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My Family in Port au Prince

No, I am not an African-American or a visitor or immigrant from Haiti. I am not even black. But the great Irish poet, Donne, said that no man is an island unto himself, that when a single human dies, it is as a rock broken away from the mainland, and the death affects us all because, ontologically, we are one organism. One wonders if the bell can toll for thee in a country where hundreds of thousands, mostly (nominally) Catholic, have seen their centers of worship -- even their archbishop -- wiped out by a 7-point earthquake.

Almost immediately, good Christian spokespeople were coming out of the woodwork to bring "God" into the equation. We had that fine upstanding human, Rush Limbaugh, claiming that the earthquake only went to show that Obama cares more about Haitians than the American people since it took him less than 24 hours to react to the earthquake but the president didn't say anything public about the underwear bomber of Dec. 25 for three whole days!

Then there was ReverEND Pat Robber's Son, who opined: This was "God's" vengeance for the Haitians signing a pact with Satan in exchange for freedom from the French yoke. A subtext might deal with the diasporic religions, e.g. Santeria, Voudon, &c., which the Christers continually conflate with Satan worship. Crowley said that the Devil is the deity of people one personally dislikes. While both Limbaugh and Robber's Son both stink of racist code word mongering, it is Pat who shows the grossest insensitivity to humanity just as his loony colleague, the ReverEND John Hagee saw Katrinas as "God's" vengeance for a gay pride event in New Orleans.

I feel sorry for the country bumpkins, both political and religious, who swallowed all this. And they're in it together -- have you ever seen right wingnut Laura Ingraham when the blonde bimbo fails to prominently display her crucifix? She never punditates without it, presumably because she is afraid if she did not wear it, "God" would strike her dead? Never mind how illogical it all is. Even dismissing Limbaugh's comparing apples to oranges, when the ReverEND Robber's Son employs post hoc "reasoning" to prove that an effect was caused by "God," I want to go out into the streets and scream (as did Buñuel): THANK GOD I'M AN ATHEIST.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on January 16, 2010 at 11:34am

Well written, James. I'm hoping that Flush and the 700 Club lose some sponsorship over this

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on January 16, 2010 at 1:07pm

Thanks, Grundgetta. I donno, people who actually believe that the first woman was born of the first man's rib 5,000 years ago and that she talked with a snake probably cannot be shaken from their belief in Pat Robertson since they show an extremely high propensity for not is-ing such things as climate change and a woman's freedom of choice; so long as someone with "Reverend" in front of his name obviously speaks for "God" he can tell them anything and they will go for it. I am sure they probably think my cat is a familiar as well. God knows I've been doing Satanic rituals at Sabbats with the Devil and am responsible myself for 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the new Haitian karmic apocalypse.

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Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on January 16, 2010 at 1:51pm

James - my father grew up (0-17) less than ten miles from the epicenter. I have no close family left there. But I truly appreciate your reference to John Donne. I find it amazing that a religion based around a guy that said: love one another - can be used as a platform of so much hate and callousness toward our fellows.

And, while I don't see us as 'all god's children' - it is also ironic that so many atheists seem to understand the principal of 'the human family' better than these prominent Xian mouthpieces.

In fairness, I applaud all those with religious belief who are, nonetheless, focusing on helping - especially those who are focused more on the work than the 'word.'

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on January 16, 2010 at 3:36pm

In the Donne sense we are all god's children, and it is a sense that corresponds to quantum theory as well, especially in the David Bohm sense of an implicate order; this is what I meant when I said that ontologically we are all one. Of course this nothing at all to do with "God."

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Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on January 16, 2010 at 5:11pm

Oh - I get you - and totally agree. I just find it interesting that without a god we understand that better than many outspoken people do who invoke the name of a god who clearly spells this out in THEIR holy book.

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Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on January 16, 2010 at 6:00pm

For all but the brainwashed, the superstitious, and those afraid of death, science and reason have explained the phenomena that held the old desert warlord tribes in such awe of their clergy, who wrote Genesis and the other books of the OT, creating "God" in the image of Man. Once one has broken free of the shackles of belief and embraced the world as it is, one no longer needs to violate parsimony and logic to find any validity in any Holy Book.