Posted on 09/01/2005 7:20:09 PM PDT by LifeSite News
NEW ORLEANS, September 1, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The popular adage, "there are no atheists in the trenches" sums up the truth that in times of disaster it is natural for people to turn to God, for help and also for an explanation. The devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina has brought that reality home to the United States, particularly in the affected regions.
. . . New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas after witnessing the horrors first hand and hearing talk of Sodom and Gomorrah commented, "Maybe God's going to cleanse us."
The theme of cleansing or purification has become a frequently discussed topic as the tragedy in the affected states unfolds. European papers have suggested that Katrina was the punishment the US received for failing to sign onto the Kyoto accord, Islamic militants have rejoiced that "private" Katrina has joined in the holy war against the U.S. for - among other things - the Iraq war. Some have even suggested that the hurricane was God's punishment on the U.S. for cooperating in the removal of Jews from the Gaza strip.
However, beyond these speculations is a more general acknowledgement that New Orleans, the epicentre of the disaster, was a "sin city" which harboured few rivals. The New Orleans "southern decadence" festival which was to take place Labour Day weekend, is described by a French Quarter tourism site as "sort of like a gayer version of Mardi Gras" which is "most famous (or infamous) for the displays of naked flesh which characterize the event," with "public displays of sexuality . . . pretty much everywhere you look."
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesite.net ...
Really?
So, your family dies in some gory fashion, and I say that they must have deserved it as it was willed by God, does that make it true?
he said what you think he said. I fear he meant it.
don't hurt him too badly.
well... actually... go ahead.
Your suspicion is just that and doesn't address the self-righteous religionists assigning cause and meaning to Katrina's devastation of N.O.
If God was punishing N.O. for its sin - then Mississippi must have been just as deserving of its suffering.
Didn't Jesus castigate those who wanted to 'blame the victim' for tragedy and natural disaster?
As for an eternal perspective - wouldn't you have to be an infinite being to deal in eternal perspectives? This life is precious and the only one we living have. To cheapen human suffering and death with easy cliches is just sad.
I would wager that those drowned and dismembered in the water and wind of Katrina would have preferred to live rather than go bathing in 'Gloryland.'
"The truth states that we all deserve death."
But what does God's grace say?
You do not have the truth within you.
Oh, btw:
DON'T GO!
"Anonymity gives one the same courage as inebriation."
"Welcome to Free Republic."
Look up the meaning of blog-pimping while you're waiting. It's in the big book called Hogwarts "Free Republic, A History."
See his post 93.
It is a masterpiece of self-righteous hogswallow.
I cannot believe that someone could be so personally convinced that everyone that is going through Katrinas aftermath deserves it.
Actually I've got no clue what he was attempting to say.
Pols ask for prayers but do very little in keeping prayer in our schools. So they now are getting their chastisement
"As an ordained minister I would not say that God pin-pointed NO or MISS for their individual sins."
Hmmm..
"I think God's attitude at this point is that none of us are innoncent."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475275/posts?page=52#52
"It just so happens that this particular area may have been necessary in an attempt to grasps the nations attention?"
Ah yes, America DESERVES IT you say.
And, you sound like a troll with that actually.
I will pray for anyone in any congregation to which you "minister."
bootslee,
you are named Eliphaz.
you are named Bildad.
you are named Zophar.
you, bootslee, and all like unto you who smirk in false righteousness and say "the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine... Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God."
And you call yourself a Christian?
Read Job and repent, sinner!
I think you've done the "hammer meet nail" work very well.
Which one are you, Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar?
"Yes indeed, the truth speaks of God's great grace."
Hmmm..
"I think God's attitude at this point is that none of us are innoncent."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475275/posts?page=52#52
"It just so happens that this particular area may have been necessary in an attempt to grasps the nations attention?"
But then you negate God's grace.
You would tie His hands with your attitudee.
"I have watched and wept at scenes taking place in this disaster. "
No, you are glorying in it.
Your attitude is, 'those sinners got what they deserved.'
"Grace is available to all who accept it,"
Hard to be able to accept it when you're dead, especially if you've never heard of it.
Honestly, I'm beginning to feel like a New Orleans policeman on some of these threads lately. Too many spamming posters of garbage who aren't anything like the conservatives I know.
May be retreating pretty soon.
Best wishes on your recovery, BTW.
I'm ordained too with eight years of undergrad and grad school, Greek and Hebrew and all the rot - it all means nothing.
You are committing the fallacy of reification - you are positing abstractions and theories as if they are concrete realities.
Deity doesn't have to be all powerful to be Deity. Is omnipotence or power defined by the ability to manipulate to dominate, to force, to kill? Or is can it be defined by the potency of love, of relationship, of solidarity in suffering?
I do not accept your opinion that storms - especially big ones - are meaningful or purposeful; neither sent by an omnipotent Deity. If any person acted in the manner some religious folks attribute to God they would be deemed psychotic and sent to prison.
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