How do you know God

How do you know God?

What is it with people and their insistence that the things happening in the world are God’s doing? We’ve got Pat Robertson saying that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was somehow due to God’s displeasure of “dividing Israel.” We’ve got that kook over in Iran who is determined to hastening the arrival of the hidden Imam. Now we’ve got New Orleans City Mayor Ray Nagin coming up with his own kooky quotes.

Read the article here.

As you probably won’t click on the article let me pull out his quotes:

“Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country.”

“Surely he doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves.”

“It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild New Orleans—the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way.”

Then he goes on describing an imaginary conversation he had with Dr. Martin Luther King.

If I were God and I were truly pissed with America I would have let the Canadians invade. What, other than killing off the population, could be worse? But really, I don’t get how people like Robertson and Nagin can suggest God is out to get America. Are we to attribute every bad thing that happens because we have gone against his will?

Another thing—why does New Orleans have to be a chocolate city? Ensuring black majority—sounds racist to me.

UPDATE: 7:48PM

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

Mayor Ray Nagin has clarified his remarks:

He said he had not meant that it should be an all-black metropolis, asking: "How do you make chocolate?

"You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about," he told CNN. (from here)

Now I suck at spin, but even I could do better than that. Wait! There's more:

“I apologize to any resident in this city that may have been offended,” he said. “That was not my intention. If I could take anything back, I thought the Uptown comment was inappropriate. If any people are working hard to rebuild this city, it’s the people Uptown.”

In his speech, Nagin had said that despite what some Uptown might be saying, that New Orleans would again be a majority African-American city.

Nagin also apologized for invoking God in his speech, saying that it was inappropriate.

Nagin’s speech included a statement that God wanted New Orleans to be majority African-American.

“Unfortunately, everything I say today is scrutinized to the nth degree,” he said. “It was Martin Luther King’s birthday. I thought it was appropriate to address some of the concerns and frustrations I’m hearing from the African-American community.” (from here)