Is this an example of that "Florida Man" meme that I keep hearing about?
"Christians Rebuke Hurricane Dorian in the name of Jesus."
Hold on,. I have a church background...and nowhere in years of Elementary and middle school theological education, nor Sunday School nor adult-level church attendance nor in some cases participating in church decision-making as a tithe-paying member of a Baptist church...did I ever get the idea that I could control the weather.
Nor did I ever get the idea that I could "Rebuke" anything whatever "In the name of Jesus." But then, this isn't Dungeons & Dragons, I don't have levels in Cleric, and I've never actually claimed Jesus was my patron deity.
And I sure as hell wasn't taught that it was Okay to make up some big show of whooping and hollering and singing and whatever on the beach to try and make a hurricane go away.
But then I also didn't attend some hokey Pentecostal church in Jacksonville, Florida, as these people apparently do.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ~Matthew 6:5 (KJV)
But I digress.
This photo was taken either from an NOAA WP-3 Orion...or possibly from an older model C-130 Hercules. (The aircraft use the same engines.) At first I thought it might be from a WC-130J Hurricane Hunter, but then I realized the props were the wrong shape and the engine nacelle wasn't big enough.
Tell me something, does all the physics, much less the physical toughness and skill of the aircrew have any damn thing to do with God?
I mean, don't get me wrong, it might in some small way. Perhaps there are people in the aircraft's crew that are religious, perhaps that drove them to seek a life of public service, perhaps to serve in the Air Force or the Navy and then move on to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Air National Guard. But along the way, the skills they picked up to do an incredible bit of flying to even take this incredible photo are entirely man-made and were made possible by human intelligence and natural physical capabilities. Any divine assistance...fundamentally cannot be proven.
That's right, I didn't say it doesn't exist. I said it remains unproven. In other words if you have to believe in it, it cannot be empirically measured and thus cannot be quantified.
That's always the rub, isn't it?
And quite likely, if the hurricane doesn't hit where they live, these yahoos whooping it up on the beach will take credit for that fact.
I mean, nobody can actually prove otherwise, as foolish as such a claim may seem on the face of it.
Never mind how many people get killed or lose their homes someplace else. But that's always how it is with these kind of "Christians."
That's their attitude. "I'm saved, you go to hell." And people have the nerve to wonder why so many terrible people are drawn to Christianity in America these days.
Too often, Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Pentecostal heaven isn't Heaven if everybody gets to go. Somebody has to burn, so they can sit up there in heaven with Republican Jesus and gloat. Far too often, that kind of garbage is either covertly or even overtly the basis of these people's religion.
And that's not just wrong, it's pretty damn sad.
And some little group of nuts thinks their prayers are going to turn that aside?
Of course, I also wonder if that church is one of the ones who believes LGBT people cause hurricanes? I hope not, but in this particularly silly season of our national life, it cannot be ruled out.
Yes, the world is big and scary, and you know what?
It's even bigger and scarier if you're stupid.
Religion...even literally primitive or traditional faiths that involve entreating air spirits or thunder-beings...is not about magic words and phrases and jumping around and raising your hands in a big fuss on the beach where everybody can see you and the local news website takes note and somebody writes a report about it.
I have watched two Native American people 'smudge' first each other and then a drum used in traditional ceremony as preparation for moving it, burning sage or some other fragrant herb in an Abalone shell and fanning the smoke about with hawk feathers to purify themselves and the drum and the area around...so that, in their beliefs, any malignant spirits in the area might not travel with us, and I'd been helping my buddy move all weekend. He was in the process of a divorce. I may no longer be religious and was not even then...but I could understand the concept of bad spirits arising from such a situation as well as anything.
And, while they were doing their thing, I can honestly say I felt the same sense of peace and spirituality, the "Holy Spirit" if you will...just like I used to in church.
I have felt the same thing in Buddhist temples, in churches of every description, and also in Islamic Masjids, and when I beat the drum while dervishes danced.
There is something to all this stuff...or people wouldn't do it.
But, It's not about making a big deal of yourself or proving the "power" of your idea of the divine over somebody else's.
Hell if that's what you want...to worship power...wouldn't it just be easier to worship the hurricane?
It's about a power higher than you...that can't be proven or seen and that's the point. It's about helping your neighbors, loving your enemies, and standing up for justice and the poor and the downtrodden. And if you can't do that...why even bother?
It's not about magic words and phrases, and the kind of ignorance that thinks it is can be fatal to both religion and civilization itself.
Pure religion un-defiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un-spotted from the world. ~James 1:27
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