Stupid things religious people say

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Here's an article from almost 20 years ago (2007). Do you think that theology has advanced since then?

Some senior Anglican bishops are apparently claiming that the "floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society". The Sunday Telegraph reports that the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev Graham Dow, believes "laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless".

This isn't the first time a religious figure has connected a natural disaster with gay people. Last year, Rabbi David Basri shocked some commentators by arguing that the deadly bird flu in Israel was sent by God in response to calls in election campaigns to legalise gay marriages. Hurricane Katrina attracted a host of competing religious explanations, including Fred Phelps, who saw the hurricane as God's judgment on American sexual immorality, Mayor Ray Nagin, who argued in his famous "Chocolate City speech" that God was "mad at" black America, and Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, a Kuwaiti government official, who claimed that God sent the hurricane as retribution for US foreign policy under George Bush.

Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberston famously alleged that the September 11 attacks were a sign that God was no longer protecting America in response to feminism, abortion rights and the sexual revolution. Attempts to link natural tragedies with divine retribution are as old as religion itself in human history.

But, in this case, those labelling the natural disaster as divine punishment are (oddly enough) Church of England bishops. I note that because these kinds of moral explanations for natural events are more usually the terrain of American televangists. Bishop Graham Dow may soon tell us why he thinks God has decided to send a flood as a judgment -- particularly since the Noahic flood narrative contains an apparent commitment never to do so again (Genesis 9:11). His defenders will point out that the Genesis 9 commitment refers to a flood that would destroy the world, not to localised floods.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2007/07/t...again.html

Seeing as how the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake in Massachusetts was blamed by some theologians as Divine punishment for Franklin’s lightning rods diverting godly retribution, I’m forced to observe that there are aspects of theology that NEVER advance, let alone in twenty years.

As an aside, Dr. Franklin wryly observed that if people were to face God’s wrath unprotected, they should all take the roofs off their houses.

Boru