The Wrath of God

A friend recently shared a posting from a Christian friend speculating that the real reason Katrina did so much damage had nothing to do with underfunding the Army Corps of Engineers or appointing a horse dude to head FEMA.

Just as you suspected, it's because New Orleans was so sinful, it deserved to be smitten.

Here are a few useful assumptions and observations.

1. Christ rewrote large portions of the Old Testament.
2. When asked what the "most important commandment" was, for example (1), Jesus responded with something like, "Love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole being, and love one another as you love yourself."
3. Somewhere else in the bible God says, "vengeance is mine."

What does this mean to anyone who is presumptuous enough to call themself Christian?

First, you don't keep God's palm pilot. It's blasphemy (2) to assert that God's pissed at one or more of your fellow humans.

Second, we're called to love one another as we love God.

ANY CHRISTIAN'S FIRST OBLIGATION IS TO HELP PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING. That's what Jesus meant by loving one another.

It doesn't matter whether they're gay or straight, they like fisting, or they use drugs. We might think, after the fact, that we were exploited or used. We might think we were taken advantage of. We might think that the welfare state created a moral abyss and we don't want to aid and abet more pernicious welfarism. We might even think that we might be at risk of being seen as tacitly endorsing a moral or life choice we personally would not make.

Jesus did not care about any of that. Jesus said we were to love one another.

If you want to condemn fellow beings' conduct and use that as a rationale not to help them out, that's your choice. But for God's sake (3), don't call yourself a Christian.

You're making other Christians look bad. And God doesn't like (4) that kind of hypocrisy.

Katrina was a mindless natural phenomenon. God created it, that's true, but none of us know His motives. And to assert otherwise is...

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(1) An attempt by biblical lawyers to trip him up. Man, those lawyers...

(2) Another great old term. Of course, to accuse someone else of blasphemy commits the same mistake this post is all about...God, don't you just love being human???

(3) Ironic usage? I think not...

(4) See footnote (2) above.