The Radical Religious Right (RRR) always looking to turn a disaster into a club to smite those they appoint as transgressors against the god of their beliefs. Today, we get two examples blaming Hurricane Katrina on Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, one from a prominent member of the Christian RRR in the United States and the other from the RRR in Israel.
First up is Rick Scarborough of
Vision America and
Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. Max Blumenthal at
The Hufffington Post reports on Scarborough's latest weekly newsletter, The Scarborough Report, in his post,
Blaming Katrina on Gays, Israel, and Man-on-Horse Sex. I think Max missed pointing out that Scarborough appears to also be blaming 9/11 on gays, pornography and the separation of church and state in the first paragraph of his newsletter.
The following are excerpts from Scarborough's report:
After September 11, 2001, "God bless America" was on everyone's lips. But what, exactly, are we asking God to bless - a nation moving a breakneck speed toward homosexual marriage, a nation awash in pornography, a nation in which our children are indoctrinated in perversion in the public schools, a nation in which most public displays of The Ten Commandments are considered offensive to the Constitution, a nation in which the elite does all in its considerable power to efface our Biblical heritage?
...
One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy ("I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you")?
...
In Washington State, a man recently died from internal injuries sustained from committing bestiality with a horse. The incident led police to raid a farm where people were going to have sex with animals.
Though they discovered hundreds of explicit videotapes, apparently, nothing can be done about it. Washington is one of only a handful of states that does not have a law against bestiality....
Next up is Stan Goodenough. Who is Stan? This is from his personal biography:
Stan Goodenough is an experienced Christian journalist who has lived and worked in Israel for more than 15 years. Called from his South African homeland "to comfort, not criticize" the Jewish people, Stan served as editor of the International Christian Embassy's Middle East Intelligence Digest for eight years, during which he helped launch and co-edit the widely-read ICEJ News Service. While with the Embassy, Stan covered the 1991 International Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid as an accredited reporter, and since then has written extensively on the Oslo Process and its bloody aftermath.
In 1999, he was appointed editor of the popular about-Israel website Virtual Holyland, and since the collapse of its operating company, he has created and edited the sites Israel My Beloved and Jerusalem Newswire.
So, let's look at Goodenough's view that Kristina was god smiting the United States because its support for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. From his editorial,
Katrina - The fist of God?, at
Jerusalem Newswire:
On August 14, citizens in the United States, like people around the world, heard about the issuing of an order for the forced evacuation of Jews from parts of Israel's biblical land.
For six days they watched as thousands of weeping people were pulled and carried from their homes, forced to leave their gardens, parks, communities, schools, towns and synagogues, everything they had spent decades building; banned from ever returning again. Those scenes were soon followed by pictures of bulldozers and other earth-moving machinery pulverizing the just-vacated homes into heaps of dust.
While this was taking place, a small tropical depression was forming near the Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean. Slowly, as the air began to revolve, the nonthreatening weather system began moving in the direction of Florida.
...
As today unfolds we are bracing to see wind and water pounding homes, whole communities, into the ground.
Is this some sort of bizarre coincidence? Not for those who believe in the God of the Bible and the immutability of His Word.
What America is about to experience is the lifting of God's hand of protection; the implementation of His judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel.
The Bible talks about Him shaking His fist over bodies of water, and striking them.
While the "disengagement" plan was purportedly the brainchild of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the United States of America has for more than a decade been the chief sponsor and propeller of a diplomatic process that has dangerously weakened Israel in the face of an overwhelming, growing threat to annihilate her.
...
As this "storm of a lifetime" wreaks its rage on the southern United States today, non-believers may be tempted to shake their fists at God. Others will cry out for mercy. Will God hear them?
...
Many in America couldn't have cared less about Jews being forced out of their homes and losing everything they have built. Here in Israel, many Jews will be feeling for the Americans who are now facing similar tragedies, tragedies brought about by the forces of heaven rather than through the political power of men.
Can't you see the link, America? Won't you see the link?
Well, there you have it, two more examples of the crazies of the Radical Religious Right. I'm not sure where Goodenough, who is not Jewish, gets off editorializing on Jewish opinions or beliefs. He presents a nice allegory there with the six days for the "nonthreatening weather system" to be formed, but it's not good enough to justify his editorial.
