Thursday, January 14, 2010

God and Us

Pat Robertson made the news this week by saying the earthquake in Haiti was the result of Haiti's "pact with the Devil" to get rid of the French a couple of centuries ago.

Sarah Palin and Glen Beck opined earlier this week on his show that God played an "essential" role in the founding of the U.S.

Palin is supposed to have said that her selection as the GOP VP nominee in 2008 was God's plan. During the campaign she described the Iraq War as God's "task."

Various terrorists claim legitimacy by claiming to do God's will.

Legislatures, parliaments and the like do all manner of harm after praying to do God's will.

Football and baseball players seek God's blessing for hoped victory (oh, and don't let anyone get hurt) and thank Him for touchdowns and home runs.

Georgia's Governor famously prayed for rain at the height of our drought a couple of years ago. His prayers were answered last fall.

God bless you. God damn you.

God's will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. We're making a mess of that one and have been for millennia.

Jerry Landers: How can you permit all the suffering that goes on the world?

God: Ah, how can I permit the suffering?

Jerry Landers: Yes!

God: I don't permit the suffering. You do. Free will. All the choices are yours.

Jerry Landers: Choices? What choices?

God: You can love each other, cherish and nurture each other or you can kill each other. Incidentally, "kill" is the word. It's not "waste."

George Burns and John Denver in Oh, God! 1977. Imdb.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

God is probably horrified at the things that are done in his name.

Debo said...

God intended me to read this today:-)

Dave said...

God's probably OK with what we do in his name assuming he's omnipotent - he knew what he was getting into when he created us.

I'm not sure he's interested enough in us to intend anything for us.

There's another line from the movie that I couldn't work in. Something like "I'm a big picture guy, not much for the details."

Jeni said...

I should leave it go and copy Debo's comment -cause I do agree with it. But I just can't quite stop there.
I had no idea that it was God's Will for Sarah Palin to run for VP but I sure did think it was His Will that I not vote for her. Guess we canceled each other out, huh?

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

(sigh) And people wonder why I am an agnostic...

Well stated, by the way.

Sonja's Mom said...

I'm with Posol'stvo on this one.

Hedy said...

Jay Leno said "Sarah Palin said earlier this week that it was God's will that she was chosen as McCain's running mate. Apparently God wanted Obama to win, too."

J said...

Yes it was god's will that Obama win so that we would all know for sure that he was not up to the job. Otherwise we would have had to suffer through 4 yrs of speculating what kind of president he would have been while all being labled racist for not letting him win.

Dave said...

You know J, I was going to go try to find an Obama "God" quote to put in the post, I should have.

I really didn't intend to take off on the GOP, they were just such easy targets. And I skipped Rush's stupidity on Haiti ad taxes.

You are capable of better snipes.

J said...

Now that you mention Rush> once again he is being unfairly quoted. Unlike most of your readers I heard his comments live. He did not suggest that people should not give to aide Haiti. Quite the contrary. He said to give directly to a charitable agency rather than through the white house.
ps - hope you were able to get your golf game in today.

Dave said...

OK J, I've read the transcript of Limbaugh's comments. Here it is in full context:

"CALLER: Mega Rush Baby dittos. My question is, why did Obama in the sound bite you played earlier, when he's talking about if you wanted to donate some money, you can go to WhiteHouse.gov --

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: -- to direct you how to do so. If I want to donate money to the Red Cross, why do I need to go to the WhiteHouse.gov page and --

RUSH: Exactly. Would you trust that the money is going to go to Haiti?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: Would you trust that your name is going to end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Absolutely right.

CALLER: That's the point.

RUSH: Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax."

So, Limbaugh implies that money donated through WhiteHouse.gov will be siphoned off for nefarious purposes. He goes on to discourage giving at all by saying tax money has been paid and will be donated - by those same evil Obama people who are going to divert any further donations. Obama is going to steal the money you give through WhiteHouse.com and use tax dollars to give to Haiti. The left hand giveth and the right hand taketh. Make sense to you?

He's a buffoon, pure and simple.

And no golf today, a bit cold and it's supposed to start raining soon.