Oy.
{...}Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.
“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."
How much do you want to bet that good ol' Pastor Shanks prefers an Old Testament God to the touchy-feely-happy-go-lucky God of the New Testament?
Five bucks? Ten? Twenty?
The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. "It's time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won't have to deal with that wickedness," he says.Believers, he says, are God's "authorized representatives on the face of the Earth" and should say they "don't want unrighteous men in office," for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. "We don't want a Supreme Court that is going to say it's all right to kill little boys and girls, ... it's all right to take prayer out of schools, and it's all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that.”
That's kind of funny if you think about it. It's blasphemy to equate yourself with God and to put yourself on par with Jesus Christ. The good reverend here thinks that believers are "God's authorized representatives on Earth." That, technically speaking, is blasphemy. Which, of course, leads to the next question: what sort of natural disaster is going to wipe out the reverend's sin for equating himself with God?
{Hat Tip: Andy, who got it from Radley Balko}
Posted by Kathy at September 3, 2005 10:43 AM | TrackBack