THE STUDY AUGUST 29, 2011
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With Hurricane Irene and the nameless earthquake behind us, most on the East Coast would agree it’s been a busy week. For Michele Bachmann, though, these two plagues portend something more—a divine warning to Washington. At least that’s what she told a rally of supporters in Florida yesterday, asking when politicians would get the message. That message, which sounds suspiciously similar to Bachmann’s own platform, is to reduce government spending. The comment, which a spokesperson now insists was made “in jest,” raised more than a few eyebrows, but ascribing natural disasters to divine intervention is nothing new: Pat Robertson has seemingly made a career out of blaming earthquakes on abortions and pacts with devil, and Rick Perry tried to pray away the Texas drought this spring. Still, I was curious how many Americans might agree with Bachmann.
Most wouldn’t, according to a phone survey conducted last March (in the wake of the Japanese tsunami) by the Public Religion Research Institute. While 56 percent of Americans believe God controls everything in the world, for most people that’s an abstract principle. Asked whether earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters are a divine sign, only 38 percent of respondents agreed. That means more than three-fifths of Americans would disagree with the premise behind Bachmann’s statement that God uses the weather to send us messages. Not surprisingly, her comment would find more support among white evangelicals, 58 percent of whom believe that natural disasters are a sign from God. But even they might have reason to doubt that God would go Sodom and Gomorra over the federal deficit of all things. And Bachmann still hasn’t addressed the most pressing issue: If God wanted to send D.C. politicos a message, why would He strike during summer recess?
9 comments
A lot of evangelicals also don't believe that women should be placed "over men. With the rise of women such as Palin and Bachman--who seems to be Palin version 2.0--well maybe version 1.5--as she does not seem to be out of beta testing yet--evangelicals seem to be hedging their bet by saying they only mean women should not be "over men in running a church," but it is OK for them to be running a country. If we can only get the Republicans to choose a team of Perry and Bachman, or Bachman and Perry, as the case may be, we will be able to achieve "critical mass." By that term I mean either the Republicans will deconstruct themselves for a least the next election or we will be living (if you call it that) in a theocracy. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
- skahn
August 29, 2011 at 8:45pm
Bachman argues from a religious point of view. Her argument is non factual and unprovable. Religious fanatics from all religions argue this way. I doubt many people will take her argument seriously. (One can counter it by saying that the Hurricane and Earthquake showed that god is angry because Bachman and Perry among others are taking his name in vain. Equally ridiculous argument but it may work with these fundies.) Still, what I find more troublesome is the supposed rational Ron Paul saying that the Federal Government should do nothing to aid victims of natural disasters. This libertarian point of view will in the long run do more damage than Bachaman's fantasies.
- arnon
August 30, 2011 at 8:44am
You would think God could do a better job at directing His righteous wrath. Washington got off pretty lightly, but my small town in New Jersey - a Republican stronghold - got the worst flood in over 60 years. The small businesses, mostly run by staunch Tea Party supporters, will suffer the most. I also have family in Texas, and I will take any temporary flood over their misery. Michele Bachmann and her ilk would do better to keep their mouths shut. As for Ron Paul, what the hell is community for if it can't even help in the event of a natural disaster?
- polijunky
August 30, 2011 at 9:38am
What does the Bible say about the weather? Matthew 5:45: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
- brokensq
August 30, 2011 at 10:49am
Schoharie County in upstate NY got probably the biggest Irene "wakeup call" of all, with all time record high water levels in an area where the records are very long indeed. (The Schoharie Valley had been settled for well over a century when the Tea Party's beloved Tea Party took place.) The valley is as red as red gets in New York, overwhelmingly Republican, but remains flooded, with quite a bit of apprehension remaining over the structural integrity of a major dam (NYC water reservoir) upstream at Gilboa. What's more, a disproportionate number of the ruined homes are owned by the low income and hyper religious folks that make up the core of Bachmann's supporters. Oh, but I forgot. Bachmann's god transcends logic, mercy, compassion, all that touchy feely stuff.
- gwcross
August 30, 2011 at 1:14pm
Well, a democrat will be a Tea Party member who got mugged by a hurricane.
- arnon
August 30, 2011 at 1:32pm
LOL Arnon:) PS things are becoming absurd.
- Sophia
August 30, 2011 at 4:14pm
So maybe God has been targeting Republican areas for natural disasters to send them a message?
- JEFF FREY
August 31, 2011 at 8:30pm
Right arm, Jeff Frey. Texas & Oklahoma, for instance. Dryin' up & blowin' away in the wind. Anyone who can't see the divine will at work in that situation simply can't see that the Almighty is mighty pissed at the climate-change deniers whom the benighted majorities of those states have chosen as their leaders. And the fact that Rick Perry's prayers for rain have gone unanswered only reinforces that truth. Why can't these fools see the error of their ways, made so divinely manifest by the withering of their land?
- Haole45
September 1, 2011 at 1:34am