by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 28, 2005 7:00 pm ET
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana) New Orleans City Council has met for the first time since hurricane Katrina and the priest who delivered the invocation at the start of the meeting said the disaster may have been brought on by gays "and other sinners".
The Rev. Robert Guste of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Kenner said that Southern Decadence, the annual gay festival that was to have been held the week the storm hit, and the city's large number of gay bars could have been a contributing factor.
He also blamed the "debauchery" of Mardi Gras, gambling and pornography.
"Does this not invite divine judgment,'' the 78 year old priest told councilors.
Noting that some people call New Orleans "Sin City,'' Guste said the storm was a warning that "God was knocking on our door and telling us to get our house ready.''
Some council members were noticeably uncomfortable with the remarks.
It is not the first time that Guste and his church have been in the spotlight. In 1997 Guste and parishioners at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church claimed that a portrait of the Virgin Mary that hangs beside the altar was weeping. People came from all over the US to see the purported miracle but the Vatican distanced itself from the event.
Nor is it the first time that gays have been blamed for bring on the hurricane. In the days immediately after Katrina hit New Orleans a far right evangelical group in Pennsylvania proclaimed that God "destroyed" New Orleans because of Southern Decadence.
"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city." said Repent America director Michael Marcavage. (story)
"From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence’, New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same."
©365Gay.com 2005
Isn't is interesting how the fundies always fail to mention that the French Quarter with all of its sin and gay sex, was one of the few districts of New Orleans that was largely spared flooding and damage? Maybe God loves gays and having a good time and wanted to destroy the corruption and hatred in the South instead...?
2 comments:
I think Jeff just posted everything I was gonna say
I loved your addenda to that post. I had read that the Catholic Church had just evicted the Metropolitan Community Church (you know, the gay church) from its buildings because of their support of the homosexual lifestyle. The author said, and I agree, maybe God was pissed that these religious folk were using his name (once again) for hatred and bigotry. So he decided to piss all over them.
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