[img]https://www.sermonindex.net/images/forum/2004/may/featured_news.gif[/img]NEW ORLEANS - A handful of die-hard revelers refused Sunday to let Katrina's devastation kill their party spirit or snuff out a famous gay parade that normally draws thousands to New Orleans' French Quarter.As military helicopters buzzed overhead, about two dozen holdout remnants of the annual Southern Decadence festival marched through the quarter, stopping at one of the only bars open, just barely - Johnny White's Sports Bar & Grill.Dressed in drag, wearing plastic leis or sporting makeup, the participants said they were determined to fight back against overwhelming despair with a familiar celebration that always begins in front of a favorite Gay bar, the Golden Lantern.
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Dressed in drag, wearing plastic leis or sporting makeup, the participants said they were determined to fight back against overwhelming despair with a familiar celebration that always begins in front of a favorite Gay bar, the Golden Lantern.
_________________Robert Wurtz II
This breaks my heart to see how one side of the city can be experiencing such turmoil while other side is celebrating as if nothing is happening, because they were not affected or the damage on there end was not that severe. As I was watching this on television, I was spiritually angry.God forgive me for what I thought and said in my mind, but I will confess it here because God sees and hears all, and he writes it down. I said, that they should have been the ones to experience all that came with his Hurricane.How can they be so heartless, what heart! If I have ever seen wickedness I SAW IT NOW.My heart goes out to each and everyone of these souls, and there families. I'm sorry maybe I should be but I can't. GOD THE WORLD NEEDS YOU.
_________________Corrin
From the Urban Legends web site:Hurricane Katrina: God's Punishment for a 'Wicked' City?A reader writes: Is it true that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on a day that was to observe "Southern Decadence Day" with 100,000 homosexuals gathering to commit unspeakable acts in public?In a word, no. Despite the fact that some fundamentalist Christians appear eager to characterize the disaster as "God's judgment" on the "wicked" city of New Orleans, and despite their attempt to link its timing to a gay celebration held there annually, the claims are patently absurd:The hurricane struck on Monday, August 29. This year's Southern Decadence, sometimes called the "Gay Mardi Gras," was scheduled to open today, Wednesday the 31st, and continue through Sunday. The storm obviously did not strike on "the day" of the celebration. Many, perhaps most, of the revelers had not even arrived yet.Southern Decadence is a 35-year-old tradition in New Orleans. Why did God choose to wait till 2005 to "punish" the city for it?Why is the French Quarter, the district where the event (now canceled) was to be held, one of the least devastated parts of the city so far?If this tragedy occurred because God is angry at New Orleans, what was the point of the awful devastation and loss of life wrought in Mississippi and Alabama?Lastly, if I may vent a bit, I find it shameful, given the massive destruction, loss of innocent life, and ongoing hardships suffered by the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina, that any self-appointed spokesperson for God would have the nerve to suggest that these people in any sense deserved their fate. Natural disasters happen all the time, and Katrina was certainly not the first hurricane to strike the southern United States this season. By what logic, and by what right, does any human being arbitrarily declare that this natural disaster was a punishment meted out upon sinners by God?
You are right no one deserves this, not even the sinners. God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.God forgive me, I repent.
It's interesting to me to see Romans 1 clearly demonstrated in this devastating event. Romans 18:1 states that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness..." This is almost vertatim as to what happened just last Sunday. Men who clearly "knew" that there was a great form of calamity about to take place (a.k.a. the "wrath" of God "revealed ") but refused to accept the truth of this upcoming dissaster and "suppressed" the truth in their unrighteousness. For people who "do not like to retain God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28a), God truly does give them over to a debased or depraved mind. So depraved that one would actually continue in their pride by deceiving themselves to think that what they "stand" for is more important than the inevitable demise that was at hand.What's more encouraging to me was to hear of a moment after Hurricane Katrina. It was when and old Nun was down on the ground, curled up yet hopeful--declaring, "I'm just waiting to go to be 'home' with Jesus!" Despite of the raging calamities that she gracefully survived, it was clear that, altough it may appear that she's lost everything, she has lost none whatsoever. Her treasure was IN CHRIST JESUS--the blessed of that anyone will ever have in this faint whiff-of-air that we call "life.""For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him..."(2 Ch 16:9a)
_________________Glenn Llorente
I find it shameful, given the massive destruction, loss of innocent life, and ongoing hardships suffered by the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina, that any self-appointed spokesperson for God would have the nerve to suggest that these people in any sense deserved their fate.
I'm convinced that if there isn't a national repentance soon that we haven't seen anything yet.In Christ,GaryE
_________________Gary Eckenroth
I'm convinced that if there isn't a national repentance soon that we haven't seen anything yet.
By what logic, and by what right, does any human being arbitrarily declare that this natural disaster was a punishment meted out upon sinners by God?
_________________Ron Bailey
