I’ve moved on to other places to get my news, but I still check the AP/Reuters/MSM headlines at Yahoo a few times throughout the day. Just to make sure the world didn’t blow up or something. The upshot to this (besides seeing that the world hasn’t blown up) is getting to see some real humdingers.
Take, for instance, this doozy:
[New Orleans] Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that “God is mad at America” and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.
I think that’s a pretty egotistical statement, don’t you?
I mean think about it…bad things happen all around the world day in and day out, but when it happens to us, it’s all God’s fault. It’s not just plain bad luck, it’s God’s wrath, almost as if anything we do is subject to intense divine scrutiny. If we slip up, if we take one wrong step, God comes down upon us like a ton of bricks! BAM!
Never mind that parts of southeastern Asia are still rebuilding after a devastating tsunami or that thousands will have to face a brutal winter without shelter in quake-ravaged Kashmir. God hits us with two hurricanes and we must have surely screwed up somewhere as if somehow our very own missteps are that spectacular; that we’re special enough that anything we do either pleases Him or doesn’t while the rest of the world just goes about its sing-song way.
You know what? I don’t buy it. Now, I know that Mayor Nagin has been through a lot (to understate the obvious) and that no one should have to go through what he and his city are going through right now (along with the rest of the Gulf Coast). But to somehow suggest that two hurricanes were sent on high, just for us, is a little far-fetched, even if you believe in God or not. It’s also arrogant.
There’s just too much suffering in the world as it stands now. You can say, “Well shit, God’s plenty pissed at plenty people” or you can say “it’s a damn shame what nature hath wrought.” But to somehow equate those two storms with His wrath…*just for us*…is being severely close-minded.