Detonation Range

Via Pharyngula.

The confirmed death toll of the Australian Bushfires is, as I write this, climbing well beyond two-hundred. Some poor, deluded individuals might claim that these bushfires are caused by arsonists and lightning strikes, exacerbated by drought conditions and extreme heat. However, I know better: the bushfires are caused exclusively by the decline of hats appearing in film. Evidence for this view? I have none. But ah, I don’t need any, a giant, talking hat appeared to me in a dream. It was the spirit of all hats and it warned me that the current trend against hats in Australian film was drawing its ire. I also dreamt that a friend built a pipeline of bendy straws to my house, to flood my bedroom. I expect this to come to pass relatively soon.

Please don’t misunderstand me, this post is not intended to make light of the bushfires and the suffering of the people in affected areas. Rather, it is intended to express my baffled hostility towards statements released by ‘Catch The Fire Ministries’, regarding the cause of the current inferno.

CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he would spearhead an effort to provide every assistance to devastated communities, although he was not surprised by the bush fires due to a dream he had last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.

He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb. Besides providing material assistance, CTFM will commence a seven day prayer and fasting campaign for the nation of Australia tomorrow Wednesday the 11th February.

I have no doubt that many of the material relief efforts currently underway are spearheaded by Christians and even this particular ministry. However, the fact that Pastor Nalliah has leapt upon the suffering and death of hundreds of people and held it up as an example of religious wrath is deplorable. Presumably, despite spearheading material aid, the good Pastor feels the bushfires are justified. One must assume this is the case, given the fact that the nominated cause is something ‘sinful’ which he and his supporters would like to see abolished.

It is my opinion that any material aid provided by Catch The Fire Ministries is utterly cheapened by this parasitic attachment to pain and misery as an advertising space. Not only this, but the ‘prayer and fasting campaign’ (which ended on Wednesday) is a poignant example of the adage; “Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.”

“Can we stop the fires? Yes we can! But it will take God’s children to rally together and repent and cry unto Him as in 2 Chronicles 7:14 (The Holy Bible). We at CTFM have seen this happen several times in the past in Australia, which was also covered by many mainstream media outlets.”

“In our prayer and fasting campaign, we are particularly repenting for the passing of the ‘Decriminalization of Abortion Laws of Victoria’ in addition to other unrighteous, ungodly, and unjust laws and practices which have seen a holocaust of some of the most helpless members of the human race, the unborn.

If you have a strong stomach, read the entire press release or just take a brief look at the polarized comments. One commenter on the website rightly identifies the statements as ‘hate politics’. Ultimately, the entire argument is encapsulated within one giant logical fallacy, that of post hoc ergo propter hoc or ‘false cause’. Simply because one event follows another, it does not mean that there is any causal relationship. Consider my example of the decline of hats in film. It has an equal amount of evidence as Nalliah’s theory (I genuinely had a dream similar to the one described, complete with bendy-straw malice) and even nominates a solution in the same way. Can we stop the fires? Yes we can! But it will take all filmmakers rallying together and demanding extras wear hats in future films!

Relief efforts for bushfire victims are laudable. Attaching a political, fundamentalist agenda robs the relief efforts of much (if not all) of their value. The point is not whether I (or anyone) is pro-choice or pro-life, but rather that this debate, but for the Pastor’s dream, does not enter into the catastrophe at all. We can all see the bushfires on television, online or even up-close and anyone can have a dream, but it takes a particularly loathsome ghoul to tie them together and attempt to draw support for a political stance.

This entry was posted on February 18, 2009 at 1:48 pm and is filed under essay, Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Australian Bushfire, Bushfire, Catch The Fire Ministries, Christian, Exploitation, Ghouls, Prayer