Michele Bachmann says Hurricane Irene "a message from God"

[Engel]

Another Bachmann blunder. She is just one of many religious zealots who seem to be ever present in American politics, especially from the Republican front. Glen Beck eat your heart out. Full story below courtesy of Yahoo news.

Hurricane Irene and the recent East coast earthquake were directed at America's politicians, according to a statement from Michele Bachmann.
The Minnesota congresswoman and presidential candidate told an audience gathered at a Shriner's temple in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday that God was trying to communicate a message about fiscal responsibility via the two recent natural disasters. From the St. Petersburg Times:
I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending.
Bachmann's comments immediately stoked a firestorm of media attention. In a follow-up statement, Bachmann's campaign said Monday the candidate's observations were merely a joke, according to Talking Points Memo.
"Obviously she was saying it in jest," spokeswoman Alice Stewart told TPM in a statement.
Stewart did not immediately respond Monday to The Ticket's request for comment.
A clip circulated Monday of Bachmann's comments shows the lawmaker clearly smiling and nearly laughing as she delivers a similar message about "God's wrath" during that speech. Watch the video below via MSNBC:

Bachmann is an evangelical Lutheran who has long stressed her personal relationship with God in public forums. She previously revealed that while serving as a state senator, she asked God for guidance "and just through prayer I knew that I was to introduce the marriage amendment in Minnesota" that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. She also has said that God gave her and her husband visions of marrying one another prior to their first meeting, and that God called her to run for Congress.
For some, Bachmann's comment this weekend immediately brought to mind televangelist Pat Robertson, who infamously claimed Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for legalized abortion.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

It's pretty weird how Bachmann can hold gatherings in temples of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and talk about using divination to make political decisions and all these supposed Christian Islamophobes say she is their candidate. Whatever though, Shriners are f*cking sinister goofy-looking cultural misappropriaters.

[citizen of industry]

Percentage of American's who identify themselves as christians: 76%. That's scary right there. It's hard to discuss politics or economy with people when reason takes a back seat to a mystical, all-powerful diety. Fortunately that number has dropped about 10% in the last 20 years and is continuing to decline.

[RedMarxist]

Percentage of American's who identify themselves as christians: 76%. That's scary right there. It's hard to discuss politics or economy with people when reason takes a back seat to a mystical, all-powerful diety. Fortunately that number has dropped about 10% in the last 20 years and is continuing to decline.

wow, what an ignorant statement. Not all Christians are drooling morons without a mind of their own. Bachmann does NOT represent every last Christian, in the same way that Pat Robertson does not represent every last Christian in the country.

I'm an atheist, but I'm not about to be a complete snob about it and a bigot. People should be entitled to believe-or not to believe in a Deity/Deities.

I hate it when "fellow atheists" mention that Christianity makes people stupid for some reason. Read a book. May I suggest the Good Book, before you start cutting on the people who believe in the good book.

[communard71]

I'm an atheist, but I'm not about to be a complete snob about it and a bigot. People should be entitled to believe-or not to believe in a Deity/Deities.

I hate it when "fellow atheists" mention that Christianity makes people stupid for some reason. Read a book. May I suggest the Good Book, before you start cutting on the people who believe in the good book.

It’s not bigoted to point out the error in thinking which is going on inside Christianity as in all religions, it’s logical, polite and comes from a sincere desire to weaken the influence of irrational beliefs, which, in our friends and families are cute anachronisms at best and dangerous exclusionism at worst. Bachman is more indicative of Christians than you are willing to admit and even if she wasn’t, she is running for CFO of the biggest capitalist enterprise in history which possesses the largest and most effective military/police arm in the world. So her religious beliefs are exceptionally important to consider. I would just as soon abolish the corporate entity that is the United States but in the meantime, I would prefer to not have a fanatic zealot with her finger on the proverbial button. And Christianity doesn’t make people stupid, but it would be useless to argue that good Christians are not required or encouraged to think too deeply about their beliefs. And I’ve read your good book, and it belongs in a museum next to the Rosetta Stone and some Zoroastrian rock tablets. It’s a compilation of historical religious beliefs and absurd children’s stories with little or no relevance to modernity. If you’re an atheist, be an atheist.

[Dumb]

If God sent Hurricane Irene to New York to tell us to cut spending, then what was God trying to tell us by sending Michelle Bachmann to Minnesota?

[Ocean Seal]

Another Bachmann blunder. She is just one of many religious zealots who have taken over and sabotaged American politics, especially from the Republican front. Glen Beck eat your heart out. Full story below courtesy of Yahoo news.

Ok I'd like to start off by saying fuck Bachmann, but I'd like to address a misconception here. Religious zealots have not sabotaged American politics, bourgeois democracies tend to work in these ways. There was is no genuine democracy in this country (although many who follow the Moore path would think that the rich only recently orchestrated a coup against capitalism), so please be more careful in this analysis.

[Art Vandelay]

wow, what an ignorant statement. Not all Christians are drooling morons without a mind of their own. Bachmann does NOT represent every last Christian, in the same way that Pat Robertson does not represent every last Christian in the country.

I'm an atheist, but I'm not about to be a complete snob about it and a bigot. People should be entitled to believe-or not to believe in a Deity/Deities.

I hate it when "fellow atheists" mention that Christianity makes people stupid for some reason. Read a book. May I suggest the Good Book, before you start cutting on the people who believe in the good book.

While of course people are entitled to believe or not believe, but we are also entitled to express our concern and disbelief in their faith; being religious does not at all make them a drooling moron without a mind of their own, however it seems to inhibit them from using said mind.

As a self proclaimed Marxist and atheist why would you tell people to read the "Good book." To further silly superstitious beliefs that run contrary to your supposed ideology?

And what you refer to as the "Good book" sadly is not good at all, try reading it's contents.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

RedMarxist why would you say "read the good book" if you want to prove Christians aren't "drooling morons"? You know what made me a non-believer? I picked up the Bible and thought to myself "how the fuck do people believe this shit?" Anyways I find it hilarious how some conservatives will use any natural disaster to say God is mad about something, fall in line behind us if you don't this to happen again. God must really be an asshole if the only way he knows how to get a message across is by going on a destructive rampage or a killing spree. Bachman is one step away from joining the WBC, she already hates the LGBT community, It's only a matter of time before she concludes the economy sucks because gay couples can marry in NY.

[RedMarxist]

I'm not suggesting you go and read the "Good Book." and believe in it's "biblical history" I'm suggesting that you read it in order to understand from a Christian viewpoint the Christian mindset.

Right now, and I'm deeply sick of it, I have no choice but to go to church. Sure our pastor is a BRILLIANT SPEAKER/good man, but everything he says falls flat to me. My parents force me to go "to spend time with the family", so I literally waste an hour of my life listening to a long speech about things I don't give a shit about.

Right now, I'd describe myself as a radical Atheist/Communist, Radical Marxist-Leninist. My parents are awesome though. They don't care that I borrow Lenin's works/other Marxist texts from the library/bought the Lenin Anthology, which is made by the same guy who wrote the Marx-Engels Reader.(both are great compilations of their respective thinker's works)

[Le Socialiste]

I wonder if she'd feel the same way if said hurricane wiped out her home, loved ones, and financial standing. I'm betting not.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I don't think people become Christians because they read the Bible and agree with its content. Most people who call themselves Christians were beaten in the head with it since birth, and have never read the Bible.

Religion is not something modern people adopt out of nowhere because of its well reasoned arguments. It's something used in an attempt to limit the pain and suffering of everyday life, and passed on to children before they are old enough to reason.

Only when the conditions of exploitation, alienation and the like have been uprooted and abolished will we see a real break with mystical beliefs.

[RedMarxist]

Engel's Principles of Communism specifically states that religion will dissipate along with the state and classes over time as people find they no longer need it to comfort themselves.

[Klaatu]

Michelle Bachmann herself is a message from god:

"Stay in school, kids, or you will end up being as stupid as Michelle Bachmann is!" ;)

[Nox]

Destroying people's homes and endangering their lives?

Yup, sounds alot like God :D

[xub3rn00dlex]

Michelle Bachmann herself is a message from god:

"Stay in school, kids, or you will end up being as stupid as Michelle Bachmann is!" ;)

If Michelle Bachmann had her way, then the message would be "Stay in school kids, while you still can."

[piet11111]

Well reading the bible is actually a great argument for atheism.
I went to a christian school and it made me the atheist i am today.

[chegitz guevara]

It's pretty weird how Bachmann can hold gatherings in temples of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and talk about using divination to make political decisions and all these supposed Christian Islamophobes say she is their candidate. Whatever though, Shriners are f*cking sinister goofy-looking cultural misappropriaters.

Do not dis the fez or the little cars!

[citizen of industry]

wow, what an ignorant statement. Not all Christians are drooling morons without a mind of their own. Bachmann does NOT represent every last Christian, in the same way that Pat Robertson does not represent every last Christian in the country.

I'm an atheist, but I'm not about to be a complete snob about it and a bigot. People should be entitled to believe-or not to believe in a Deity/Deities.

I hate it when "fellow atheists" mention that Christianity makes people stupid for some reason. Read a book. May I suggest the Good Book, before you start cutting on the people who believe in the good book.

Firstly, I didn't say they are drooling morons without a mind of their own. My sister and nephew are Christians and I love them dearly. I said, "It's hard to discuss politics or economy with people when reason takes a back seat to a mystical, all-powerful diety." Memories of news footage of GW Bush stepping off the helicopter after church with a bible in his hand spring to mind.

As for "the good book," I was also forced to attend church when I was young. I've always thought 'the good book' is complete trash, full of sexism, brutality and utter nonsense, and that is often used to justify disgusting claims like "faggots are all going to hell," "muslims are all going to hell and we should kill them," "women should serve their men," "sex out of wedlock is a sin," "abortion is murder" and other garbage from ignorant people who identify themselves as Christians, and to promote censorship and freedom of speech and expression generally. If your parents don't make claims like this good for them, my sister doesn't either.

If people are inclined to accept a deity and the utter tripe written in "the good book" than I have to question their ability to assess society in a rational manner. Sorry if that makes me a bigot and a snob, but the less religion I see the better. What was the old nazi slogan, "Kinder, Kuche, Kirche"? Children, Kitchen, Church. Nice life for women, that one.

As for being your "fellow atheist," it is a-theism, a rejection of theism. A non-belief. So we have in common the disbelief of something, that's it. It's not some club we belong to. We may be comrades or "fellow leftists."

[tobbinator]

It's always a shame when someone uses a disaster like this for their own personal gain.

[citizen of industry]

It's always a shame when someone uses a disaster like this for their own personal gain.

The reactionary right-wing governer of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, said the same thing after the recent quake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster here "that the disaster was 'punishment from heaven' because Japanese have become greedy."

That's a nice god you have that wipes out 20,000 people, many of them children, and dumps radiation on the rest of us. And this guy was recently re-elected. :cursing:

[bellum33]

If only more christians like myself understood that the bible is not complete fact and if it had been written fifty or one-hundred years later, it would be entirely different. I've met christians who actually think that god himself wrote the bible, I try to distance myself from those kind of people. I never bring up my religion unless someone asks me and I never try to convert people. In my opinion the current establishment of organized religion in the United States is utterly corrupt and has turned their backs on some of Jesus' teachings, that's why I never go to church.:)

[Pretty Flaco]

If God sent Hurricane Irene to New York to tell us to cut spending, then what was God trying to tell us by sending Michelle Bachmann to Minnesota?

Minnesota must a done something pretty damn awful.

[Klaatu]

Well reading the bible is actually a great argument for atheism.


I use it against the religion-fucks all the time.

I see the bible as ancient literature (mythological stories copied from the Greek tradition,
such as the Odessy) think of Noah's Ark vs. Jason's Argo as one example.

Also a good argument (at times) to promote Communism/Socialism.

[Klaatu]

I heard god is sending a glacier to Minnesota this winter, in an effort to deep-freeze bachmann :D

[PhoenixAsh]

Right...isn't it a coincidence whenever somebody claims God sends a message it always is a message to punish and warn others the claimant doesn't agree with? How convenient.

And its never a positive message either. You never hear somebody claim: Well god supports me because God made a thousand butterflies swoop from the sky and made all the roses bloom in my step. Its always vulcano's, earthquakes, huricanes and Tsunami's and what have you not.

[Os Cangaceiros]

What's with all the Bachmann threads recently? Who cares what stupid shit gets puked out of her face?

Like someone mentioned on another thread, the "progressive" press will be all over Michelle Bachmann while the remnants of the "great society" get dismantled under their noses by Obama.

[Klaatu]

Right...isn't it a coincidence whenever somebody claims God sends a message it always is a message to punish and warn others the claimant doesn't agree with? How convenient.

And its never a positive message either. You never hear somebody claim: Well god supports me because God made a thousand butterflies swoop from the sky and made all the roses bloom in my step. Its always vulcano's, earthquakes, huricanes and Tsunami's and what have you not.

I agree. If "god" is always sending us disasters, then he must be a big dick. :cursing:

Now I'm waiting for that big lightning bolt he will send to singe my kiester as punishment :lol:

[piet11111]

I use it against the religion-fucks all the time.

I see the bible as ancient literature (mythological stories copied from the Greek tradition,
such as the Odessy) think of Noah's Ark vs. Jason's Argo as one example.

Also a good argument (at times) to promote Communism/Socialism.

Its also fun to mess with their heads by pointing out the similarity's between norse mythology of ragnarok and the bible creation story.

The tree of life Yggdrasil had apples that gave the gods their power and at the final battle between the gods and the giants a man and a woman hid in the tree of life to emerge later after all the fighters died.
And the talking snake sounds a lot like Loki even though he died at ragnarok.

So they either have to acknowledge that the bible was heavily edited to convert the norse (and if they do why then believe everything else in the bible after-all it had 18 century's of editing) or acknowledge the existence of the norse gods and we all now how skydaddy likes it when other gods are given credit. :lol:

[Klaatu]

Its also fun to mess with their heads by pointing out the similarity's between norse mythology of ragnarok and the bible creation story....


There is so much borrowing going on. (ancient plagiarism, if you ask me)

Have you read "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell? (this was also a 6-part PBS series about 20 years ago, probably available on DVD at your local library) Campbell also wrote a few other similar books, which tell the common stories (myths) of antiquity.