The source of natural disasters

Perhaps you’ve read lately that some religious leaders have discovered why recent natural disasters have occurred.  Among the claims are:

•  Moscow's Interfax newswire reported that the Association of (Russian) Orthodox Experts blamed the April 14 volcanic eruption and the subsequent grounding of transatlantic flights for more than a week — on gay rights in Europe.  (I think if God were really pissed off s/he might do a little more than delay some flights.)

•Rush Limbaugh (left) said God was angry over health care reform.   (Okay.  That makes sense.  The United States enacts health care legislation that God doesn’t like and punishes Iceland.  Maybe s/he wanted the public option. )

• Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi recently told his Shiite Muslim followers that immodestly dressed and promiscuous women are to blame for earthquakes. (I wonder why God didn’t make the earth tremble on the French Riviera, with all that topless sunbathing.)

• In February, Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America warned allowing gays in the military could cause natural disasters to strike America.  (That’s okay.  The gay military will redesign in no time.)

•Pat Robertson (right)  blamed the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti on a pact between the devil and Haitians rebelling against French rule in the 18th century.  (I thought God was a little faster than that.)

News like this makes me proud to be a Unitarian Universalist.