Brownwood: God's many mind-readers !

COMMENTARY

The Boston Globe: God's many mind-readers

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had a different purpose but the same technique as the Rev. Pat Robertson when he invoked God's wrath as the cause of human suffering. God's name is being taken in vain by those who would inflate their importance or diminish their failings.

Robertson said early this month that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for Sharon's plan to cede some land to Palestinians. Robertson had to apologize when his remarks caused an uproar in Israel and the United States. He sounded like a caricature of a biblical prophet when he claimed to be able to discern the will of God.

Robertson's remarks recall the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who claimed the Sept 11. attacks were partly the fault of "the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians" whom God was angry with. Like Robertson, Falwell was using the deity to promote his political views.

Nagin has other uses for God. "As we think about rebuilding New Orleans, surely God is mad at America," the mayor said last week. "He's sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane. . . . Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America, also."

If God is intent on wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast, as Nagin suggested, who could blame the mayor if the response to the disaster was ineffective or if rebuilding plans haven't advanced very far? God, it would seem, is being used as a shield for individual shortcomings.

Nagin was speaking at an event commemorating the accomplishments of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "I just want to do God's will," King said on the night before he was murdered.

King tried to live out his belief in God without claiming to have a direct line to the deity. Those who think they know the divine might better show it by their actions to help others, not by invoking his name as a punishment or excuse.

source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/01/24god_edit.html