THE WORLD IN CRISIS!

Homestarrunner is one of the few truly unadulterated pleasures in this wide internet universe (webiverse? anyone?). For those of you who aren't aware, Homestar is a no armed "terrific athlete" who has adventures and laughs with his pals in Free Country USA. But nobody goes to the website to see Homestar, you go to see his hilariously ridiculous arch nemesis Strong Bad, who answers e-mails for all of his adoring fans.

In one particular episode, Strong Bad whips together a TV news broadcast. The leading story:
THE WORLD IN CRISIS!

It's a spoof of course on the sensationalist methods of broadcast media, but as I drove to work this morning listening to NPR, I wonder if that wouldn't be a proper headline for the entire morning's broadcast.

The news is scattered with violence and fear in Iraq and Afghanastan, the Gulf Coast is a disastor beyond any of our own comprehension, this weekend 30,000 people died in Pakistan from an earthquake, and the newest report to my ears was 600 people that died from mudslides in Guadalupe.

A look across the news is enough to set any god fearing fundamentalist running for their little black book (and not the kind with phone numbers.) It's a scary world to be sure.

But it's at times like these that I become very ungracious towards people that stick by the notion that there is a divine plan, and that everything that happens is all to support God's big game of Civilization. Can you say to someone who has lost everything in New Orleans that their pain is part of God's plan? What about the 30,000 people in Pakistan? Did they die by God's orders?

Unfortunately a minority of very loud fundamentalists are perpetuating this very idea. Katrina has been called "the fist of god" that is punishing America for it's tolerence of homosexual behavior. Another group claims that Katrina resembles a fetus, and is punishment for allowing abortions to continue.

I hate to give credence, or any webspace at all to these ideas, because I believe strongly that this is a minority view point. But it's also an incredibly hurtful viewpoint. Couldn't I just come out and say that Katrina was the fist of god trying to smite the bible belt in an effort to punish us for fundamentalism?

These things, natural disastors I mean, are not the will of god. God doesn't micromanage. Hell, I'll say it. God just isn't a thinking, plotting bastard that enacts violent punishment for bigoted beliefs.

But what is horrible and disgusting is using god as a method of hate. As Kurt Vonnegut says in his book Mother Night, real evil is found in people that hate without reservation, that hate so strongly that they believe that God hates with them.

So to the world in crisis, my thoughts are with you. To those who assume that natural disasters and acts of violence are divingly planned... get a day job.