What's God ticked off about now?

What do homosexuality, health care reform, and British advertising standards all have in common? They're all things that have ticked God off, some religious leaders say, and he's venting his frustration with the angry fires of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

Moscow's Interfax newswire reported that the Association of (Russian) Orthodox Experts blamed the April 14 eruption -- whose gigantic cloud of ash grounded transatlantic flights for more than a week -- on gay rights in Europe and Iceland's tolerance of "neo-paganism."

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, meanwhile, said God was angry over health care reform. San Antonio megachurch pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, said God was unleashing his wrath on Britain for deciding that Israeli tourism ads actually featured parts of the disputed Palestinian territories, not Israel.
...
Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi recently told his Shiite Muslim followers that immodestly dressed and promiscuous women are to blame for earthquakes.

Read it all in RNS.

(We'll leave for others to debate whether Limbaugh is a religious leader.)

Some set out to disprove Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi's hypothesis. The results are in.

Posted by John B. Chilton on April 28, 2010 9:12 AM | |
Comments (4)

The day Rush Limbaugh is defined as a "religious leader" is the day I become "spiritual, but not religious."

Paige Baker

Posted by paigeb [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 28, 2010 9:36 AM

No wonder authentic faith is doing so badly these days.

Screwtape is really enjoying this.

Posted by Bill Moorhead [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 28, 2010 11:26 AM

And the old joke continues to play: "There's good news and bad news. The good news it that God is coming. The bad news is that She's p**sed."

Or the old joke that begins, "Billy Graham called the Pope and said, "I have good news and bad news. The good news is I have Jesus on the phone. The bad news is he's calling from Independence, Missouri." (If you're not familiar, Independence is where the folks in Salt Lake City really believe the New Jerusalem will descend.) I'd bet that the original version of that was written in cuneiform, and the punch line was "the bad news is that the runner came from Ninevah."

All of which is to say that folks have been proclaiming the Apocalypse for a long time, and so far the skies haven't (literally) fallen. We have better reporting now, so we know more about how the planet is more powerful than human civilization. However, I'm accepting what Jesus said about not getting to know the time, and so trying (and encouraging others) to be ready all the time.

Marshall Scott

Posted by Execute [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 28, 2010 12:21 PM

Oh those Russian bishops, such charming gentlemen, since the Wall fell they've been getting nuttier and more arrogant all the time. Were they always that way, but desperation kept them civil? Now they're frankly kinda scary, chasing gay cruise ships down the Volga with party barges loaded down with holy water slinging exorcist-priests. Too bad, the light of the East is so clouded with superstition and gaudy baubles.

Posted by Clint Davis [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 28, 2010 4:09 PM

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