"Floods are judgment on society, say bishops"

This is shockingly ignorant.
This is a summary of a news article in the Telegraph. According to some senior Church of England bishops, recent storms and flooding that have left thousands homeless are due to “Gods Judgment”, whatever that is. He doesn’t come right out and say that God sent the storms to ravage innocent victims but he does say that he expresses his sympathy and that a problem with “environmental judgment is that it is indiscriminate". He asserts that moral decadence and lack of respect for the planet are the catalyst for the cause. He claims that western civilization is ignoring the teachings of the bible, cites homosexual friendly legislation as one example and describes “the Beast” in the bible as institutional power, a euphemism for Government, that sets itself up to control people and their morals.

Praise the Lord and bring on the Theocracy.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, at least they are arguing the way the Bible argues with regard to these things. The problem is that many Christians don't agree with them (or the Bible) on this.

Gene said...

Funny. I always thought of Anglicans as being among the saner ones.

Mark Plus said...

We have evidene for floods on the planet Mars. Did the Martians do something to piss off god?

Anonymous said...

This kind of thing went on with hurricane Katrina too.

Its a good thing they built Las Vegas in the desert. ;-)

Obviously all Christians don't think this way but why do any of them think this way at all?

Spirula said...

Pffft. Tithing is off no doubt. Let the fear mongering begin!

I'd like to get these folks take on the massive flooding in OK and TX this summer. Are the cowboys riding bareback in lavender chaps or something?

Steven Carr said...

Many ultra-sophisticated theologians wheel out the 'unknown purposes' defense to the problem of evil, claiming that we puny humans cannot understand the thoughts of a mighty god.

If this is true, how do we know that God would not flood countries because some of the inhabitants were gay?

Anonymous said...

Ok,
if we stipulate that he would do that, then by what criteria does he decide who gets flooded and who doesn't and (presuming that statistically speaking some of the victims would have christian values) why would he punish the faithful?

Why has Las Vegas, for example, not suffered a crippling drought that puts it out of business?

To me, this "Unknown Purpose" as a principle for supporting God in the problem of Evil is flawed. It can't be applied consistently across cases and it just does not make a lick o' sense!

lotus said...

It makes perfect sense because England is by "god's standard" perfect. Of course a bishop in some region of the world that is wealthy can stand up and say this proudly. God would never judge the land in which this bishop lives, probably just because he lives there and he knows what god does and why he does it. I mean- this bishop must be god's right hand man.

lotus said...

***Well, at least they are arguing the way the Bible argues with regard to these things. The problem is that many Christians don't agree with them (or the Bible) on this.*** (J.L)

John,
I agree with you on this. It certainly does appear that the bible teaches that any natural disaster is god-caused and god-judgement. As for Lee R. comment on the "faithful" not being spared, well the bible makes a provision for this also. I think it is ecclesiastes that deals with this topic and pslams make heavy reference to it. the rain falls on the just and unjust alike. the wicked prosper. basically- suck it up because living on earth sucks but when you get to heaven you will be rewarded- even rewarded for your suffering.
but wait-there is a problem here: if disaster strikes the wicked and the righteous how can it be judgement? especially if the disaster is isolated to the righteous? hmmm- did not job have this problem with his "friends" Really- you can go around and around with it and get nowhere at all---

lowendaction said...

I just posted a similar observation at another site http://stupidchurchpeople.com/ where I have recently drawn the conclusion that our historic relationship to God is very much a kin to that of parent and child. In that the OT era can be viewed as our adolescent period when God's tangible presence and direct intervention was necessary, due to our spiritual immaturity. One could then view the arrival as Christ as our graduation gift into young adulthood, where God has then "stepped back" and given us more "freedom". With it comes an entirely different set of consequences. I say "us", because this applies to all mankind (IMO), not just those who choose to accept. It was made available to all.

As far as our "sainted" brother from the isle, I think he might do well considering this OT vs NT theory of mine. And it is just that. I do not presume to fully understand or claim authority over this...just one simple Christians attempt at understanding the bible.

oh, and no, I do not believe that any such recent natural disasters have anything to do with God, except that i believe that He did create all of this, and it's just acting the way it's supposed to. If we haven't grown smart enough to protect ourselves from it, then it's our fault...not natures, and certainly not God's!

Frank Walton said...

suck my dick loftus.

lotus said...

"suck my dick loftus."(by frank walton)

Frank-
Since you are a holy Christian, if you allowed John to suck your dick you would go to hell because that is an act of homosexual perversion.

lotus said...

Frank Walton-

You follow Jesus so well. You are a light shining in darkness. You turn sinners from their error and will rewarded in heaven for it. Thank you for being so loving, so compassionate, so understanding, so patient, so long suffering, so godlike. You are humble and I can see the beauty of God in everything you say. Your attitude and words will certainly draw people to the living and loving god that you serve and represent. thank you for such a beautiful reflection.

zilch said...

Frank outdoes himself once more. He's becoming a satire of himself- he's his own worst enemy, and an eloquent spokesman against his chosen religion.

I'm just glad he's not the only Christian I know of; otherwise I'd be inclined to think that Christians are juvenile, mean-spirited, and cowardly. Luckily I have Christian friends who show me otherwise.

Michael Ejercito said...

I wonder how they would prove that the floods were God's judgment?

How would they prove that it is a judgment from the God in the Bible instead of Zeus or Odin or Ra>

How would they prove whether or not the Bible or the Quran or the Book of Mormon is the standard by which God judges us?

Tony B said...

Well this particular Bishop went too far in the way he worded this, but in a sense there is something true here; assuming global warming caused by human activity is the root cause of these particular floods, we are in a sense suffering the consequences of our actions. If you look at what some of the other Anglican Bishops said, it's actually pretty sensible.

However I certainly wouldn't want to saythat it was "God's judgement". It's indiscriminate. And frankly I don't see where "homosexual friendly" legislation (whatever that is) can possibly come into it.