One Utah

Okay, look it’s hard not feel a little schadenfreude this week. After all, it was Focus on the Family that was encouraging people to pray for rain on the night of Obama’s acceptance speech. What Denver had was a perfect night weatherwise. Now, as the Republicans try to gather for their convention, a massive hurricane heads to New Orleans. But I’d emphasize the schaden part - the shamefulness.

From Pam’s House Blend:

As we know, not only did it not rain in Denver, Hurricane Gustav is going to likely hit New Orleans during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota — just a few days after the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Perhaps if this were a relatively weak Cat 1 storm hitting any other coastal city but New Orleans, this might be a funny subject for a tongue-in-cheek post. However, what happened to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina isn’t funny; there is no humor in a Cat 3 or 4 storm hitting New Orleans during the week of Republican National Convention. In fact, it’s so humorless, it really highlights exactly how malevolent and unrighteous Stuart Sheppard’s prayer turned out to be.

Should Sheppard’s God exist and have paid attention to his iniquitous prayer — well, if I were Sheppard I’d hope my God’s response to my wrongheaded prayer wasn’t Hurricane Gustav. Sheppard should hope this hurricane is coincidence rather than the vengeful hand of his God manifesting itself against him and his prayer.

And if I were Stuart Sheppard, even weighing the small possibility that my God may have caused this storm in response to my prayer, I’d literally be putting on some sackcloth and ashes this coming week, and staying as far out of the spotlight as is humanly possible.

The painful irony of a weather related disaster striking New Orleans during the week of the Republican National Convention — after this Focus On The Family operative called for rain to strike an outdoor Democratic National Convention event — should be lost on no one.

Here’s a lesson For Sheppard that’s right out of The Bible: love people you perceive to be your enemies, and do good to them. Whatever you do, don’t ever pray for even minor disasters to strike those who you perceive as your enemies — Ostensible karma can be excruciatingly ugly.

(I think that may be the whole post - it’s not a long one).

Here’s the thing: Even if every member of Focus on the Family prayed for rain, it had no effect. God didn’t ignore their prayers and God didn’t answer their prayers by sending Gustav. The world just doesn’t work like that.

This entry was posted Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 8:02 am and is filed under 2008 Election, Conservative Sell-Outs, Conservatives, This Blog, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.