Extremists Exploit Disaster
Wrath of God or fucking arsonists?
I was working with Richard Saunders on layout of the next issue of The Skeptic magazine when Richard gasped so loudly that I was sure he’d found out that I once slept with John Edward.
Then I found out what really happened, and it was much, much worse…
Heard about the current bushfires in Australia?
A group of Christian Fundamentalists, aptly named Catch the Fire Ministries, posted a media release on their site, wherein they irrationally blame a new pro-choice abortion law for the bushfires..
Not arsonists, not summer, not extremely high temperatures, but a law that allows abortion in the state of Victoria, where the fires are occurring…
Tragically, almost one thousand houses have burned to the ground, hundreds of people have died…and these assholes think that abortion is to blame, that the fires are God’s punishment, and that prayer is the answer…
This reminded me of those who blamed Hurricane Katrina on the licentiousness and debauchery of New Orleans.
I promptly issued the following press release to a range of sites:
Christians Exploit Catastrophe
Australia has been in shock since the Victorian bushfires in early February, resulting in the destruction of almost one thousand homes and the deaths of hundreds of people.
While some offer practical relief in the form of food and clothing donations, others look for someone to blame.
Catch the Fire Ministries (CTFM) in Dandenong, Victoria, published a media release today, blaming a new Australian law for the devastating bushfires, and further claim that the fires were foretold in a spiritual vision.
The CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah, announced that he had predicted the bushfires in a dream he had in October 2008. In this dream, he had a prophesy that the fires would occur, as divine retribution for an abortion decriminalization bill that passed in Victoria in 2008. Nalliah calls Victoria the “baby killing state of Australia.”
The Ministry’s response is to petition God for forgiveness, and to commence a seven day prayer and fasting campaign. “In our prayer and fasting campaign, we are particularly repenting for the passing of the “Decriminalization of Abortion Laws of Victoria” in addition to other unrighteous, ungodly, and unjust laws and practices which have seen a holocaust of some of the most helpless members of the human race, the unborn.”
“Can we stop the fires? Yes we can! But it will take God’s children to rally together and repent and cry unto Him as in 2 Chronicles 7:14 (The Holy Bible). We at CTFM have seen this happen several times in the past in Australia, which was also covered by many mainstream media outlets.”
The CTFM website calls upon the “Australian Bible-believing God-fearing Christians to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy and protection over Australia once again.”
Visitors to the CTFM website can comment on the media release. However, skeptical replies are immediately deleted.
Representatives of the Australian Skeptics condemn the Catch the Fire Ministry for their uncritical, discriminatory beliefs and exploitation of the tragic events to promote their ministry.
Richard and I spent the afternoon submitting comments to their site, which were promptly censored.
So we started spreading the news…
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About the skepbitch
I’m Dr Karen Stollznow, Academic, Author and Paranormal Investigator of the Skeptical Kind…
I’m a Linguist with a background in history, and I research, teach and consult.
I’m a Director of the Bay Area Skeptics, a committee member of CFI San Francisco and an insatiable writer for many sites and publications, including Skeptical Inquirer, Skeptic, the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Swift, Skepchick and my Naked Skeptic web column for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. I’m a co-host of the Monster Talk podcast.
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Ah so there it is. I was wondering when some bloody idiot would proclaim that the fires are God’s retribution against something or other. This is a slap in the face of all the people who have already lost so much.
Sorry about the rant but I find myself becoming less tolerant of all forms of woo as I get older. This is especially true when idiots like CTFM make these types of statements.
Have you seen any televised coverage of these nutbags? I am wonering if the Australian media is showing uncharacteristic restraint.
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And when those hard-working firemen finally get the fires put out, what do you want to bet Pastor Idiot takes credit for that too? (Don’t take it, it’s a sucker bet.)
They’re a pack of parasites. To use this awful tragedy to promote their vile agenda is appalling.
I saw the article in The Age this morning and was outraged. The whole notion is so offensive that I can hardly believe that the paper ran it. Any chance you guys can get a right of reply? (I guess ‘Skeptics Say Nature is Harsh’ doesn’t make for big newspaper sales…)
Well, it’s like the people who claimed that the fact there were no deaths in the crash landing of USAir 1549 was somehow a divine miracle. The fact that there was an experienced veteran pilot at the controls was completely besides the point.
Likewise, prolonged drought and heatwaves had absolutely nothing to do with the fires in Australia.
Imagine the hysteria & salivating pitchfork mobs if a Muslim had said that, I think they have moved on the string up the evil hippy greenies now as well.
May as well spread the hate around.
I’ve nominated Nutty Nalliah for the Bent Spoon Award. More here.
Dear Skepbitch,
Thanks to you and “The Great Stinky One” for calling bullshit on these hypocrites. As skeptics we often just shake our heads in disbelief (or write a blog post or two) when we hear such tales. By issuing a press release you have fired a shot across the bow of religious zealotry (and in this case, misogynistic, misguided, moronic ministries). We should all learn from this, but more importantly ACT.
Thanks again to you and RS,
Joe
There are of course over 1800 homes lost, the death toll unknown as yet but expected to be well over 300. So many are missing, investigators are finding large groups,together,fused. Others are unidentifiable, no more than ash. Their last moments unimaginable. To involve the subject of abortion in this horror , I simply do not understand. I have been peripherally involved in extremely late term termination for dwarfism. What’s it got to do with this????
It does not take a lot of time before non-sycophantic comments are deleted from that site !
Danny Nalliah is busy right now,he’s trawling the ally’s of St Kilda hoping to get a Friday night “special”
[...] notion that Australian abortion legislation is to blame for the recent bush fires there. In Extremists Exploit Disaster we learn that: A group of Christian Fundamentalists, aptly named Catch the Fire Ministries, posted [...]
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Nalliah and his cronies have been praying for rain for weeks now. This week extreme heat and winds are predicted to return.
Post hoc reasoning proves that, if he exists, God really hates Danny Nalliah and wishes he’d just shut up.
(For those coming late to this story, I collated a list of links <a href=”http://thinkingisreal.blogspot.com/2009/02/danny-nalliah-links-list.html”here)
On receipt of the Feb 14 Science News and the simultaneous arrival of the Big Pro Life Pope in Africa I had to laugh.On page 4 are gods pro-life numbers for the year 2000- the grand pro-life totals for stillbirths : 3.3 million, with Africa leading and the Middle East coming in 3rd. Who shall we blame for these atrocities ?