Days after the September 11 attacks, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson claimed the planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon because of abortion and gays. They were deservedly sliced, diced, and julienned from all sides. However, the fundie fringe apparently didn’t take the hint. Ever since then, almost like clockwork, whenever disaster strikes, some wingnut pastor gets the bright idea to blame a national tragedy on social liberalism.
Under the circumstances, it was no surprise to hear fundies express similar sentiments about Hurricane Harvey’s devastation. Last week, Dave Daubenmire and Rick Wiles claimed that God flooded Houston as punishment for abortion and gay rights. On Monday, two of the nation’s so-called moral guardians got in on the act, saying that the massive flooding in Houston is a warning from the Almighty.
Jim Bakker invited Rick Joyner onto his show to deliver the first in a series of “prophetic warnings for America.” With a title like that, it came as no surprise that things went off the rails. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
About three minutes into the show, Bakker noted how many people were already calling the Harvey floods the biggest in the nation’s history. Joyner said that whenever something is described as the biggest or smallest amount of rain ever, it’s like a jet engine that is about to let go. As Joyner put it, whenever the instruments start “swinging from extreme to extreme”–even if they stay within the green–the engine is about to let go, and you have “a real serious problem.” He believed that if the recent spates of extreme weather are seen in this light, it’s clear that “we have an extreme problem.”
Most of us know what that problem is–climate change. But Joyner harrumphed that those who take that view are simply trying to push “a political agenda.” As he saw it, the root cause of this crazy weather is “sin and wickedness.” Specifically, he suggested that abortion played a role.
“The whole earth will cry out because of the shedding of innocent blood. The earth cries out, and things like that. That’s what throws nature off more than dumping CO2.“
As usual, Bakker rose to the lure. He has believed for some time that Harvey was “from God” and “a judgment on America,” but had been reluctant to share it. Joyner agreed, saying that weather events like this “don’t happen by accident.” He believed that Harvey was an act of “discipline” on God’s part.
Later, at around the 7:30 mark, Bakker recalled how Indian prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj claimed in 2015 that Houston would be hit by a massive flood–and suggested it was because of the Supreme Court legalizing marriage equality. Joyner recalled that he’d tried to warn New Orleans-area pastors that “Katrina meant ‘cleanse.'” He remembered that it slammed into New Orleans just days before the 2005 edition of its yearly gay pride festival, Southern Decadence. Before then, Joyner said, Katrina blasted Key West just before its Day of Decadence. “Coincidence?” he asked. “I don’t think so.” He apparently conflated Katrina with how Hurricane Wilma targeted Key West just days before Fantasy Fest; the event was postponed until that December.
To Joyner, the message was loud and clear.
“If we don’t get those clear messages, they’re gonna get more and more severe. The Lord doesn’t like to do things. He’d prefer mercy over judgment, but his judgments are mercy if we’re not listening, if we’re not hearing and responding. We have to stand up against the perversion of our times and call it what it is.”
Bakker agreed, likening it to how God destroyed the earth with a flood when he couldn’t take the sin in the world anymore. Joyner agreed, saying that this country was receiving “increasingly severe judgments” because this country was “dedicated to the Lord”–and God is dealing with us more severely as a result.
Apparently it hasn’t occurred to Bakker or Joyner that the massive flooding from both Katrina and Harvey was due at least in part to bad policy that eroded New Orleans and Houston’s natural defenses. That happened long before abortion and marriage equality were even in the discussion.
In Houston’s case, five-plus decades of plowing over nearby wetlands and prairies left the water with nowhere to go–so it took the path of least resistance, which happened to go through Houston’s sewers, streams, and streets. In Katrina’s case, damming up the Missouri River in the 1930s kept the barrier islands off New Orleans from getting badly-needed nutrients. As a result, they eroded away–leaving New Orleans a sitting duck when storms push in water from the Gulf. But such little things as science never got in the way of a campaign of hate–or making money.
About 20 minutes in, while pitching his overpriced and bad-tasting survival food, Bakker recalled how Houston city officials overreached by demanding that pastors turn in their sermons so city officials could see if they were speaking out against the city’s Equal Rights Ordinance. As Bakker saw it, the bill came due when Harvey rolled in.
“Just remember, God gets the last word. God gets the last word. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.”
No, Jim. We will get the last word–by calling you and Rick out on your hate. Let Bakker have it on Facebook and on Twitter, and let Joyner have it on Facebook and on Twitter.
(featured image courtesy Bakker’s Facebook)
