Irony: a mega church pastor making judgments about the sin of materialism
Will religious leaders ever learn?
Senior pastor Cho Yong-gi of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Christian church in the world, has faced vicious public condemnation as he called the catastrophic Japanese quakes and tsunamis “God’s warnings.”
“I fear that this disaster may be warnings from God against the Japanese people’s atheism and materialism,” an online Christian press quoted the elderly religious leader as saying Saturday.
“I hope that these series of events will drive the Japanese to turn their eyes towards God.”
I try to keep these posts safe for work, so I’ll react to this in text the way I did in front of my kid – WHAT A HUGE JERKWAD OF JERKNESS WHO IS A JERK! So no, I guess no matter how many times some religious ass speaks up about their god’s will and why thousands of people had to die (and how they might have saved themselves from death had they just been better [insert religion here] and hadn’t [insert behavior here]) other religious asses simply fail to understand how that might be an insensitive and offensive thing to say. However, here we see a new trend with how to deal with the comment once its been said and reacted to:
The interview triggered public rage, though the controversial comments were soon removed from the article.
Netizens rushed to accuse the pastor of being blindly self-righteous and lacking the basic charitable virtues required of a religious leader.
Jin Joong-gwon, a leading social critic widely known for his pointed remarks, lashed back at Cho via his Twitter, calling the pastor a “lunatic.”
“While pastors speak nonsense, true Christian virtues are taking place outside of the church,” Jin said, referring to the relief aid dispatched to Japan from all over the world.
The church, however, issued an official statement claiming that Cho’s words and intentions were distorted and exaggerated by the media
I suppose it’s far easier to redact comments and then insist that what you said was “distorted” than actually addressing the comments that were made.
Though now that I think about it…a religious leader lying, avoiding reality or trying to change it after the fact, and denial regardless of evidence – why am I even surprised?
Also, if you want to help the people of Japan, here is a link to the Red Cross.
