--- In [email protected], Mike Dixon <mdixon.6...@...> wrote: > > Actually the reason is, so many damned yankees moving to the South to find > jobs! >
Are you a teabagger, Mike? > ________________________________ > From: do.rflex <do.rf...@...> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sun, May 9, 2010 10:06:57 AM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Why Is God Smiting the Deep South? > >  > > > Why Is God Smiting the Deep South? > > Jon Ponder | May 3, 2010 > > >       When cataclysmic disasters strike, it usually doesn't take long > for TV prophets like Pat Robertson, John Hagee and the late, unlamented Jerry > Falwell to pronounce them portentous signs of God's wrath. Equally > predictable: God's punishments are always closely aligned with the prophets' > right-wing political views. > It's notable then that with the biggest-ever oil slick bearing down on Gulf > Coast beaches and a spate of deadly tornadoes and floods across the South > over the past few weeks, interpreters of divine vengeance have been eerily > quiet. > Their silence is atypical. For example, within about 48 hours after 9/11, > Robertson and Falwell were on the air expressing what appeared to be inside > knowledge about who was really to blame for the terror attacks: > JERRY FALWELL: [What] we saw on Tuesday [Sept. 11, 2001], as terrible as it > is, could be minuscule if, in fact â" if, in fact â" God continues to lift > the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we > deserve. > >PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the > >antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the > >major population. > >FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this. > >ROBERTSON: Well, yes. > >FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God > >out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out > >of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear > >some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 > >million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the > >pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the > >lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the > >ACLU, People For the American Way â" all of them who have tried to > >secularize Americaâ"I point the finger in their face and say "you helped > >this happen." > After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Hagee declared that God killed > 1,800 people and destroyed the region in order to prevent an annual gay event > in New Orleans: > HAGEE: In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally > was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened. > >[Right-wing talk show host DENNIS PRAGER]: No, I understand. > >HAGEE: It was scheduled that Monday. > >PRAGER: No, I'm only trying to understand that in the case of New Orleans, > >you do feel that God's hand was in it because of a sinful city? > >HAGEE: That it was a city that was planning a sinful conduct, yes. > God's plan worked perfectly, of course. The event was postponed. > About a month after Katrina struck, Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, > blamed the victim: > "This is one wicked city, okay? It's known for Mardi Gras, for Satan worship. > It's known for sex perversion. It's known for every type of drugs and alcohol > and the orgies and all of these things that go on down there in New Orleans > ⦠There's been a black spiritual cloud over New Orleans for years. They > believe God is going to use that storm to bring revival." > If you doubt that the divine hand of providence is at work today in the > oil-spill disaster, you need look no further than the fact that mighty winds > are blowing the oil, not southward toward communist Cuba and Hugo Chavez' > Venezuela, but north toward the shores of the most hidebound conservative > Christian enclaves on the planet this side of Vatican City. > Meanwhile, on April 24, as the oil spill disaster was building offshore, a > series of tornadoes carved a swath of death and destruction right through the > heart of the Bible Belt: > A supercell thunderstorm produced F-4 and F-3 rated tornadoes that killed at > least 12 people and sent many more to area hospitals. Yazoo City [Miss.] and > Holmes County [Miss.] were among the hardest-hit areas, with a F-4 tornado > bringing maximum winds of about 170 miles per hour. > >[Gov. Haley Barbour, R- Miss.] has already activated the National Guard and > >declared a state of emergency in 17 counties. He says the devastation in his > >state is reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. The killer tornado ⦠pulled up > >trees by the roots and destroyed businesses and homes. > In Yazoo City, the twister even destroyed a Baptist Church: > Dale Thrasher, 60, had been alone in Hillcrest Baptist Church when the > tornado hit Saturday, ripping away wood and metal until all that was left was > rubble, Thrasher and the table he had climbed under as he prayed for > protection. > >"The whole building caved in," he said. "But me and that table were still > >there." > And just today we learned that storms struck in northern Mississippi and > Tennessee, killing 15 people and stranding visitors to no less a secular > shrine to American Christian values than Opryland, where 1,500 guests had to > be evacuated to a high school. > And yet, despite all of this, those to whom God speaks are silent. What > gives? Could it be that God has told His prophets an awful truth â" that He > is directing His vengeance on the Deep South because His people have lost > their way? > It's worth considering. For one thing, leaders in the region have been > struggling with the heinous sin of adultery lately. At least two, Gov. Mark > Sanford (R-S.C.), former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.), are associated with > the Family, a powerful Christian pressure group in Washington. And then > there's Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who, despite being an admitted frequenter > of prostitutes, is apparently coasting to reelection this year, presumably > with the votes of Republican Christians in his state. > Or maybe God is punishing the Deep South, particularly the so-called "Black > Belt" where slavery once predominated, for clinging to racism. While liberal > churches have declared racism to be a sin, conservative Christians have been > steadfastly silent on the issue, even though, as one liberal denomination has > said, racism "destroys God's likeness in every person and thus repudiates > creation and its goodness." > Or could it be the tea party phenomenon that has angered the Almighty? The > Bible warns against following false prophets â" which would describe the > movement's leaders to, well, a "T." The movement was built on a foundation of > lies about health care reform, including that it would institute death > panels, that undocumented residents would be cared for, that abortions would > be covered and that it would lead to a government takeover, for example. > Perhaps God is angry because tea party leaders duped their Christian > followers into going against Christ's call to care for the sick and feed the > hungry â" to ignore teaching like this from Ezekiel 34:3-4: > You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat > ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the > sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you > have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and > harshness you have ruled them. > And then there is the tea baggers' sin of hypocrisy, which was summed up > succinctly in a sign that read, "Don't Steal From Medicare to Support > Socialized Medicine." Plus, there's the hypocrisy of elected officials like > senators Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and > Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and representatives Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), > Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and the rest, who enjoy the benefits of socialized, > government-run health plans but lied about reforms in order to deny access to > healing to 45 million Americans. > According to the Bible, these hypocrites are bound for hell, as detailed in > Matthew 23:27-28: > "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited > sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead > men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear > righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity". > It also has to be said that Southerners, especially those in the Deep South, > are more guilty of the cardinal sin of gluttony than their fellow Americans. > The modern-day Jeremiahs' silence is also odd since they have have not > hesitated to declare manifestations of God's wrath in other recent disasters. > Just last month, Hagee ascribed the volcano eruption in Iceland as a > manifestation of God's anger over a minor change in British policies about > advertising tourism in Israel: > The day after Britain's Advertising Standards Authority said the Western Wall > in Jerusalem could not be used in Israeli tourism ads in Britain because it > is considered occupied territory, Hagee said, the volcano erupted, shutting > down Britain's economy in one day. > >"That's coincidence, like the flood was a coincidence. That's coincidence, > >like the Red Sea was coincidence. That's coincidence, like the earthquake > >and the Resurrection was coincidence, " Hagee told about 3,200 people at > >Lancaster County [Penn.] Convention Center on Thursday night as part of John > >Hagee Ministries' Rally and Prophecy Seminar. > No less a sinner than Rush Limbaugh (gluttony, sloth, vainglory, pride, etc., > etc.) declared that the volcano eruption was God's vengeance for the passage > of health-care reform in the United States: > You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into > law Obama ran around all over the country saying, "Hey, you know, I'm looking > around. The earth hadn't opened up. There's no Armageddon out there. The > birds are still chirping." I think the earth has opened up. God may have > replied. This volcano in Iceland has grounded more airplanes â" airspace has > more affected â" than even after 9/11 because of this plume, because of this > ash cloud over Northern and Western Europe. At the Paris airport they're > telling people to head to the train station to catch trains out of France, > and when people get to the train station they're telling people, "There > aren't any seats until at least April 22nd," basically a week from now. It's > got everybody in a shutdown. Earth has opened up. I don't know whether it's a > rebirth or Armageddon. Hopefully it's a rebirth, God speaking. > In January, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Pat Robertson relayed > a message from above, declaring that the quake was caused by a deal struck > with Satan over 200 years ago by Haitian slaves seeking to overthrow the > island's French colonial government â" a deal they assumedly made after > Jesus turned down a chance to free the slaves. > Speaking of Robertson, no recounting of attributions of God's wrath can go > without mentioning his prophetic blunder 12 years ago â" an act of hubris > that ought to serve as an object lesson for those like Hagee, Franklin > Graham, Limbaugh, Falwell and Robertson himself, who commit the sin Jesus > decried when he said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." > In 1998, Robertson warned the residents of Orlando that God was sending a > hurricane to wipe out their city, not because of anything they had done, per > se, but because private groups not associated with the city were hosting > annual "gay day" celebrations at nearby Disneyworld. > But while Orlando went unsmited by storms that year, just a few months after > Robertson warned of God's vengeance on Orange County, Hurricane Bonnie > traveled up the East Coast, took aim at Robertson's own 700 Club compound at > Virginia Beach and swept right through causing minor damage to the area. > Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. > http://www.pensitor eview.com/ 2010/05/03/ why-is-god- smiting-the- > deep-south/ >
