Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
A Response to Pat Robertson
Televangelist Pat Robertson tried to deflect the blame for tornadoes away from God, saying people shouldn’t build houses in the Midwest and could prevent the deadly storms by praying. “God doesn’t send tornadoes to hurt people,” he said. “We call them acts of God, but they’re not. All I can say is, why do you build houses in a place where tornadoes are apt to happen?”Recently, early spring tornadoes in the Midwest and South have killed 39 people. “If enough people were praying He would’ve intervened, you could pray,” Robertson continued. “Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms.” “But the hurricane for example is a release mechanism that God set in to take the heat out of this world and to transfer heat around various parts of the globe,” he added. “It’s very necessary. The fact that people want to build houses on the edge of an ocean is their fault, it’s not God’s… So don’t blame God for doing something foolish.”
Telling people who have just lost their homes, family members and communities that they are at fault for this because they didn't pray enough-- and that they are fools-- is hardly what they need right now. The entire family who all died were seen praying seconds before the tornado sucked them out of their house. Pat Robertson is an asshole, and he always has been.
Furthermore, he doesn't even make sense. He says that tornadoes are NOT an act of god, but then he says they are "a release mechanism that God set in to take the heat out of this world and to transfer heat around various parts of the globe" ... which WOULD make them an act of god (forgetting for a moment that what Robertson just said right there is complete and utter nonsense). If god could make the earth rotate backwards then he would not need to use such crude mechanisms as hurricanes and tornadoes that kill his children. And then Roberson says that if people would only pray more (as if they already don't) that god would have 'intervened', which again means it was an act that god could have prevented. But he'll be quick to thank god that some people survived-- he gives god the praise but not the blame.
Well, by saying that god does not send tornadoes to hurt people, Robertson is actually committing heresy. "When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" Amos 3:6. Robertson is implying that there are things that god either cannot do, or does not know.
I feel very saddened by the death of that family. It's a horrible tragedy. But they were seen on the floor praying and holding hands by a neighbor moments before their deaths. Christians say that "God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is no". Or else they will say: "God answers prayers three ways; yes, no and wait." But these excuses as to why God does not answer prayer are contradictory to scripture. John 16:23 has Jesus saying "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells his followers:
"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." And Mark 11:24 says the same. Matthew 7:7 continues the bribery by attributing this unfulfillable statement to Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you", and so does Luke in 11:9. How does this compare to reality?
Matthew 18:19 goes further by saying: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Can anything be more absurdly false than this? Let us see christians come together and pray for the end of all tornadoes everywhere, for all time.
Telling people who have just lost their homes, family members and communities that they are at fault for this because they didn't pray enough-- and that they are fools-- is hardly what they need right now. The entire family who all died were seen praying seconds before the tornado sucked them out of their house. Pat Robertson is an asshole, and he always has been.
Furthermore, he doesn't even make sense. He says that tornadoes are NOT an act of god, but then he says they are "a release mechanism that God set in to take the heat out of this world and to transfer heat around various parts of the globe" ... which WOULD make them an act of god (forgetting for a moment that what Robertson just said right there is complete and utter nonsense). If god could make the earth rotate backwards then he would not need to use such crude mechanisms as hurricanes and tornadoes that kill his children. And then Roberson says that if people would only pray more (as if they already don't) that god would have 'intervened', which again means it was an act that god could have prevented. But he'll be quick to thank god that some people survived-- he gives god the praise but not the blame.
Well, by saying that god does not send tornadoes to hurt people, Robertson is actually committing heresy. "When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" Amos 3:6. Robertson is implying that there are things that god either cannot do, or does not know.
I feel very saddened by the death of that family. It's a horrible tragedy. But they were seen on the floor praying and holding hands by a neighbor moments before their deaths. Christians say that "God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is no". Or else they will say: "God answers prayers three ways; yes, no and wait." But these excuses as to why God does not answer prayer are contradictory to scripture. John 16:23 has Jesus saying "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells his followers:
"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." And Mark 11:24 says the same. Matthew 7:7 continues the bribery by attributing this unfulfillable statement to Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you", and so does Luke in 11:9. How does this compare to reality?
Matthew 18:19 goes further by saying: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Can anything be more absurdly false than this? Let us see christians come together and pray for the end of all tornadoes everywhere, for all time.
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