An opinion, that's all it is.....

I was talking with one of my dearest, oldest, and most precious friends today. He's known me since I was a child, and he knows how opinionated I am. Taking a chance anyway, he asked me a question about a comment Pat Robertson had made, when he stated that the recent devastating earthquake was God's punishment for the sins of the people in Haiti.

This was my answer to him:

About Pat Robertson: It is easy enough for religious zealots to point fingers and cast stones. But I don't see them digging through the rubble. The loudest of them seems to only be able to judge, and I don't think we are put here on earth to judge others.

The Old Testament, which has been translated many times by many people before it reached us, uses natural disasters to collectively warn us of the results of the punishments of wrong doing. Do we take those eons old adages and apply them literally? I don't know. Because ultimately it was men who wrote the Old Testament, who is to say those specific words when translated were literally direct from God? Language translations can change words and meanings.

A little 7 year old boy is dying from an inoperable brain tumor. Is he being punished for wrong doing in his short life? I don't think so.

Collectively the lessons from the Old Testament can be applied to humanity. The Ten Commandments come to mind. But to personify natural disasters, and to give them a direct personal connotation is impossible. Who can know that Katrina was sent to punish New Orleans for abortion? Not possible, because abortion is carried out everywhere, and has been throughout history in some form or another. What about the plight of the Jews during WWII? Were they being punished?

Lots of questions and I have no answers. I am very spiritual, but not so much into organized religion for the same above reasons. I can't identify with a loving God who punishes.

If that is the case, where are the miracles? Why aren't they personified? I just don't think God would kill babies to teach the world a lesson. So yes, I think maybe Pat Robertson might be a 'media whore' as mentioned by the blogger, but no more than so many others. Sensationalism, spread far and wide by today's news media.... People say a lot of things they don't mean when a camera is in front of their faces.

So I can't give you an answer. The blog might be an opinion but it is a strong one. None of us is right or wrong, though, we have to form our own opinions and answers to our own questions, and how we live our lives will reflect that. I can't point fingers, nor can I judge. I just don't believe a natural disaster is the result of the wrong doing of a collective people that includes babies and children.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now. Will we be arguing over this?

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I just hope I still have the friendship that we have enjoyed for all these years. Maybe I should learn to keep my opinions to myself