Glenn Beck says maybe — just maybe — the recent earthquake in Japan was caused by people failing to follow the Ten Commandments. Let’s take a look back at some other ridiculous right-wing claims about disasters.
9/11
Jerry Falwell blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks on gay people, feminists, and the ACLU, among others. He said:
The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a real doozy for Ridiculous Claim Artists. According to Media Matters, Pat Robertson blamed it on abortion (apparently one of the top causes of hurricanes) and Justice Roberts’s confirmation hearings:
You know, it’s just amazing, though, that people say the litmus test for [Supreme Court nominee John G.] Roberts [Jr.] is whether or not he supports the wholesale slaughter of unborn children. We have killed over 40 million unborn babies in America. I was reading, yesterday, a book that was very interesting about what God has to say in the Old Testament about those who shed innocent blood. And he used the term that those who do this, “the land will vomit you out.” That — you look at your — you look at the book of Leviticus and see what it says there. And this author of this said, “well ‘vomit out’ means you are not able to defend yourself.” But have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?
Charles Colson, meanwhile, said Katrina was God’s wakeup call to the US about the necessity of winning the war on terror:
Katrina gave us a preview of what America would look like if we fail to fight the war on terror. “Did God have anything to do with Katrina?,” people ask. My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don’t delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were and life will be normal again.
The Icelandic Volcano
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