I've heard several from the hard left say that America deserved this punishment, because we are Capitalist Imperialists, and the CIA and Exxon have been doing nasty things in the Third World for decades, and we funded and supported Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein years ago.
And, now we have the hard (religious) right saying we deserved it, because we are a sinful nation, allowing diversity and various freedoms they don't think God allows.
The other 95% of us think we didn't deserve this, and we're outraged that anyone would try to blame the victims.
There seem to be a whole pantheon of different Gods worshipped in America, Gods who all are called Christ, which makes things confusing. Some of us worship a God of love and forgiveness, a God who said to love your neighbor and turn the other cheek.
Falwell and Robertson pray to (and presume to speak for) a very different God. These two men (just men, oh so fallible men) remind me of the Old Testament, a whole lot more than anything in the New Testament. They seem like a couple of those Old Testament Prophets, who come up with many, many, many rules, and them watch everybody all the time (they know we are all wicked, so we can't be trusted to run our own lives). Then, the minute anyone steps out of line, they smite them. Only, this is America (not Iran), and it's the 21st Century (not the Dark Ages), so the Prophets don't have any power to go smiting all the people who deserve it (so they say God says). So, what to do? They just wait around till something bad happens to someone (anything bad, to anyone), and then they shout with glee, "see, you didn't follow our rules, and now God has punished you!"
Very weird, and very ugly, looking into their minds. |
