Why did the hurricane Katrina happen?
Part 2:
More reasons given by religious conservatives

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Reasons given for the 2005 tragedy by religious conservatives (Cont'd):
"It's that kind of stuff -- not God -- that brings disaster. When you
invoke dark spirits, you get a storm....when we look at the Bible we
note that black magic -- the very definition of Voodoo -- was quickest
to bring the Lord's judgment.
God allows this to purge us when we don't purge ourselves. It doesn't
have to happen but unless evil is expelled -- especially hardcore
occultism like voodoo, which is the darkest form of evil -- it's
inevitable.
And the cycles may be coming due. The return rate for a category-three
[hurricanes] is 31 years, a category-four 65 years, and a category-five 170 years....
If a category-five made landfall between your city and Baton Rouge,
according to an emergency manager named Walter Maestri, it would be:
"... the
most catastrophic hurricane in the history of the United States." 4
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According to Dateline: Hollywood, the famous Evangelical teleminister Pat Robertson said that God steered
Katrina towards New Orleans because he was angry at the Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences for their selection of Ellen Degeneres to
host the 2005 Emmy Awards. He was alleged to have said on his 700 club TV program:
"By
choosing an avowed lesbian for this national event, these Hollywood elites
have clearly invited God’s wrath. Is it any surprise that the Almighty chose
to strike at Miss Degeneres' hometown?"
He is also alleged to have noted
that the last time that Degereres was selected to host the Emmies, the 9-11
terrorist attack occurred. He is reporting as having said:
"This is the
second time in a row that God has invoked a disaster shortly before lesbian
Ellen Degeneres hosted the Emmy Awards. America is waiting for her to
apologize for the death and destruction that her sexual deviance has brought
onto this great nation."13
This report was widely circulated on the Internet. It made sense to many
people because Robertson has made many similar outrageous comments in the
past. During a 1998-AUG-06 broadcast of The 700 Club, Mr. Robertson addressed comments at participants of the Orlando, Florida, Gay Pride Festival, stating:
"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you'." 14
Also, on 2005-AUG-22 Robertson called for a death squad
to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. However, as reasonable as
the message about Katrina seems to some folks, he did not say it. It was all
a hoax apparently perpetrated by Dateline: Hollywood. 14 Unfortunately, it has been widely reported as truth.
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The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, KS sponsors the virulent,
anti-gay "God Hates Fags" website. They placed a short article online
titled "Thank God for Katrina." It said, in part: |
"New Orleans, symbol of America, seen for what it is: a putrid, toxic,
stinking cesspool of fag fecal matter....America is irreversibly doomed.
It is a sin to pray for the good of this evil fag nation ... It is a sin
NOT to rejoice when God executes His wrath and vengeance on America.
Pray for more dead bodies floating on the fag-semen-rancid waters of New
Orleans. Pray for more American bodies blown to smithereens by cheap
home made Iraqi IEDs - like the IED America bombed WBC with August 20,
1995, hoping thereby to terrorize us into silence about America's fag
sins. America became WBC's terrorist. So, God, in retaliation, became
America's Terrorist." 15
The
reference to terrorism by America apparently relates to the triggering of
three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Topeka on the same date. One
was in the driveway of Shirley Phelps-Roper's home, which is part of the
church compound. She is a member of the WBC. 16 The church
found evidence that three men were the perpetrators. However, the WBC attributes
responsibility to all Americans.
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Louis Farrakhan, leader of Nation of Islam suggested that the
devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was divine punishment for the
violence that the U.S. had inflicted on Iraq. He said: |
"New Orleans is the first of the cities going to tumble down...
unless America changes its course...It is the wickedness of the people
of America and the government of America that is bringing the wrath of
God down." 5
"The pastor explains that for years he has
warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand
against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known
as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event
scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be
felt [again]."
'New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras
free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites,
the witchcraft workers, false religion --
it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply,
I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now
we're going to start over again." 11
He seems to be implying that when New Orleans
is rebuilt, that gays, lesbians, abortion providers and their clinics, and
non-Christians should be not permitted to return to the city. Religious
freedom, tolerance, and diversity do not appear to be among Rev. Shanks'
priorities.


References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, "White House shifts blame for Katrina response. Administration, embattled FEMA chief
point to state, local officials," The Washington Post, 2005-SEP-04, at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/"
- at Robertson's statement regarding terrorist attack," Christian
Broadcasting Network, 2001-SEP-14, at: http://www.cbn.com/
- New Orleans City Council President: 'Maybe God's Going To
Cleanse Us'," LifeSiteNews.com, 2005-SEP-01, at: http://www.lifesite.net/
- Michael H. Brown, "Oh New Orleans, shed ye the darkness or
face disaster," Spirit Daily, 2004-SEP, at: http://www.spiritdaily.org/
- "Farrakhan: God punishing U.S. for Iraq with storm," ExChristian.net,
2005-SEP-04, at: http://exchristian.net/
- Ray Ruiz, "Friendly Gay New Orleans," at: http://www.funmaps.com/
- "A home for a home," Jerusalem Newswire, 2005-AUG-29, at: http://www.jnewswire.com/
- Chuck Baldwin, "Is God removing his hand of protection from
America," Covenant News, 2005-SEP-02, at: http://www.covenantnews.com/
- Walter Russell, "Remember and Repent," Covenant News,
circa 2005-SEP-02, at: http://www.covenantnews.com/
- David Alan Black, "Shining in the Darkness," 2005-SEP-02,
at: http://covenantnews.com/
- Jody Brown and Allie Martin, "New Orleans Residents: God's
Mercy Evident in Katrina's Wake" Agape Press, 2005-SEP-02, at: http://headlines.agapepress.org/
- Tony Campolo, "Katrina: Not God's Wrath--or His Will. The
Hebrew Bible doesn't say God is omnipotent. When disaster strikes, he cries with
the rest of us," Beliefnet.com, undated, at: http://www.beliefnet.com/
- "Roberts blames hurricane on choice of Ellen Degeneres to
host Emmys," Dateline: Hollywood, 2005-SEP-12, at: http://datelinehollywood.com/
- "God's Wrath," Snopes.com, 2005-SEP-12, at: http://www.snopes.com/
- "Thank God for Katrina," Westboro Baptist Church,
2005-AUG-31, at: http://www.godhatesfags.com and http://www.godhatesamerica.com/
- Shirley Phelps-Roper, "The Night America Bombed Westboro
Baptist Church..." God Hates Fags, undated, at: http://www.godhatesfags.com/

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Copyright © 2005 to 2014 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-SEP-04
Latest update: 2014-MAR-14
Author: B.A. Robinson

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