…and this is a 
We had summer thunderstorms and a tornado touchdown in Minneapolis yesterday, and the convention center was slightly damaged. At the same time, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America was having their national convention there. You know what this means?
God hates Christians. Repent!
No, wait, that can never be what an omen means. We already have prophets stirring the tea leaves and interpreting the event. It seems, if you look at the conference schedule, that the liberal Lutherans were contemplating making some friendly statements about their gay congregants, so obviously this was an example of gentle smiting of sodomites.
Of course, also on the schedule were bible study and hymn singing — god hates "Onward Christian Soldiers". And a middle school in North Branch — god hates education. It knocked down many trees — god hates elms.
Oh, well. I know one thing. I hate pretentious gomers who use natural disasters to promote their goofy belief in a whimsical deity.
Comments
Posted by: Blake Stacey | August 20, 2009 11:09 AM
"God hates elms." T-shirt?
Posted by: JefFlyingV | August 20, 2009 11:14 AM
Very reminiscent of a church being destroyed by a tornado and the minister stating it was a sign from god to build a new church.
Posted by: David Wiener | August 20, 2009 11:15 AM
Hmm, sounds like it a sign from god that shit happens.
Posted by: Sir Eccles | August 20, 2009 11:16 AM
Maybe God just isn't a Brett Favre fan?
Posted by: bbgunn | August 20, 2009 11:17 AM
"God hates Christians. Repent!"
Evidence says he hates evangelical lutherans.
Posted by: conelrad | August 20, 2009 11:18 AM
Here is something which seems glancingly appropriate
to this.
Posted by: Greg Peterson | August 20, 2009 11:20 AM
Wow, crazy. Piper's church is the only one I can remember ever walking out of. It was over a fine theological point (human effort in sanctification versus salvation--Piper is a 4-point-plus Calvinist), but even at the time, a good 20 years ago, I thought he was kind of an ass. I have to say, in fairness, that he seems like a "nice" man with sincere concerns about people. But his dogma's bite has given him rabies. The mistaken and mean-spirited beliefs of religions have vitiated the minds and better intentions of far too many otherwise intelligent and decent people. That's the real tragedy of it.
Posted by: The Science Pundit
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August 20, 2009 11:20 AM
We all know that gØd is a Kurt Warner fan.
Posted by: nigelTheBold
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August 20, 2009 11:20 AM
Everything is a sign from god.
Science doesn't support the Noachian Flood (I'm using that word from now on)? It's a sign from god that science sucks.
The electricity goes out and your ice-cream goes all melty? It's a sign from god that you should have a milkshake.
Different versions of the Bible may have different interpretations, causing consternation at the infallible word of god? It's a sign from god that you'd better read the original Bible, the KJV, you fucking heathen.
nigelTheBold uses curses in his posts? It's a sign from god that he has nothing to add to a conversation.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster? A sign that the Olive Garden is Satan's preferred restaurant.
Atheist slogans on buses? A sign you'd better not go into work today.
And so on.
Posted by: PaleGreenPantsWithNobodyInsideThem | August 20, 2009 11:21 AM
God hates cans too.
Africans
Mexicans
Puerto Ricans
/but not red blooded Americans.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | August 20, 2009 11:22 AM
Meteorology, like biological science, is a tool of Satan.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Richard Eis | August 20, 2009 11:22 AM
I wonder if we could therefore control the weather through the use of a gay guy, a minister and a loud speaker speeding round in a car.
Such power to control tornados and place them where we want.
Just think what we could do with such science!!1!
Posted by: Elwood Herring | August 20, 2009 11:31 AM
This ridiculous behavious always reminds me of the Skinner Box experiment:
Superstitious pigeons! Seems we humans aren't much better.
Posted by: Cain | August 20, 2009 11:33 AM
Very OT but I was wondering if PZ had received a review copy of Dawkins "The Greatest Show on Earth" and if so when PZ was planing on reviewing it.
Posted by: Richard Eis | August 20, 2009 11:34 AM
-Superstitious pigeons! Seems we humans aren't much better.
I believe they did the experiment with humans and got similar results (rituals). Very few worked out that it was random and those that did used scientific methodology to do so as far as i remember.
Posted by: rrt | August 20, 2009 11:35 AM
Heck, that's nothin'. We just had tornados in the Springfield, IL area last night, and a church in Williamsville was destroyed. Clearly they must have been planning to take some of that sinful, tainted, secular money the State's planning to hand out to religious organizations as "stimulus."
And naturally, you-know-who gets all the credit on local call-in radio for not killing anyone, and none of the blame for the thirty homes destroyed...
Posted by: TiG | August 20, 2009 11:36 AM
GOOD!! I hate North Branch too. But then I went to HS in Cambridge so we were sworn enemies...
BURN, North Branch, BURN !!
And your debate team sucks!!
Posted by: James Sweet | August 20, 2009 11:37 AM
At least some of the other Xians are calling him out on the comments, i.e. even people who believe in a magic sky daddy intervening over petty shit like this think this guy is a wanker for interpreting a meteorological event to grind his own ax.
Posted by: Geds | August 20, 2009 11:38 AM
Greg @7: Piper's church is the only one I can remember ever walking out of.
Piper and Mark Driscoll are all the rage amongst a subset of the evangelical folks I used to hang out with. I spent some time reading their stuff and can't, for the life of me, figure out why, especially with Driscoll. Calvinism is such an insane, morally bankrupt form of religion. And the idea that the two big proponents, both of whom are gaining popularity with the twenty-something set of evangelical Christianity, are over-the-top anti-gay, pro cult of masculinity is kind of worrisome.
Posted by: AnswersInGenitals | August 20, 2009 11:38 AM
It's truly a miracle that not more damage was done and that no one was hurt. Praise the lord!
Posted by: PaleGreenPantsWithNobodyInsideThem | August 20, 2009 11:40 AM
#11
Oh, so this is the Devil casting devastations, not God. That's a relief.
Posted by: Joe in SF | August 20, 2009 11:40 AM
God also struck the Bay Area with a major earthquake during the opening ritual of the 3rd game of the 1989 Giants v. A's World Series. God is obviously a Dodgers fan.
Posted by: James Brown | August 20, 2009 11:43 AM
That God hates Minnesota is easly deminstrated by the fact that the state has been had Michele Bachmann thrust upon it...
Posted by: Roy Hilbinger | August 20, 2009 11:43 AM
Hmmm... Well, the evangelicals may think God hates ELCA, anyway. Despite the "Evangelical" in the name, ELCA is über-liberal, and the fundies hate them. In fact, there were some Lutheran fundies who dropped out and created their own denomination - The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. ELCA is quite liberal, science-friendly, and just generally mainstream, which evangelicals and pentecostals loathe.
Yeah, I know, an apologetic. But I grew up in ELCA's pre-ELCA church, and my Dad was involved in the merger that created ELCA and was even on various policy-decision committees. I'm no longer anything in particular, but I give ELCA and the other mainstream denominations a lot of credit for being a force for liberal thought in today's society, rather than the anti-science, anti-education, anti-intellectualism of the evangelicals and pentecostals.
Posted by: Randy | August 20, 2009 11:44 AM
God hates elms? Well... they are kind of slippery but in their defense their bark is better than their bite (and is a natural remedy for all sorts of stuff I am told). I guess he hates so many things he inevitably had to branch out. Personally, I am rooting for the trees. I'll stop now and go seek help...
Posted by: Glen Davidson | August 20, 2009 11:44 AM
Speaking of everything being a sign from god, David Klinghoffer is using this from Ibn Ezra to say that a heretic Jew is one who doesn't believe in Intelligent Design:
You see metals in terms of physics? You're a heretic, if Jewish anyway. Which for all I know may be true, but if so, what a ridiculous belief system.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: Sastra | August 20, 2009 11:45 AM
Greg Peterson #7 wrote:
I agree. The theists and accomodationists really would prefer if we'd say it was the other way around: religion is a fine or perhaps neutral thing which can be ruined by "mean-spirited" people, distorting and demeaning the loving message of Christ, or the reasonable nature of God, or what have you. But, for the most part, people with vicious forms of theology (from the secular viewpoint) aren't really any different in character than anyone else -- some very good, some very bad, and most middling around at normal. It's not 'bad guys,' it's religion itself.
How else could otherwise ordinary people look at everything as having to do with themselves and their moral concerns, and consider this a sign of exemplary meekness? Like nigelTheBold says, everything is a sign from God (or "Spirit"), to be interpreted with self at center. This sort of breathtakingly egocentric thinking is specifically fostered by religious belief and method.
The universe is not a morality play. You won't see secular humanists taking tornadoes or rainbows as a "sign" sent by the universe, to admonish or reward us for the things we do or think. And you wouldn't catch us thinking that doing this "humbles" us.
Posted by: aratina cage | August 20, 2009 11:46 AM
Weird. Piper's commentary on the tornado reads like the perfect Poe. And then we have "John Piper" on a blog titled Desiring God... it reminds me of a certain "T.Estes" on a blog titled Hard Truth, both having a fixation on gay sex in their rants. Without having first read Greg Peterson's comment on John Piper before following the link, I would not have been able to tell if Piper's commentary was truly sincere.
Posted by: Jason M | August 20, 2009 11:47 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwoBxxnP4fQ
Posted by: ABradford | August 20, 2009 11:50 AM
The Electric Fetus was also damaged.
This should be a clear sign that god hates fetuses.
Posted by: MosesZD
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August 20, 2009 11:53 AM
They're not special! God hates everybody in exact proportion to their demographic proportion. For example, God hates between 80% and 84% of all Stage 4 breast cancer patients -- regardless of religious affiliation, or lack thereof.
Posted by: a lurker | August 20, 2009 11:57 AM
Yes but are Lutherans Real Christians™ ?
Posted by: Lyle | August 20, 2009 11:58 AM
Shortly after the December 26, 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, a show on National Public Radio was asking people how that disaster fit into their religious views. One man said that before the tsunami, he had been feeling depressed, but that he felt better because God showed hi that He loved the man because He didn't send a disaster to effect the man. I don't know which bother me more, the idea that the man thinks his god would send a disaster to kill more that a quarter of a million people to cheer the man up, or the fact that it did cheer the man up.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | August 20, 2009 12:00 PM
Off-topic: everybody's seen Orac's remarks on Francis Collins' recent statement about his NIH plans, right? I think what Orac sez about Collins overselling genomics, etc., is spot-on. He also complains about atheists attacking Collins for no good reason:
Which, as I see it, misses a few points:
1. Arguably, Collins has been operating in his own personal "comfort zone". Would he, or anyone, choose to work in an area of science which they found distasteful? Looking at Collins' career so far provides a biased sample of his views and abilities, one skewed towards the areas in which he is comfortable.
2. Decision-making aside, isn't injecting bafflegab about seeing God's handiwork in the genome and all that bad enough? The higher in the hierarchy he is, the more he represents the United States government; the more he is the face of government science policy, the more he ought to be bound by the constitutional mandate to secularism and neutrality.
3. Perhaps overlooked in the sound-and-fury is the point that no one who had been equally evangelical for any other religion — or equally vocal in boosting atheism — would have been selected for the job. This is not a complaint with Collins as an individual, so much as it is a systemic issue with American politics.
Whew. Glad I got that out of my system. Now, on to something more productive.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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August 20, 2009 12:01 PM
The tornado missed Morris, so god must love what PZ is doing...or his aim is terrible.
Posted by: Pamela | August 20, 2009 12:01 PM
We are actually here for the ELCA meeting and SAW the tornado touch down. We were thankfully in a car -- thankfully, and we don't have tornados in New York. We, do, however, have many liberals.
Posted by: Screechy the Didactic Macaque | August 20, 2009 12:02 PM
Are you sure that it didn't have a more new age cause? In 1999, I witnessed one Barbara Marciniak (UFO nutjob) claim that a tornado earlier in the day in Minneapolis was caused because she and Dannion Brinkley (JD swillin' new age lightning survior) were in the same room at the same time. Really. This had something to do with greys and lizard people but I never heard the end of the conversation so I can't be sure. It was numerous batshit crazy claims like this during my years working for Whole Life Expos that eroded, and finally cured, my magical-thinking. Don't even get me started on Deepak and Dr. Phil . . .
Posted by: Lynna | August 20, 2009 12:02 PM
@7
Exactly. It's not just for ourselves that we prefer enlightenment, the afflicted minds of the über religious also spark our empathy. It's a sad sight, especially if the madness has taken over someone close to us.
One of my brothers recently broke up again (for about the fifteenth time) with his church-going girlfriend. This experience, of seeing him be so patient with her for so long, and of him being so ready to wait for her to read a book, etc. -- that experience is at one remove for me, of course, but still very close.
I couldn't help but see that this otherwise intelligent woman became more like a child when she talked about religion. "My Father in Heaven..." and so forth. She was willing to (or willed herself to) drop all of her intellectual abilities when it came to religion. She also couldn't see how much of her depression stemmed from her religion, from the expectations her religion forced onto her. I would have been much happier with the situation if her religion seemed to be doing her more good than harm, but the balance was mostly on the harm side -- at least it was for her.
She was like a stubborn and very emotional child when it came to religion, to her view of sin, etc. And she was especially stubborn and insulting when it came to telling my brother whathe should be doing in order to get to heaven. One couldn't even have a very careful or polite or nice conversation with her. She would just shout something like "You must hate God so much! You are afraid of God!" She would accuse him of being influenced by Satan -- and she'd do this despite the evidence in front of her of his ethical and caring behavior. I came to think that part of her mind was damaged, or more likely, part of her mind was simply offline. And that the part that wasn't functioning properly was in the frontal lobes. You know, lack of judgement, inability to behave like an adult, inability to take in any new information; and almost complete inability to engage in divergent thinking.
I felt sorry for her. But at the same time, she was very destructive. "Rabies" is a great description.
Posted by: Jason | August 20, 2009 12:09 PM
Poor elms =(
First Dutch Elm disease, and now god hates them, too.
They can't cut a break...
Posted by: Lynna | August 20, 2009 12:11 PM
Someone up-thread suggested controlling the weather by driving a gay guy around to draw god's wrath away from christian churches. This is a great idea. We need to use the scientific method and set up several experiments.
The acid test might be a pick-up full of gay guys drawing the tornadoes away from the Oklahoma Panhandle; or maybe a parade of gay guys drawing a hurricane away from New Orleans (but we may have to create a parade of boats for that one).
Posted by: Qwerty | August 20, 2009 12:13 PM
Yes, bigots are so predictable. I thought and posted on another thread here yesterday that this is what would happen after the tornado damaged the Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. *sigh*
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 20, 2009 12:15 PM
Harumph. How rude, everyone knows sodomites prefer forceful smitings.
Posted by: Ray Moscow | August 20, 2009 12:17 PM
Whatever happened to good old Yahweh, who when determined to smite a city or two just wiped it out completely? And turned any regretful refugees into salt?
Those were the days! The wimpy Gods nowadays can't seem to make up their minds to actually do anything except halfassedly.
Posted by: defiantskeptic
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August 20, 2009 12:18 PM
You laugh, PZ, but at my university we get fundies every year like clockwork, sometimes a deranged brother and sister team who stand out on the quad and scream about how, among other things, education is the tool of the devil that will lead us all to damnation.
On a college campus.
Yeah, I laugh at them too.
Posted by: memyselfi | August 20, 2009 12:18 PM
Is that anything like arrogant bigots who use natural disasters to promote their hatred of people who believe in God?
Posted by: defiantskeptic
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August 20, 2009 12:23 PM
Tee hee, nothing quite like apologizing for the stupidity of people who think sexuality can have an effect on the weather.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | August 20, 2009 12:25 PM
This makes at least as much since as filling an airplane with shofar-tooting rabbis in order to defeat swine flu.
Posted by: Matt Heath | August 20, 2009 12:25 PM
Richard Eis @15:
In fairness to the (human and avian) subjects, "keeping doing the things you were doing when good things happened" isn't bad as a quick an dirty dreadful heuristic. It can go haywire (and how!) but if we didn't make many of our decisions on this sort of basis we'd probably get ourselves killed while trying to work out epistemicly sound way to know how to deal oncoming traffic.What Piper is doing is not that heuristic. He's using "Something has happened; how can it be interpreted to support what I already believe". This is always, under all circumstances, fucking stupid.
John Piper: dumber than pigeons!
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 20, 2009 12:30 PM
You have an acute case of not possessing any reading comprehension skills.
you big dummy
Posted by: Helena Handbag | August 20, 2009 12:33 PM
Everybody knows God hates the Midwest. He set us up on Autosmite ages ago and thus we get the wrath of tornado season each and every year.
Posted by: Qwerty | August 20, 2009 12:34 PM
Please, Rev BDC, some of us like to think of ourselves as Gomorrahites.
On a serious note: I would bet that the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Bible was just another convenient incident like this one that was used by Biblical writers to show the wrath of their non-existent deity. It is amazing how much misery has been brought to so many lives throughout history by these few words.
And they call their god a god of love.
Posted by: Sarah Trachtenberg | August 20, 2009 12:37 PM
To quote Calvin and Hobbes:
"I don't know which is more appalling, your concept of theology or your concept of meteorology."
Why do Xians seem to interpret natural disasters in ways like this? Oh, yeah, because it's convenient.
Posted by: liquidthinker | August 20, 2009 12:41 PM
*sigh* Since no one else is saying it, I guess I have to. God hates trailer parks. Seems his almighty aim was a bit off this time though.
Posted by: lose_the_woo | August 20, 2009 12:48 PM
Where:
convenient = intellectually lazy + comfortably ignorant + emotionally vulnerable
Posted by: uppity cracka | August 20, 2009 12:52 PM
well, i live in south minneapolis and god missed my pretty gay neighborhood (uptown, come for the booze--stay for the...well, booze) by a good TWENTY BLOCKS. dude just has shitty aim, i guess.
electric fetus took a minor hit. probably because they sell music by gay artists and employ gay hipsters.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
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August 20, 2009 12:55 PM
What gives you the idea we hate people who believe in god? We find their delusional behavior very amusing. So we laugh at it. If they don't want us to laugh at them, maybe they should keep their delusional ideas to themselves, and not be public with them.Posted by: Ben | August 20, 2009 1:04 PM
God admits he did this on purpose:
http://stuffgodhates.com/2009/08/i-smite-minneapolis/
He even says he was trying to smite you, PZ!
Posted by: Conversational Atheist | August 20, 2009 1:08 PM
It is interesting when god-believers interpret "acts of god" in only one direction.
God smites enemy church -- god's punishing them.
God smites own church -- god's testing us.
I think that Zeus is getting angry with all these Christian churches.
My blog post that has photographic evidence that Zeus is winning the battle against Yahweh:
Zeus Punishes Christian Church
Posted by: Gilian | August 20, 2009 1:11 PM
@#55
Alternatively, he was 100% accurate but was actually aiming at a person who had the audacity to wear a shirt made out of cotton & linen.
Posted by: harv | August 20, 2009 1:13 PM
Other posts already beat me to it, but:
God was trying to send a brush back pitch to the atheist bus in Iowa and missed high and tight-
Helena Handbag-"He set us up on Autosmite"-good one!
Posted by: Lily | August 20, 2009 1:19 PM
At least it wasn't the wrath of Khan. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.
Posted by: Pete | August 20, 2009 1:28 PM
And it was just several years ago that I thought the world of Dr. Piper. Dr. Piper is a very nice man, and you might be surprised that he is quite intelligent as well. Such is the evidence that religion can take us very nice and intelligent people and make us say things that are utterly bat-shit insane.
Posted by: me | August 20, 2009 1:43 PM
Funny, Luther had the same question for the Pope.Posted by: Richard Eis | August 20, 2009 1:44 PM
-This makes at least as much sense as filling an airplane with shofar-tooting rabbis in order to defeat swine flu.-
No mine is more scientific. ;p
and it doesn't matter that the underlying premise is flawed. Dembski does it and calls it science.
Posted by: Holydust | August 20, 2009 2:00 PM
Maybe God just gets drunk sometimes.
Posted by: aratina cage | August 20, 2009 2:01 PM
Much better, and the answer is "Yes."Posted by: pierocketofdoooooom99 | August 20, 2009 2:08 PM
uh huh. and those creatinonists STILL push it. ugh. oh and god hates amputees too. and new orleans(HURRICANE CATRINA). and just about everything else. everyone with cancer is evil to god! woooooooooooooo, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Posted by: rrt | August 20, 2009 2:22 PM
Why apologize, Lily? It's a good analogy. God's managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, he keeps...missing...the target!
Posted by: peter | August 20, 2009 4:02 PM
On March 27, 1994, a tornado struck a Methodist church in Piedmont, Alabama, killing twenty people and injuring 90.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak
I lack knowledge of what topics were addressed during the sermon, but clearly the victims were gathered there to praise god and jesus.
A number of atheists living in the region were not affected by the storm.
Posted by: Bob | August 20, 2009 4:08 PM
God loves gay marriage. As soon as we make it legal, Iowa has a below average tornado season.
http://addins.kwwl.com/blogs/weather/?p=6548
Those darn Minnesotans better join the civil rights bandwagon if they want to get on god's good side.
And there's actually a discussion of medical marijuana.
http://www.kcci.com/news/18891125/detail.html
And the buses are showing the atheist ads again.
Posted by: Melody | August 20, 2009 5:02 PM
Maybe this is a sign that we should "teach the controversy" in schools of the Theory of Divine Anger (DA) for lightning and other natural disasters. It's had a tradition of being believed for thousands of years, so it must have legitimacy!!!1!!
Posted by: Emil | August 20, 2009 5:08 PM
I was watching the live feed. The tornado hit during the bible study. That was the Spirit - moving the church.... ahead.
Posted by: TrekkinBob | August 20, 2009 5:14 PM
God's just gettin' back at humanity for accepting Ben's invention instead of having faith.
Posted by: Tuxedo Cartman
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August 20, 2009 5:52 PM
#69, Peter, I'm going to have to check Snopes.com for that one. I mean, it doesn't add up. What are atheists doing living in Alabama? I think living in there could convince me there is a god, and that he hates me.
Posted by: Syd | August 20, 2009 6:17 PM
Re: Robert Hilbinger @ 24: Sorry, but the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod was founded in Chicago in 1847 as "The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States." The name was changed to its current form in 1947. A 1976 offshoot of the LC-MS, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, was one of the three predecessor churches that formed the ELCA in 1988.
Other than that, your background shows you have it right re: the ELCA's more liberal position relative to the LC-MS. Once my eight or so years in the latter wore off (age 11 to 19...long story), I concluded the LC-MS was about as close as Lutherans were going to get to being RC without actually converting, their "in, with and under" doctrine re: the Eucharist being only slightly less batty than transubstantiation.
Of course, that was before I found out there are at least two Lutheran churches, WELS and CLC, even more conservative than the LC-MS.
[/pedantry] Sorry about that...
Posted by: Joffan | August 20, 2009 7:23 PM
So there's a barman and a priest out for a game of golf one afternooon. Straight off the first tee the barman sliced into the trees, and yelled "Hell and damnation!". The priest looked distressed and asked the barman to avoid swearing as he felt it was an affront to God. The barman promised to do his best.
The priest was the better golfer but the barman having a good game and hanging in there. The barman had a short putt to take the sixth hole but just missed and the ball went as far past again. Biting his tongue he lined up the return shot and it stopped an inch to the left of the hole. He hurled his putter off the green and shouted "God damn it!". The priest looked annoyed: "Don't swear like that" he told his opponent, "or God will punish you". The barman apologised and the game continued.
However it was just two holes later that the barman, stuck in a sand trap, was trying for the third time to hack out. Finally his ball got up to the lip of the trap, teetered for a moment and then trickled back in. "Jesus fucking Christ!" screamed the barman and the priest drew himself up in outrage. "May God strike you dead for your continued blasphemy!" he roared at the barman.
The clouds above roiled and a lightning bolt struck, searing the priest to a crisp. "Bugger me - missed again!" boomed a voice from above.
Posted by: e h | August 20, 2009 8:12 PM
Maybe god was telling them ..you better give equality to all and the one vote needed heard the word and changed his mind and it passed for no one was hurt and this would suggest to me his flock listened
Posted by: Vlad the Impaler | August 20, 2009 9:33 PM
"I hate pretentious gomers who use natural disasters to promote their goofy belief in a whimsical deity."
----
Really? It seems that societies have been destroyed in the past becuase of sins. What makes you think that God stopped doing that all of a sudden? I guess when California falls off into the ocean, you'll understand the wrath of God. Is that what it will take?
Don't misunderstand me, there are good people in California, but San Fransicko is a haven for sodomites and all kinds of filth. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Why could it not happen to San Fransicko? New York, LA? Seattle? Why not? Eventually it might. Remember 9/11? Evene though proponents of a false God attacked us, perhaps God allowed it to happen as a warning to us. This happened to Israel and Judah. God allowed the pagan enemies of His own chosen people to capture them , enslave them, torture them, etc. becuase they left Him. What makes you think he couldn;t do that to us?
Posted by: Somnolent Aphid | August 20, 2009 9:36 PM
It's because Laura Ingalls Wilder hates Minneapolis.
Posted by: Cowcakes | August 20, 2009 10:00 PM
Its a sign, Follow the gourd.
Posted by: raven | August 20, 2009 10:15 PM
Because he doesn't exist.
Posted by: JefFlyingV | August 20, 2009 10:35 PM
Vlad the Impaler, you're not expecting to be taken seriously are you? Why not Knoxville, Huntsville, Macon or Nashville? Nice handle, it matches your thoughts.
Posted by: peter | August 20, 2009 11:11 PM
Tuxedo Cartman, #74, I am an atheist living in Georgia, which is only about 20% less backwards than Alabama, so it's possible. But I have been giving some serious thought to relocating to New England or Denmark or somewhere else where the people aren't a bunch of goobers like they are here.
Posted by: GMacs | August 20, 2009 11:54 PM
One of the commenters talks of "rank and file members of the ELCA". As a confirmed member of the ELCA (no longer a believer) I can tell you there is no such beast. As to the diversity of thought and behavior of other evangelicals I have met.
btw: the ELCA stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which contains 2 misnomers. They tend to preach to no one but their own families (still not happy about that, but it's a start) so they are not evangelical. And they are very friendly toward Jews and other religions, supportive of science and reason, and really not into a literal Biblical interpretation, so they are far to reasonable of people to be considered Lutheran.
Posted by: GMacs | August 21, 2009 12:02 AM
Really? It seems that societies have been destroyed in the past becuase of sins.
Rome started declining after it fell to Christian rule, leading to its ultimate fall.
Ever heard of the Dark Ages? They followed the Golden Ages.
Posted by: anon | August 21, 2009 1:12 AM
You know that some Lutherans believe that the tornado was more about today's decision to be cooperate with Methodists than yesterday's decision about the sexuality statement. You can't help being gay, but being Methodist is a choice.
Posted by: ExOrganist | August 21, 2009 2:59 AM
Although our weather is less impressive, we're not immune from this kind of thinking in the UK, either - a couple of years back an Anglican bishop blamed the severe flooding we'd had in the North of England on Britain's acceptance of homosexuality. His argument was not helped by the fact that the areas affected weren't exactly noted for their gay-friendliness, plus, as one comedian pointed out, the fact that Brighton is still above sea level.
Re #47 - apparently a Malaysian "alternative therapist" has announced that homosexual activity increases the risk of catching H1N1. So now we know that swine flu is caused by gay sex and cured by flying rabbis. Isn't pseudoscience fun?
Posted by: Richard Eis | August 21, 2009 4:28 AM
-apparently a Malaysian "alternative therapist" has announced that homosexual activity increases the risk of catching H1N1. So now we know that swine flu is caused by gay sex and cured by flying rabbis. Isn't pseudoscience fun?-
Thats my Quote of the Day sorted. Thank you. Shame about the coffee i snorted.
Posted by: aratina cage | August 21, 2009 9:41 AM
-You can't help being gay, but being Methodist is a choice.
Not really. From the United Methodist Church FAQ:
As with most religions, children are suckered into being Methodists far too early and too swiftly for it to be much of a choice. It would be an honest choice if Methodists spoke of membership purely as an option for adults—not a necessity for children, and if clear alternatives (especially atheism and the possibility of non-Christian beliefs) and an attitude of respectful Methodist tolerance for the alternatives were presented prior to confirmation. Best of luck finding a Methodist congregation that proceeds in such a manner.
Posted by: Somnolent Aphid | August 21, 2009 5:41 PM
Oh Vlad the Impaler. You are so quaint.
No society has ever been destroyed in the past because of its sins.
I do remember 9/11. Some crazy people wanted to start a war with the US, and I guess they got what they asked for. All gods are false gods. So anything done in the name of any god is, by nature, false, misguided and dumb.
To the extent that Israel and Judah were subjugated, there was no supernatural protection, there never was, and there never will be, and there never could possibly be such a thing. And more to the point, there was no supernatural protection that could have been lifted, except as a plot line in a sick, and poorly written story.
Vlad, if you do still believe in god, you should know, and be certain of this, that he hates being believed in. For it is so written!