It really does seem like every time something bad happens, some fundamentalist religious leader is going to say something stupid. It doesn’t even matter what the bad thing is. It could be a hurricane, an earthquake, a school shooting, or planes crashing into buildings. Whatever it is, right wing religious leaders will blame it on all the predictably irrational causes.
From what I understand, it all started with Jerry Falwell although it probably goes back before him. Falwell famously told Pat Robertson – who agreed with him — that the blamed for 911 should be directed at just about any group or idea he didn’t agree with.
When it first happened, everyone seemed to agree that such comments were ridiculous and crazy. Falwell was viewed as the craziest fundamentalist of them all and no one took him seriously ever again.
Robertson, however loved the attention so he would say all manner of crazy things – some of which were even surprising to his audience like when he recently came out in support of legalizing pot. After “God had called Falwell home,” to use the President’s words, Robertson was left as the lone loon.
But within the last few years, many more religious leaders have been making ridiculous pronouncements about who to blame for the tragedy of the moment. It isn’t always Christian leaders either. Back in 2010, Muslim cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi famously blamed earthquakes on immodestly dressed women. A year later, New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin blamed earthquakes on gays.
These days, it has almost become a competition for religious leaders to be the first to the media to blame tragedies on the most ridiculous things. Not wanting to be outdone, I recently blamed school shooting on “Under God” in the pledge. But I was be satirical and trying to make a point about the ridiculousness of such pronouncements. These religious leaders actually appear to mean it.
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