The Ax Of God: You Be The Judge!

I’ve often wondered if there is such a phenomena as an “act of God.” Apparently there is, that is of course if you are God-fearing and believe everything you read in the Bible, Torah or other religious texts. There is however, an explanation for everything, even UFOs and ghosts.

In flood & disease-ravaged New Orleans and all points south and north of it, there’s at least one organization that believes Hurricane Katrina was an act of God, but it’s not the usual governmental legislative branch or non-for-profit agency.

Nope.

It’s one of those right-wing fringe Christian groups based out of the great United States city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of all places who call themselves “Repent America.”

Michael Marcavage, the director of the organization seems to think that God called upon the heavens to deliver this most catastrophic storm that slammed into the southern Gulf coast nearly nine days ago, killing hundreds and possibly thousands in the long run and also leaving thousands without food and shelter as a warning to the city of New Orleans itself, for hosting what Marcavage calls a tolerance for welcoming “the wickedness in their city for so long.”

This wickedness includes events like "Southern Decadence", an annual gay celebration which in 2004 attracted well over 125,000 partiers into French Quarters section of New Orleans. According to Marcavage on his website, this event “Has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars.”

Marcavage continues his rant by writing, “Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an exciting event."

He then emphasizes that Hurricane Katrina put a stopcock (plumbing device) into the annual sin-fest, as it happened to be scheduled between Wednesday, August 31, 2005 through Monday, September 5, 2005, the same time just as an act of God occurred.

Marcavage then accuses of the past three mayors of issuing city proclamations welcoming visitors the world over to their city for the annual festival of lewdness.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," says Marcavage. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge," he declared.

Now of course we all know that New Orleans was also known for its annual Mardi Gras celebrations in which tens of thousands of drunken men would party in the streets to exchange plastic beads for women to expose their breasts and to engage in other sex acts.

That’s nothing new.

But Marcavage adds his own insult to injury when he claims that Mardi Gras inspired the now infamous "Girls Gone Wild" video series. Then he goes off the beaten path when he just happens to mention that “Furthermore, Louisiana had a total of ten abortion clinics with half of them operating in New Orleans, where countless numbers of children were murdered at the hands of abortionists.”

Now what does a supposed act of God have to do with abortion clinics anyway? Not much if you ask me. Actually, I don’t usually comment on abortion rights, seeing that I don’t have children or the ability to carry a child. If I did, I would, but since I don’t, I won’t.

Then he winds up his comparisons by stating that New Orleans “has always been known as one of the "Murder Capitals of the World" with a rate ten times the national average.” I don’t know where Macavage gets his facts, but the last time I looked at a chart for the top 100 murder capital of America, New Orleans was in the bottom half of the chart, making it miniscule and pale in comparison to the likes of Chicago (the murder capital of America in 2003), New York City, Los Angeles, Gary (Indiana), Detroit and a slew of others.

Marcavage concludes his diatribe by stating, “We must help and pray for those ravaged by this disaster, but let us not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long. May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God.”

To me, that’s stretching this act of God a bit too far, but then I started thinking about it and wondered aloud to myself what other acts of God have I stumbled upon, witnessed or read about and soon they started to add up.

Since there have been so many acts of God, I’ve decided to narrow it down to four that have a significant meaning to me, though to others may not mean all that much.

(1). Was it an act of God when millions of Jews and other ethnic groups were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II?

(2). Was it an act of God when lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman grabbed a fly ball headed for the foul line meant for Moises Alou to catch during 2003 playoff game between the Chicago Cubs & the Florida Marlins, thereby adding to the world series curse?

(3). Was it an act of God on September 11, 2004, when my ex-landlady got herself into a car wreck down the street from her home after exchanging hateful words to me while I was moving out of her swampy basement apartment?

(4). Was it an act of God when Little Margie got into a morning car wreck about a month ago the night after she told me that she had been carrying on a affair with a married man for the past four years and I reacted both angrily and upset?

Nobody knows anything for certain, but I believe in the miracles and mysterious ways of Ha-Shem. Don’t you?