What the Religious Nuts Are Saying About Katrina

WARNING: HOLD YOUR NOSE

It should come as no surprise that religious fundamentalists of all stripes have come out from beneath their rocks to declare that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to punish New Orleans for one reason or another. For some Mississippi and Alabama must have just been collateral damage.

A Philadelphia group called Repent America said the hurricane was sent by God to prevent an annual gay-pride festival that was due to take place this weekend. "We must not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," said Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits." Marcavage, suggested that “this act of God destroyed a wicked city. New Orleans was a city that opened its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same.”

"Whenever this country encourages Israel to give up any part of their rightful God-given land we have suffered the consequences," wrote a discussion-board participant on the website of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Rev. Alex McFarland from Focus on the Family, psychologist James Dobson's Colorado-based Christian ministry, said in a telephone interview with a slightly less blatant take, "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."

Franklin Graham, who heads the evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse, said on the Fox News Channel on Thursday night that the mayhem and looting in New Orleans could be traced to a lack of religious instruction. "This happens in our country when we have taken God out of our schools and God out of our, out of society. We don't have a moral standard," he said.

Christian journalist Stan Goodenough, in Israel, was struck by the juxtaposition in recent days of Jewish settlers being removed from their homes in the Gaza Strip and Americans being forced out of their homes in New Orleans. "Is this some sort of bizarre coincidence? Not for those who believe in the God of the Bible ...," he wrote in a column for the Web site Jerusalem Newswire. "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."

Evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell and Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson urged their followers to pray for the victims and contribute to relief efforts, but made no public statements about the reason for the hurricane.

At South Philly's Tinsley Temple United Methodist Church last Wednesday, Louis Farrakhan said God sent Katrina to forcefully disapprove of America's preemptive war on Iraq. “New Orleans is the first of the cities going to tumble down ... unless America changes its course," Farrakhan said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It is the wickedness of the people of America and the government of America that is bringing the wrath of God down."

The al Qaeda group in Iraq on Sunday hailed the hurricane deaths in America as the "wrath of God", according to an Internet statement. "God attacked America and the prayers of the oppressed were answered," said the statement, which was posted on an Islamic Web site often used by the insurgent group fighting the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

A Kuwaiti Arabic-language newspaper published comments by Mohammed Yussef al-Mlaifi, director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's Research Centre. For al-Mlaifi, it “is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire.” In a sarcastic note, al-Mlaifi noted “how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip (America's) cities to shreds? Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?” Citing a passage from the Qu’ran, he added: “The disaster will keep striking the unbelievers for what they have done, or it will strike areas close to their territory, until the promise of Allah comes to pass, for, verily, Allah will not fail in His promise.”

In Israel, some rabbis have also taken up the vengeful God theme. For some rabbis, Katrina is divine punishment against US President George W. Bush for having supported Israeli Prime Minister in the latter’s decision to force Israeli settlers out of Gaza. Shas Party spiritual leader and Former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef added his voice in is weekly sermon, when he said: “We had 15,000 people expelled here, and there 150,000 (were expelled). He (Bush) perpetrated the expulsion. Now everyone is mad at him…this is his punishment for what he did to Gush Katif, and everyone else who did as he told them, their time will come, too,” the rabbi said. Moreover, for Ovadia, New Orleans was also flooded because of its residents’ lax moral standards and “lack of Torah study”.

And finally, there is Steve Lefemine, an antiabortion activist in Columbia, S.C. Lefemine says he was looking at a full-color satellite map of Hurricane Katrina when something in the swirls jumped out at him: the image of an 8-week-old fetus. "In my belief, God judged New Orleans for the sin of shedding innocent blood through abortion," said Lefemine, who e-mailed the flesh-toned weather map to fellow activists across the country and put a stark message on the answering machine of his organization, Columbia Christians for Life. "Providence punishes national sins by national calamities," it said. "Greater divine judgment is coming upon America unless we repent of the national sin of abortion." Sources: Religious News Blog, Washington Post, The Temple News, Alert Net, Ekklesia, AsiaNews, Stuff (NZ), PrideSource