It happens with almost every disaster. Except for Hurricane Irma, which has just tragically pummeled islands in the Caribbean and now Florida, almost every natural and man-made disaster has been used by some of my fellow religiously conservative Christians to selectively preach repentance to America. And by selectively I mean that the LGBT community has been blamed for some disaster and challenged to repent. There are a number of disasters for which the LGBT community has been blamed (click here for list). Most prominent on that list are hurricanes. And the most reasonable answer for why those hurricanes caused the damage is because of climate change. And yet, the LGBT community was blamed.
The day this post is being written is an appropriate day for mentioning the above is because today is 9/11. And we should note that some religiously conservative Christians, including Jerry Falwell, blamed the 9/11 atrocities on the LGBT community. They, like their counterparts today, believed that God made a deal with America to protect it from harm because of America's religious beginnings. And so as we stray from our religious past, we venture out of God's protection for America. We should note that such a belief has no Biblical justification.
While so many families in our nation are currently suffering from catastrophic losses due to rains and floods in the South and to fire in the Northwest, there are two horrible things that are going on when some of my fellow religiously conservative Christians scapegoat the LGBT community for these disasters. First, they are employing what Chris Hedges has been saying they employ: 'magical thinking.' In order to confirm their theology and maintain their manipulative hold on people, these religiously conservative Christians are associating two things that are not in anyway related: natural disasters and the sexual orientations and practices by certain people. But because they claim to represent God, they have proven that our natural disasters and the sexual orientations and practices of certain people are related.
Even on a biblical level, such an association should not be used. For when one of God's people could identify the cause for a disaster, it was because of God's revelation and how He spoke to people back then. But such is not the case now. So those who are claiming that God is visiting natural disasters on us because of the LGBT community have no Biblical support for doing so. That lack of Biblical support isn't because the Bible doesn't speak against homosexuality, it does. It is because God doesn't speak to us the same way now as he did during the Old Testament times and the times of the Apostles.
The second horrible thing that is going on here is that because some religiously conservative Christians are scapegoating that community for the disasters hitting our nation, they are calling for judgment on this community. But, ironically speaking, it isn't God's judgment they are calling for, it is people's judgment. They want people to punish the LGBT community for the disasters that hit our nation. And hopefully, on their part, that punishment will move those in the LGBT community to repent. Ar least that is how the logic should work. But one has to wonder, with the vile ways in which some religiously conservative Christians speak about the LGBT community, whether some religiously conservative Christians just want to see those in that community to suffer because of their hatred for them.
A significant amount of our nation is suffering from natural disasters. Our first concern when such disasters hit are the people who are suffering. That should be our first concern. If we are to have a second concern, then that should be about what, logically speaking, appears to be the cause of the disasters. Logically speaking, the cause of the disasters we are seeing is climate change. It is not certain that these hurricanes were stronger because of climate change and that the fires in the Northwest are because of climate change. But that is where the evidence points to. And so if we are going to repent in response to these disasters, our repentance should be over our contributions to climate change.
In addition, it isn't that hurricanes shouldn't remind us to call out to God for help. And it isn't that the Bible doesn't speak against homosexuality. It is though that those who blame our natural disasters on the LGBT community are revealing what is in their own hearts rather than why God allowed the hurricane to come. And what is in their hearts is a hatred for those they are commanded to love and to share the Gospel with. Thus, those who blame our nation's disasters on the LGBT community are among the first who should be repenting here.
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