Gays and Women Still Causing Earthquakes

by Michael Jones · 2010-04-19 16:50:00 UTC
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InterfaithYou might have thought that gays and women were done causing natural disasters after being blamed for the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and Haiti's earthquake. But nope, in the eyes of some of the world's more conservative religious leaders, gays and women rarely take a day off from stoking God's ire to the point where he smites the Earth.

The latest to join the "sinners cause natural disasters" bandwagon is Muslim cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, a senior Muslim leader in Iran (who, incidentally, is competing with Iceland's volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, for most difficult name to pronounce). Sedighi told the Associated Press today that he thinks promiscuous women are to blame for earthquakes inside Iran.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Sedighi said. Naturally.

Sedighi joins a chorus of global religious folks who are all too quick to blame the world's woes on homosexuality and/or feminism. There was Rev. Jerry Falwell's and Pat Robertson's claim that gays and abortionists caused September 11. And then John McCain's best buddy John Hagee, who blamed gays and lesbians for Hurricane Katrina. And who can forget Rabbi Yehuda Levin's call that gay people caused the earthquake in Haiti, the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, and the 2004 Asian tsunami? (Rabbi Levin did not blame gays and lesbians for causing the Chicago Cubs' World Series drought, for impacting this year's poor tomato crop, or forcing Circuit City into bankruptcy, so at least we aren't all bad.)

What a club to join, eh?  Call it an interfaith alliance dedicated to intolerance, mixed with a bit of delusion.

Meanwhile, lest anyone think otherwise, know that there are dedicated Jewish, Muslim and Christian voices out there working for equality. Folks like Sedighi, Levin, Robertson and Hagee are fine at baiting the mainstream media, but they aren't anywhere near as powerful when it comes to changing hearts and minds.

Photo credit: zeevveez

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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