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First, as many LJers have noticed, some people were happy about the devastation to New Orleans.

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as "Southern Decadence" -- an annual six-day "gay pride" event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week -- God's judgment would be felt.

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again."

vidicon had a good rant about this, with some relevant scripture quotation.

But here's another relevant bit of scripture, which tells us in detail exactly what the sin of Sodom was, and which I shall quote from the old King James Version in case anyone thinks the more modern versions are too politically correct:

Ezekiel 16:48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

The good, solid Republican Mississippi Senator Trent Lott lost a home, along with many other people in his good, solid, Christian conservative state. But in New Orleans this weekend, "Amid the tragedy, about two dozen people gathered in the French Quarter for the Decadence Parade, an annual Labor Day gay celebration."

MegaPoems

Some poetry generated today by my copy of MegaHAL. Entirely unrelated to current events.


Into the morning
waving to me when i take a lot to you-know-who might be mars,
and i would be to her
to live with you, ignoble paunch, abhorrent in my very own bed,
the mossy fountains, and the hounds....
september in the experience of all this
i guess i had mastery;
to bake a potato,
three kittens on their own.

and i simply won't be easy, accustomed to these dancers in their eyes the fairies live.... And see,
it seemed to think of eggs.
babies' skeletons grow.
and he don't like sundays and he looked down through the spattered water in the funeral dance,
sucking the honey of summer
into your room, and pick you up,
yeah, the summer's gone
but i--was twice as high as possible.
bake for 70 to 80 minutes or until potatoes are done.

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