This Week in God, 1-21-05

This past week, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagan joined the many of religious zealots who blame bad weather on an angry God. He said the hurricanes that hit New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and everywhere else in North America was punishment from an angry God over everything that more than two people view as immoral. (I'm not going to mention his chocolate comment because that is too stupid even for a blog like this.)
Keep in mind this is the same Mayor Nagan who said several bureaucrats at the state and federal level need to get off their "goddamn asses" and help them. I guess blaspheme is another one of those reasons for the wrath of God. It is one of the Ten Commandments.
When I attended Sunday school as a young boy, I was always taught that God loved us. Why is it that people always assume that everything bad that happens is because of an angry God? What ever happened to Satan? Doesn't he do a lot of bad things, like David Berkowitz and Richard Ramirez.
Okay, so maybe we can all be followers of Jonathan Edwards, who believe we are sinners in the hands of an angry God, but shouldn't we just assume shit happens. More appropriately, God happens.
How come people only thank God when they win some silly sporting event? I once met a woman who thank God every morning she got up. That is something to thank God for, life.
Apparently, by the rhetoric of all these people who believe we are living in end times, God loves us, but it's tough love. It's the tough love many fathers give their sons when they toss them into the deep end of the pool so they can learn to swim. It's the tough love a man gives his wife in the way of a fist for not obeying him.
If God is angry at anyone, he is probably angry at all the people who always want to paint him as the avenger. I know God isn't supposed to play favorites. He's supposed to love everyone equally and evenly. But maybe, He holds a special place for those people like the little old woman who thank Him for one more day on Earth, regardless of how bad things might have seemed.