Wired Jesus Podcast

What’s up with this?

First its Pat Robertson…

Pat Robertson Warns Pa. Town of Disaster
Nov 11 2:48 AM US/Eastern
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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.

All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce “intelligent design” _ the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power _ as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club.”

“God is tolerant and loving, but we can’t keep sticking our finger in his eye forever,” Robertson said. “If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”

US Christian broadcaster says Sharon’s stroke divine retribution
Jan 05 6:11 PM US/Eastern
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US evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution for “dividing God’s land” of Israel, igniting his latest trademark controversy.

As the Israeli prime minister battled for life, Robertson seemed to suggest to viewers on his “700 Club” television show that Sharon was being punished for his policies in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who, quote, ‘divide my land.’ God considers this land to be his.

“You read the Bible, he says, ‘This is my land.’ And for any prime minister of Israel who decides he’s going carve it up and give it away, God says, ‘No. This is mine.'”

Then its New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin…

New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S.
Jan 16 4:51 PM US/Eastern
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By BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS

Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that “God is mad at America” and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

“Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country,” Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.

“Surely he doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves.”

Nagin also promised that New Orleans will be a “chocolate” city again. Many of the city’s black neighborhoods were heavily damaged by Katrina.

“It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans,” the mayor said. “This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn’t be New Orleans.”

First we have a conservative invoke the wrath of God on a Pennsylvania town and an Israeli Prime Minister and now a liberal do the same with Katrina as a judgment on the disintegration of the nuclear African American family and American racism and oppression.

So God’s opinion is no evolutionary theory and and African American city. These guys probably do not see eye to eye on much but they have a very similar view of an weirdly interpreted view of God who goes around bashing people who tick him off.

I wonder (and this may be my podcast tonight), what kind of ideas do we have about God that end up taking us into such strange directions and unusual agreements with others.

If Ray Nagin and Pat Robertson are representative of what North American Christians believe about the nature of God and the message if Jesus, no wonder the Church is in trouble.