It’s the same basic story we hear about every time there’s a natural disaster, though with a bit of a twist this time.
When Sandy hit the New York metropolitan area in 2012, the floodwaters in Lower Manhattan were still rising when some pastors pointed out what, to them, was obvious.
“God is systematically destroying America,” the Rev. John McTernan, a conservative Christian pastor who runs a ministry called USA Prophecy, said in a post-Sandy blog entry that has since been removed. The reason God was so peeved, he claimed, was “the homosexual agenda.”
McTernan belongs to a subset of religious conservatives – including some well-known names – who see wrath and retribution in natural disasters.
Usually, their logic revolves around LGBT themes – Buster Wilson of the American Family Association claimed God sent Hurricane Isaac to stop an annual LGBT festival; the Rev. Franklin Graham blamed Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans’ “orgies”; and Catholic priest Gerhard Wagner called Katrina “divine retribution” for New Orleans’ tolerance of homosexuality.
Other times, the scapegoat is gay marriage, abortion rights or policies seen as harmful to Israel.
Yet as Harvey hit Houston, those quick to see God’s angry handiwork in earlier storms have so far focused their efforts on praising Houston’s first responders and volunteers.
[…]
Stephen T. Davis, a professor of philosophy at Claremont McKenna College who has written about Christian theodicy – the problem of why bad things happen to good people – said the idea of God’s punishment gets “very little traction” outside conservative religious circles.
He said that “the secular world finds explanations like ‘God wanted to punish Houston’ ridiculous.”
But Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow at People for the American Way, which monitors the religious right, said the reaction from the finger-waggers “is different this time around.”
“I checked with my colleagues and we have a couple of theories,” Montgomery said.
One theory is that Texas, with a few exceptions, is a religious right stronghold. Gov. Greg Abbott is popular with conservative Christians, so perhaps they are less willing to suggest God is unhappy with him. Abbott supports tougher abortion access laws and signed the “Pastor Protection Act,” which allows pastors to refuse to marry same-sex couples.
Another theory is that Christian conservatives don’t want to suggest Houston deserves divine retribution. In 2015, city voters soundly struck down an anti-discrimination bathroom law with support from many Christian groups and leaders.
“I think that makes it hard for the religious right to say there is some kind of collective sin in Houston that God wants to punish,” Montgomery said. “But if Harvey had hit New Orleans you still would have had people dredging up decadence in that city, or if an earthquake had hit San Francisco, you would have had people saying it was because of homosexuality.”
It may be the case that some of the usual high-profile suspects are keeping their pie holes shut in deference to some warped political thinking, but there are still plenty of other assholes who are happy to fly their freak flags. I don’t have words strong enough to condemn the monstrousness of this line of thinking, but I do know this. I’m friends with Melaney Linton, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. I ran into her over the weekend, and as one does I asked her if she made it through the storm all right. She told me that all of the PPGC Gulf Coast clinics made it through with no damage, as did she and her house. For those of you who want to see a divine hand in this type of storm, make of that what you will.
Evil things like genocide and slavery happen, but God sends no messages. Church leaders abuse children or con the poor to finance their lavish life styles, but nary a Devine word. But the government recognizing gay unions? It’s smitin’ time!!!