach them a lesson."

So, So, So sad.

Re: As I read this...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I don't think he was actively praying to God to smite New Orleans or any other place. I think that would take too much effort! I see him sitting back and yelling, "I TOLD YOU SO" even though he had no part in it.

He strikes me as the kind of person to take credit for stuff he didn't have anything to do with. I doubt he had the foresight to imagine the Gulf Coast scenario, but now that it happened, he wants to get in on it.

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

Dude, Pastor Asswipe forgot to read Genesis. God said to Noah, "Yeah, no more smiting you with FloodsOfPunishment."

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

God might have had spaces in between his words, but I like to think not.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Me, too.

[poopsmoothie.livejournal.com]

I hope this man dies.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

I don't. But I wish he had a little less hate and a little more clue.