The Irony Of Being Demonspawn

Today was the most gorgeous day in San Francisco: the air was crisp and clear - glowing from the SF Giants' sweep of the World Series. It was a day to remember, a day to cherish. I stopped by that gay mecca, the Castro, where some people strolled shirtless, men hand-in-hand, delighting in God's gift of the marvelous day.

As I gazed upon The City from the upper reaches of its infamous gay mecca, I though back to "prophet" Lou Engle's descriptive words of its local demizens: "...those people who embrace the darkness." I hoped Engle was somewhere - anywhere - on the East Coast.

For it was not a beautiful day anywhere along the East Coast, not in New York, Washington, Atlantic City, Baltimore, or even Virginia Beach. That's right, not even Pat Robertson's Virginia Beach escaped the wrath of Frankenstorm's  God. The almighty Pat Robertson who once boasted that he had prayed away a hurricane was powerless against Frankenstorm. Perhaps his encroaching senility had something to do with it. 

San Francisco has always been an anomaly to the Christian Right: the bastion of sin with the best of taste, sophistication and ...compassion. It is unconquerable in its fight for human dignity and rights. Many have tried to scale its walls of liberalism and failed, simply because the only kind of people it cannot tolerate is the intolerant. And while it will give succor to the lowest of the low, it will not harbor the highest purveyors of righteous arrogance.

It fairly glows amidst contempt by the radical Christian Right. 

Home to the only "Emperor of The United States", to washer-women-turned-society matrons, to drag queens, to political prostitutes, to architectural oddities and to porn shops, San Francisco is certainly a candidate for the ultimate disdainful sobriquet "demonspawn." It is a town of the devil and one which the Christian Right prays daily for two or three more shake-ups along the San Andreas (preferably more than 8.0 to be thorough). 

Maybe God Has Changed His Mind

If anyone is tired of the incessant carping by the Christian Right about San Francisco's sinful status, it might just be ... God. After all, after Colorado Springs (the Vatican of the West in Christian Right Circles), Virginia Beach is the cornerstone of morality, with Pat Robertson and his CBN empire at its center. Why, Pat Robertson is on a one-on-one basis with God every day, it seems. But God may be tired of having His name used in vain: against people instead of for them, as a weapon against enemies as opposed to a support for friends and neighbors. He might be tired of the incessant invocation of His name to do harm to people (ala imprecatory prayer). He might look at wickedness in a completely different light these days and might consider a prosperity pulpit pimp not quite the worthy proponent of the kind of righteousness He envisioned.

Mark Twain once said "God made Man because He was disappointed in the monkey." 

Maybe Frankenstorm is a demonstration of God's contempt for Pat Robertson and His admiration for those "people who embrace the darkness."

Just a thought.

   

Post Frankenstorm: Will God's ambulance Chasers Be Out In Full Force? Will Romney Help Them?

As one third of America begins to suffer from the onslaught of the "Storm of the Century", people are preparing to help disaster victims. The President has prepped FEMA to the greatest degree and the disaster will prove his mettle more than anything else in the course of his Presidency. The aftermath, however, may prove to be as devastating as the storm itself in terms of compassion - who doles it out and how.It will provide great photo-ops to the Romney campaign just days before the election, but... Romney's campaign has gone into overdrive calling to hamper FEMA funding, and unless the Obama Administration screws up big time (which, so far, it hasn't), Romney will have a tough time politicizing this natural disaster.
Think Progress:

"Last year, after a major tornado and flood struck the United States, Romney was asked in a debate about federal disaster relief funding. Romney not only suggested shuttering FEMA and sending responsibility for disaster relief “back to the private sector,” but also said it would be “immoral” for the federal government to fund disaster relief efforts without cutting the budget elsewhere. “It makes no sense at all,” Romney concluded. Watch it:

Huffington Post:

"Obama advisers say they've learned the lessons from President George W. Bush's widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush was seen as ineffective and out of touch, and his presidency never recovered."

The message is clear: Obama is President and Commander-in-Chief first, and a candidate for the Presidency second. It may be sublime irony for those Romney supporters who need government disaster relief to realize that the same assistance would not have come under Romney's watch.

The Real Immorality Of Frankenstorm - God's Ambulance Chasers

World Net Daily:

"Journalist and White House correspondent William Koenig explained to WND that some of the United States’ most catastrophic storms and events have correlated closely with the nation’s God-defying attempts to divide the land of Israel."

Yes, the radical Christian Right is going into overdrive to explain why Frankenstorm exists and why relief for such a huge natural disaster would merely be giving succor to a nation who defies the will of God. Of course, churches will dole out relief supplies and whole denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention will organize some relief efforts, but the righteousness with which they do it may truly be the most immoral thing about the situation: looking at neighborhood victims with a kind of benign contempt, or blaming a catastrophe on groups such as gays and pro-choice (which you know is forthcoming, ala Jerry Falwell and 9/11) may be the most righteously arrogant act of a group that trumpets its acts and predictions first, rains Bibles on victims second, then distributes food, clothing and medical supplies as an afterthought.


In the coming days we will hear how the East Coast is shaped like a devil, how it signed a pact with the devil, how Obama is the Anti-Christ and how gay marriage in New York beckoned Frankenstorm. The disaster will bring a field day to moralists everywhere and they will not stop until everyone gets the message: liberal America is evil - vote your conscience, vote conservative, vote Romney ... and vote out Obama. They may have only a few days to get the message across, but God's Ambulance Chasers work fast: there will be videos and FOX News pieces (via Mike Huckabee) galore.

Fred God-Hates-America Phelps will gloat ...and the Westboro Baptist Church will probably send out child picketers to victims' funerals.

Whither Romney?The ties that bind Romney to the Christian Right may be tenuous, but they are ties that Romney wants desperately to strengthen: he may stop short of calling Obama the cause of the storm, but he will certainly feature a strong religious element. He may even distribute Bibles for a photo-op (certainly not the Book of Mormon). 

And if Obama weathers the storm as a true Commander in Chief, distributing Bibles may be the only thing Romney can do: politicizing it would certainly be ...immoral.