Those Wacky Religious Conservatives

Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey and Charles Colson say that hurricane Katrina was an omen or a punishment from god. You might think that Robertson, at least, would start censoring himself after all his gaffes, but you'd be wrong.

I think the only adequate response is ridicule. Although I haven't embraced all of Sam Harris's The End of Faith, which I hope to talk about again soon, I like this little trick he suggests: whenever you see "God" in the transcripts of these religious conservatives, substitute the name of your favorite Norse, Greek or Roman god. It's pretty funny. Thus, Charles Colson reads like this:

COLSON: Katrina gave us a preview of what America would look like if we fail to fight the war on terror. "Did Neptune have anything to do with Katrina?," people ask. My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were and life will be normal again.

James Dobson sounds like this:

By uniting in prayer as a nation, we can avail ourselves of the wisdom that only Zeus provides. By petitioning Him for mercy and grace, people everywhere can be a very real and necessary part of the hope and healing. Through prayer, we can access the power of Zeus Himself.”

You can have endless hours of fun with the god-substitution game.