It seemed at first that the apparent silence from the “Christian” Fundamentalists was hypocritical. I mean, when Jerry Falwell states that 9/11 was God's punishment on America for being soft on gays and feminists, and when the tsunami disaster is touted as God's wrath on Muslims, it seems inconsistent to ignore the devastation in the Gulf.

But I had forgotten about New Orlean's reputation; Biloxi and Gulfport, apparently, were merely collateral damage. It was New Orleans that was the focus of God's ire and, of course, that would be because of gays. Interesting that He chose to punish New Orleans not via the storm per se, but via levies which he could have broken at any time, with similar results.

Personally, I'd have been much more impressed had God used the fire and brimstone of Sodom and Gomorrah (a volcanic eruption on the Gulf Coast) or had He flooded a less vulnerable city, like Las Vegas….

______________________

Press Release: HURRICANE KATRINA DESTROYS NEW ORLEANS DAYS BEFORE "SOUTHERN DECADENCE" 8/31/05

PHILADELPHIA - Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city.

"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.

On the official "Southern Decadence" website (www.SouthernDecadence.com), it states that the annual event brought in "125,000 revelers" to New Orleans last year, increasing by thousands each year, and up from "over 50,000 revelers" in 1997. This year's 34th annual "Southern Decadence" was set for Wednesday, August 31, 2005 through Monday, September 5, 2005, but due to massive flooding and the damage left by the hurricane, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has ordered everyone to evacuate the city.

The past three mayors of New Orleans, including Sidney Barthelomew, Marc H. Morial, and C. Ray Nagin, issued official proclamations welcoming visitors to "Southern Decadence". Additionally, New Orleans City Council made other proclamations recognizing the annual homosexual celebration.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge," he continued.

New Orleans was also known for its Mardi Gras parties where thousands of drunken men would revel in the streets to exchange plastic jewelry for drunken women to expose their breasts and to engage in other sex acts. This annual event sparked the creation of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series.

Furthermore, Louisiana had a total of ten abortion clinics with half of them operating in New Orleans, where countless numbers of children were murdered at the hands of abortionists. Additionally, New Orleans has always been known as one of the "Murder Capitals of the World" with a rate ten times the national average.

"We must help and pray for those ravaged by this disaster, but let us not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," Marcavage said. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God," Marcavage concluded.

"[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

__________________

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

II Chronicles 7:14 KJV

© Copyright 2005 REPENT AMERICA

http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_hurricanekatrina.html

. . . the “Christian” Fundamentalists . . .Thank you for that particular terminology, Jesus, and especially for the quotation marks. For a different Christian view of the matter, consider this pastoral letter from the Bishop of the [Episcopal] Diocese of Maryland:

Dear Sisters & Brothers in Christ,

Finding ways to meet the immediate needs (water, food, shelter and general relief) for so many thousands of people is and must be the top priority. That our government (local, state and federal) seems unable to effectively and efficiently do this should be a wake up call for us all. Perhaps we need as a nation to reprioritize. We spend billions of dollars to send shuttles into outer space, and billions on a futile war in Iraq, but we have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to developing plans to effectively alleviate the suffering in national calamities.

Devastating hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes are now commonplace here at home and around the world. We know that hurricanes and tornadoes are increasing in number and severity because of global warming. Most scientists agree that global warming is the result of irresponsible human treatment of the environment. Yet, we, especially, as a nation, have refused to enter into global agreements which would over time eliminate greenhouse gasses and possibly reverse the trend. We selfishly are preoccupied with oil consumption to the point that even this most recent and particularly devastating tragedy gives way to our perceived need for more oil and our concern about its price! Perhaps instead of worrying about how we will get "our" oil from the Gulf Coast states, we should be asking how we might wean ourselves of oil entirely and use fuels which do not contribute to global warming.

We wring our hands about this latest tragedy. Will we also take responsibility for its happening? Our contributions to global warming (which result in conveniences for us all) lay at the heart of the severity of recent hurricanes and tornadoes. When will we as a people be willing to make some sacrifices so that we may all live more securely? When will our leaders in government give more than lip service to concerns about global warming? When will you and I get sufficiently fed up with human suffering like we see on television these days to make a political stand and require our elected officials to vote and act responsibly?

Christians have a responsibility to pray earnestly for those who are suffering. We must work as earnestly to find ways to alleviate and to prevent such suffering in the future. I'd say we have our work and our prayer cut out for us. Unless our prayers lead us to take action, our words are simply hypocritical. We got ourselves into this mess by selfishness and greed; prayer will call us to turn around and amend our lives and life styles, even while we call upon God to be with those who have suffered so much in this past week.

A word on blaming the victims. I was appalled this morning in hearing someone on national television say, "The mayor of New Orleans called upon all the people of the city to evacuate before the storm hit; the problem is that many people did not heed that warning, and now we are saddled with trying to help them out." Many if not most of the people who stayed in the city are poor. They do not own cars, do not have money for transportation, and, in fact, really did not have the option of evacuating [which was] open to more affluent people. The busses to Houston or somewhere else should have been supplied last Sunday by the government and free, making it possible for those who couldn't afford to evacuate to pick this option. Blaming the victims is an old and sordid human game. Christians need to rise above this. I don't know if there is a racial component to this blaming. I have never been to New Orleans, but I am sobered by the fact that almost everybody I have seen on television who is stranded at the superdome is a person of color. Moreover, most of the pictures of persons who are involved in looting are of persons of color. I do not condone looting, but I do understand that when one has lost everything, frustration takes over and people do things they would have never done under better circumstances. I hope our negative reactions to looting will not "color" our compassion for the truly bereft! Christians need always to be aware of the subtlety of racism and make it clear that we care about all the suffering without distinction to race, class, etc..

If you find these thoughts useful in any way, I'm glad. I need as your bishop to say what is in my heart and in my prayers, and over the coming time I will probably be saying more.

Faithfully yours,

+BobThe original was distributed by email without copyright notice.

Of course you know that this PUNISHMENT bullshit is just BULLSHIT.

Today, one river tow pulling fifteen barges of a commodity has the same carrying

... This resulted in major crevasses (levee failures) during floods. ... (click on RIVER BARGES below)

Unless God came down and unsecured the RIVER BARGES (http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/features/fea ... river.html) that gouged those big holes in those levees he had NOTHING to do with the flood.

It, as usual, was the fault of man...

A-1

A barge tow on the upper Mississippi is limited to 15 barges (as a general rule) because that is the most that can be locked through in two operations. Fifteen barges would be on the small side for the lower river. Thirty barge tows are not unusual. I believe that the record is upwards of sixty barges with a single tow boat. Most barges are what is known as a "standard jumbo" hopper barge. The dimensions of a standard jumbo are 12 feet deep x 30 feet wide x 200 feet long with a rated cargo capacity of 1200 tons. It would be an unusual event, indeed, for a run away to be able to breach a levy. In fact, I have no personal knowledge of it at all. Shipping bulk cargo by water is so much less expensive than shipping by truck that some of the New Orleans cargos destined for the central U.S. are being diverted to the Great Lakes rather than to other ocean ports from where they would have to continue by long overland routes. --FLO--

I hate christianity. damnit... i swear! I've met nice christians, don't get me wrong, but the religion as a whole really pisses me off.

It makes SENSE to blame a natural dissaster on the people. God is just doing what he does best... kill people. Doesn't say much for their god now does it? ...sounds like a real prick to me.

Again, i mean no offense to Christians, just the way their religion is painted by many of the religious officials who portray the world in their sick and twisted world perspective.

it really irks me...

1000's dead! God mashed em up for being sinners... pffff... thats CALLOUSED!

It's stuff like this that makes me glad i rejected 20 years of Christianity I used to follow, to practice solitary paganism!!!

JesusA (imported) wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:45 pm ______________________

Press Release: HURRICANE KATRINA DESTROYS NEW ORLEANS DAYS BEFORE "SOUTHERN DECADENCE" 8/31/05

PHILADELPHIA - Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city.

"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.

On the official "Southern Decadence" website (www.SouthernDecadence.com), it states that the annual event brought in "125,000 revelers" to New Orleans last year, increasing by thousands each year, and up from "over 50,000 revelers" in 1997. This year's 34th annual "Southern Decadence" was set for Wednesday, August 31, 2005 through Monday, September 5, 2005, but due to massive flooding and the damage left by the hurricane, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has ordered everyone to evacuate the city.

The past three mayors of New Orleans, including Sidney Barthelomew, Marc H. Morial, and C. Ray Nagin, issued official proclamations welcoming visitors to "Southern Decadence". Additionally, New Orleans City Council made other proclamations recognizing the annual homosexual celebration.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge," he continued.

New Orleans was also known for its Mardi Gras parties where thousands of drunken men would revel in the streets to exchange plastic jewelry for drunken women to expose their breasts and to engage in other sex acts. This annual event sparked the creation of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series.

Furthermore, Louisiana had a total of ten abortion clinics with half of them operating in New Orleans, where countless numbers of children were murdered at the hands of abortionists. Additionally, New Orleans has always been known as one of the "Murder Capitals of the World" with a rate ten times the national average.

"We must help and pray for those ravaged by this disaster, but let us not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long," Marcavage said. "May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God," Marcavage concluded.

"[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

__________________

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

II Chronicles 7:14 KJV

© Copyright 2005 REPENT AMERICA

http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_hurricanekatrina.html

Why would one wish to believe in so petty a god, one who concerns himself on what a man does with his cock, one who wreaks vengeance on millions of people -- on a whole nation -- because a few homosexuals revel in the streets of one of those cities? If that God hated homosexuals, why did he create them? If he hates the sight of a naked human body, why didn't he cover us with hair like he did the animals?

JesusA (imported) wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2005 9:45 pm "[God] sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

Why? Is he so uncaring that he would kill children, that he would destroy the homes of millions for the crimes of a few. He would have spared Sodom for a few righteous men. Could he not find any in either New Orleans or Mississippi?

Could the God who created the Universe be so petty?

That's why I don't believe in the Christian God. My God, infinite as he is, lives in all of us. He's part of everything in the Universe, as we are all part of him. We worship him by realizing that the homosexual, the Blacks of New Orleans, everyone, and everything in the Universe is as much a part of him as we are. We love them as we love ourselves because they are part of ourselves.

I don't have to call my God, Jesus, or any name to be accepted by him. I don't even have to worship him. He doesn't care whether I do or not. Would I want to believe in a god that does? I think not. My god is so much more than the god of the Jews, Christians, or Muslims. Of course, he's their god, too. They just don't realize it. Hung up with naming their gods, they miss out on the reality of God.

Let me say this about that...

. . . it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Author: Bible

Source: Acts (ch. IX, v. 5)

BUT...

"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." Author : Jesus (no, the other one) Source : Matthew 15:11:

"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." Author : Jesus (no, the other one) Source : Matthew 15:18

Matthew 7:1, "Judge not that ye be not judged."

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." Author: William Shakespeare

Source: As You Like It (Duke Senior at II, i)

There you have it.

This is what I think in quotes.

Those fundaMENTAList people are not the only ones who have read the Bible...

A-1

P.S. Addendum...

A member has requested a reference for the first biblical quote. As I said, this may or may not be from a King James version since my source was the Internet.

http://av1611.com/kjbp/faq/holland_ac9_5-6.html

http://www.biblequestions.org/archives/BQAR075.htm

http://bible.cc/acts/26-14.htm

http://www.redbay.com/ekklesia/gladgoad.htm

Perhaps this site explains best WHAT PRICKS are...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13356

Of course, I imagine that the Fundamentalists have been called worse...

the bible never says hate or dispise your neighbor it says love your neighbor as you would want to be loved. There were no caviats in that so I live by that rule.

I was very careful to put "Christian" in quotation marks to start this thread. I am quoting people who claim the title for themselves, not ones whom I would so label.

While this Jesus may be a Buddhist, I know many people who are true Christians, people for whom LOVE, comfort, and understanding are crucial to their faith. We see them often on the Archive, and they are to be treasured.

Horrible, my friend Carol sent me a copy of this nonsense. I did not respond. Words failed me.