Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
In yet another example of theological lunacy, an Israeli Knesset member says that recent earthquakes in Israel are God's punishment for Israel's failure to oppress gays enough:
Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy".Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights.
Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December.
Well there's a compelling cause and effect argument if I've ever seen one.
He called on lawmakers to stop "passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes".
The sad thing: he wasn't greeted with howling laughter.
Comments
any word on what took Jehovah twenty years?
Posted by: Nomen Nescio | February 22, 2008 9:53 AM
Evidently god's millstones grind slowly but exceedingly fine.. or something.. -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | February 22, 2008 10:04 AM
Maybe Benizri is on to something. A statistical correlation between populations of homosexuals and regions where tectonic plates move against one another? There ARE fault lines in and near San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York; need I say more? And then there's the whole thing of "Ring of Fire." Preparation-H anyone?
More likely, however, is that Benizri is a verkahkte meshuganah, jealous that gays in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have better parties and parades than the masses of filing "believers" (often exempt from military service) gloomily parading off to government-subsidized yeshivas. Oy veh!
Posted by: ebina2 | February 22, 2008 10:10 AM
The earthquakes aren't caused by the single act of repealing the law, they're caused by the cumulative effects of having the law repealed for 20 years.
If we had the right kind of tools, we could actually see God's wrath manifesting itself as increasing tension across the fault line. Eventually the tension builds to the breaking point and God causes an earthquake.
This is really a quite exciting field of research, because it's possible to measure the accumulated burden of sin. (Contrast this with floods or famines...there's no way to estimate how close we are to the next disaster.)
Posted by: chaos_engineer | February 22, 2008 10:11 AM
It's like spanking your child when he's 10 for something he did when 5. Or maybe it's punishment for cumulative offenses. Like when a teacher suddenly loses it after putting up with noisy students all day. That Jehosaphat does seem temperamental!
Anyway, what other natural disasters have human perdition as causes? It's like a whole new field of science!
Posted by: uncle noel | February 22, 2008 10:15 AM
If we could really cause earthquakes would Israel be our first target? I think not. There is a couple buildings in Colorado Springs that would be a higher priority.
Posted by: yoshi | February 22, 2008 10:17 AM
Hey! Chaos-e fleshed out my idea, before I even posted it. Funny.
Posted by: uncle noel | February 22, 2008 10:20 AM
Ebina2 - Are you saying that the earthquakes in Iran were caused by homosexuality? That can't be true: President Ahmadinejād said there were no gays in Iran. (Maybe he had them all killed after the earthquakes.)
Posted by: Umlud | February 22, 2008 10:21 AM
Umlud - No, I think Ahmadinejad had them live near fault lines so they would be killed. There wasn't enough rope in the country to get them all.
Posted by: ebina2 | February 22, 2008 10:25 AM
Where's Barabara?!! Its a blog-post critical of Israelis, she's got to show up soon and spout the crazy! I'll go into withdrawal if she doesn't get here soon!
Posted by: Scott Reese | February 22, 2008 10:56 AM
Given all of the (how do I put this politely)... questionable policies Israeli governments have enacted over the years, why would anyone ever think it was "the gays" that ticked God off?
Hell, even of all the everyday civilian things that happen in Israel, why pick on the gays?
Wouldn't this piss God off just as as much:
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/telaviv/D38815.html
Posted by: Jason Failes | February 22, 2008 11:15 AM
There's nothing like religious articles that cause you people to go into overdrive with enthusiam. Followed of course by the lamest comments anyone can imagine.
Ahmadinejad is also on your hit list? You don't believe in God but you believe what our government says about him and Iran? And this AFTER we have suffered thur all of the lies about Iraq??? Amazing.
Iran is the biggest threat left to Isarel. Of course you don't like Ahmadinejad. Particularly since he called for modern forensic (scientific) reexamination of THE holocaust.
How many books have been written about the War Between the States? And didn't every one of the writers reexamine and study and question and research?
What implications does the refusal of Jews to allow an examination of THE holocuast, have upon American culture and world culture? In what ways do the Jews use THE holocaust to further their polical agenda today and to silence all opposition? How does this affect American culture - the freedom of the press - the freedom of speech - the freedom to question and debate?
Isn't it strange that in a blog where Christians are continually attacked most of the commenters here didn't realize that in a cultural war there has to be more than one side - and they accuse anyone who mentions another combatant in the ongoing wars of being an anti-semite?
Is this stupidy another example of the negetive changes that have come about in our culture because of the ongoing wars.
What are the implications of this for how much power and influence Jews have upon American culture in these ongoing wars.
How many times has Ed used Israel as a whipping child? How many times has he used Christians?
What does that say about how objective he is about our cultural wars?
Posted by: Barbara | February 22, 2008 11:27 AM
Barbara: And what does any of that have to say about whether or not earthquakes are caused by God punishing homosexuals?
Is that so reasonable a stance for you that you think people would only disagree with it as part of a cultural war having to do with the Jews?
Focus. Look at it as a serious question: what causes earthquakes? What caused the earthquakes in question?
Posted by: Sastra | February 22, 2008 11:36 AM
You want the punchline to all of this? Barbara's email address is thesouthernjournal@yahoo.com. And yahoo seems quite appropriate.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | February 22, 2008 11:54 AM
Well, Ms. Barbara is also a Holocaust denier, in addition to being a garden variety Israel basher. When oh when will Ms. Barbara stop dissing Joshua of Nazareth?
Posted by: SLC | February 22, 2008 11:58 AM
What implications does the refusal of Jews to allow an examination of THE holocuast...?
Which Jews have "refused to allow" such reexamination, and by what power have they prevented it from happening?
Posted by: Raging Bee | February 22, 2008 12:05 PM
Hey, maybe this guy is onto something. Someone should investigate the homosexuality of dinosaurs. I mean, what else could have deserved such a smiting from jehovah?
I wonder what the trilobites did?
Posted by: Don Smith, FCD | February 22, 2008 12:35 PM
you people don't understand
God makes gays "GAY", that's so he can have a little fun punishing them with earthquakes. You see God has a bit of strange humor. Make 'em them bust 'em!
Posted by: richCares | February 22, 2008 12:44 PM
I wonder what the trilobites did?
Or the brachiopods... Oh, wait, I remember. Something about breaking up a supercontinent and scattering the pieces about. Took some serious earthquakes to do that. That god guy must have been REALLY pissed with those brachiopods.
Posted by: Karen | February 22, 2008 1:33 PM
Is it just me, or is Barbara's crazy all over the map? I can't even tell which side of the fence she's on. Is she for or against Israel? Iran? The war in Iraq? She's a fanatical Christian, sees conspiracy everywhere, and yet isn't a Bush supporter? I'm so confused. The stupid, it burns.
Posted by: Braxton Thomason | February 22, 2008 1:42 PM
Apparently Barbara does not (or will not) comprehend something that English speakers call "irony". (And no, it has nothing to do with ferrous or ferric objects.) "Wit" is also something this sort of humor is called.
One has to wonder, therefore, whether Barbara lack of (or lack of desire) to understand the statements of dripping irony is because she is:
A) at her wit's end,
B) witless,
C) witness to a different wit.
To wit, it is understandable that Barbara's long statement of convolutions could be explained by any one of the above three possibilities.
Oh, and going back to the original topic of this post, I think the Japanese religionists might have something negative to say to Israel's implication that the earthquake-causing giant salamanders that live under Japan are homosexuals.
Posted by: Umlud | February 22, 2008 2:04 PM
That god guy must have been REALLY pissed with those brachiopods.
But not that pissed -- some of them are still with us.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | February 22, 2008 3:03 PM
Why does God always punish the South, aka the Bible Belt, with tornados and hurricanes?
Posted by: soboco | February 22, 2008 3:06 PM
No, it's not just you. She/he/it does seem to be a holocaust denier, or pardon me, a denier of THE holocaust, but other than that one fixed point of lunacy I've no idea at all what's she/he/it is on about (in USAian-speak: ... is trying to say or ask).
Posted by: blf | February 22, 2008 3:19 PM
I didn't know that trilobites and brachiopods were homosexuals! Maybe they'll be the new symbol of homo-dom, replacing the rainbow flag. Served them right, now they're adorning my shelf as stoned fossils...However, based on this thread's "logic," their homosexuality kick-started continental drift (oh, poor Pangaea), thereby bringing forth the evolutionary tangents culminating with "Homo" sapiens...and Barbara. (Oy veh ist mir!) Taking this to its logical conclusion (hurrah!), ergo, God created man via the decimation of homosexual brachiopods and trilobites. Re-write the textbooks, and I'm throwing away my books on cladistics.
Posted by: ebina2 | February 22, 2008 4:01 PM
This is consistent with that one email that lists people who said bad things about God and then how they died.
Leadoff example: John Lennon, who said the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus" in 1966, and then was shot in 1980.
Fourteen years here, twenty years there. Guess God's pretty busy.
Posted by: chancelikely | February 22, 2008 4:44 PM
Goddamn. The most oppressed group in history has people who want to oppress other groups. We Germans figured out what was wrong, why have some Jews still not picked up on the problem?
Posted by: Baratos | February 22, 2008 5:31 PM
For the sin of Sodom god rained his fiery balls on that debauched town. No mention of earthquakes. Consistency, people consistency.
Posted by: Peter Mc | February 22, 2008 7:05 PM
Why just today Neil Cavuto, of FauxNews' "business show" fame, hosted the Moody Bible Institute guy to discuss God causing earthquakes and "wicked weather".
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player06.html?022108/022108_cav_2lutzer&Your_World&Wicked%20Weather&Wicked%20Weather&Your%20World&-1&Business&293&&&exp
Posted by: Foggg | February 22, 2008 7:11 PM
"Fiery Balls"?
No wonder god is so irritable - I would be too if someone had set my testicles alight. :D
Posted by: DingoJack | February 22, 2008 10:41 PM
No, but other MPs did ask that Shas censure him.
Posted by: Skemono | February 23, 2008 12:01 AM
Not too many Gays here then. Oh wait ...
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras started in 1978.
There WAS an earthquake in December ...1989 in Newcastle.
Hmm seems god was 11 years late and 162Km off target, not much of a deity. -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | February 23, 2008 12:47 AM
BTW - 13 of the dead were in the Newcastle Workers Club. Here was me thinking they had similar rules to the (fictional) University of Woolloomooloo. -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | February 23, 2008 12:55 AM
Barbara:
What are the implications of this for how much power and influence Jews have upon American culture in these ongoing wars.
How many times has Ed used Israel as a whipping child? How many times has he used Christians?
What does that say about how objective he is about our cultural wars?
I'd like to respond to your assertions, if I may:
(1) I seem to recall several posts of Ed's in which he excoriates ultra-orthodox Jews for engaging in the same sort of brain-damaged behavior your average super-Christian or super-Muslim "my God is bigger than your God" cheerleader type engages in, so this point of yours is entirely false.
(2) I suspect that his definition of a "culture war" is quite different from yours, since he's referring to some of the oddities creationists engage in here in the US and elsewhere and not the planet you appear to live on instead.
(3) When you come right down to it, Babs, this is a fact: you're a retard. Period. End of story.
Posted by: Chris Krolczyk | February 23, 2008 3:18 PM
...and that, my liege, is how we know the world to be banana-shaped.
Posted by: Chuck C | February 23, 2008 3:28 PM
The trilobites did nothing wrong. They simply grew wings, flew into space, and are worshipping Cthulhu on Mars. With Bigfoot and the Keebler Elves.
It was the opabinias that made the lord mad. Total freaks, completely removed from His image, sitting there mocking creation with their five eyes and vacuum mouths...
Posted by: The Flying Trilobite | March 1, 2008 11:42 AM
I didn't know gay sex was THAT good. Earthquakes?
Posted by: Eyal Ben David | March 2, 2008 7:03 AM
Benizri is from the "SHAS" religious party, and these guys are constantly sprouting ludicrous statements of the sort:
* Religious freedom means that Sephardi jews should be exempt from a law banning parents from beating up their kids.
* A man must never go between two women. That's like walking between asses, which is forbidden by the Talmud.
I'm afraid we have become apathetic to SHAS' outbursts of illogic. Back in the 90's, when SHAS was still a novelty, every such saying was greeted with a flood of laughter and criticism. Now, we have just grown used to them.
Posted by: Omer Moussaffi | March 2, 2008 9:13 AM