Over the past few decades, there have been significant natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans, the devasting earthquake that rocked Haiti, and Hurricane Maria that pummelled Puerto Rico and surrounding Caribbean islands.
In the case of these and nearly every other natural disaster in recent years, there’s one thing we can always count on, and that’s evangelicals blaming the occurrence on the gays.
Citing past events to prove my point, take, for example, in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy damn near leveled the Eastern seaboard. After the fact, English minster John McTernansaid blamed Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage.
Tony Perkins, the head weirdo in charge of the Family Research Council, loves to claim natural disasters are God’s punishment against homosexuals. After Hurricane Joaquin hit Hawaii in 2015, Perkins said it was God’s wrath for marriage equality, and for good measure, he also threw in “abortion.”
In 2017 minister Kevin Swanson announced powerful Hurricane Harvey had annihilated Texas because out lesbian, Annise Parker, had been elected as mayor of Houston.
So you see, during times of disaster, evangelicals seem to have no hesitation invoking the name of God as the ultimate “punisher.” In reality though, they are just scapegoating and using God and religion as the fall guy for their nasty homophobia. These same holy rollers have been so quiet lately though, in light of a recent string of natural disasters that seem to directly respond to Donald Trump’s hate-fueled, divisive antics.
Let’s consider the bible for a moment. Those of you who have read it and subscribe to its teachings know that it contains stories where plagues are one of God’s most vengeful actions. Most notoriously is God inflicting the 10 Plagues of Egypt onto the ancient Egyptians. In that story, people were subject to a series of plagues including death, but the plagues were actually to punish the ruling Egyptian Pharaoh, who rejected God, all Godly humanity, instead ruling with greed, deceit, treachery, death, and self-aggrandizement.
One would think evangelicals might draw a comparison between The Ancient Pharaoh and Donald Trump. His 2016 presidency is also marred with greed, deceit, treachery, death, and self-aggrandizement. And then, we cannot overlook how Trump was dealt a devastating blow, an actual plague – COVID19, through which he failed to lead and caused the death of 10’s of thousands of innocent people.
Let’s not forget the storms and natural disasters. I find it peculiar that not one evangelical cited God as the culprit one week ago when hurricane Laura blew down a massive Confederate monument in Louisiana. It must be acknowledged that the public wanted this hurtful, relic of slavery removed. Tensions continued to mount when Republican leaders in the state were victorious in defending the statue, allowing it to keep standing through a vote of 10-5. Well, Hurricane Laura took the matter into her own hands – mind you, during the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Now that brings us to The pro-Trump boat parade from September 5th. As reported by multiple outlets, including CBS News Texas,
“The sheriff’s department in Austin, Texas, said five boats sank during a boat parade in support of President Trump on Lake Travis on Saturday afternoon. The Travis County Sheriff’s Office said they responded to a total of 15 distress calls, which varied and included: boats taking on water, stalled engines, capsized boats, and boats sinking.”
As of late day Sunday, the station reported that three boats had been towed from the water while the remaining two remained capsized. I find it more interesting that according to eyewitnesses and the County Sherif’s office, the boats sank immediately at the parade’s start.
Let’s recap. Again, evangelicals love to claim natural disasters are just God lashing out at the gays. However, the Trump presidency is defined by a plague, and during the kick-off to the RNC conventions, multiple storms occurred, one so powerful it blew down a confederate statue. That statue had just been voted by Republicans to be allowed to stand–despite public outcry. Consider it now toppled. And twenty-four hours ago, multiple Trump flag waving boats took to the water to promote Trump’s re-election – and sank minutes after.
I don’t want to speak on behalf of God, but eighteen countries approved Gay marriage years before the United States, starting with the Netherlands in 2000. Twelve countries have since. The most recent is Costa Rica in 2020. I’m happy to report all 29 countries that support Gay marriage are still on the map and have not been decimated through God’s stormy wrath. So I think he or she’s ok with it and storms are just simply, weather.
In contrast, I’m no religious expert, but when it comes to Trump, evangelicals must not be paying attention because it’s obvious to me, God is trying to tell THEM something.
Rough waters on Lake Travis as hundreds of boats in Trump boat parade. Several swaamped. #Statesman @bobphoto pic.twitter.com/DPpKKhgljF
— bobphoto (@bobphoto) September 5, 2020
