Saturday, September 03, 2005

Magic Thinking

Well, that didn't take long:

From Agape Press, mouthpiece of the American "Family" Association, a major Christian fundamentalist group, dated 2 September:

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.”
Shanks heeded warnings to evacuate New Orleans, and is currently staying with friends in the Jackson, Mississippi, area. (italics mine)

This is what I meant by magic thinking - the idea that good and bad things happen because the Great Inscrutable Up There has somehow waved the magic wand and caused it to happen. Of course, the Rev. Shanks probably didn't have any faith that he might be spared while his god stamped out all that nasty sin, so he hightailed it to Jackson.

Right now, there are over 94,000 people currently housed in shelters in six states, with thousands more still in the affected areas including the city of New Orleans. Were they all sinners, deserving of nothing more than the wrath of the Deity?

Rev. Shanks seems to think so.

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