I really wanted to believe that this was fake when it was first emailed to me – but no, there it is on the Catch the Fire Ministries website: Pastor Danny Nalliah, leader of that esteemed fundamentalist Christian group, tells us that the horrendous bushfires in Victoria in the past week which have so far killed nearly 200 people are simply God’s way of punishing us for… abortion. That’s right. Abortion.
Specifically:
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.
And further, Danny tells us that he had God on the Heaven hotline during some kind of peyote-type dream:
In my dream I saw fire everywhere with flames burning very high and uncontrollably. With this I woke up from my dream with the interpretation as the following words came to me in a flash from the Spirit of God.
That His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.
If there is a God, one suspects that Danny’s dream is more to do with his final destination than the bushfires. If I ran an organisation called “Catch the Fire” I’d probably have the tact to keep quiet at this point, too.
It was tempting to ignore this completely to avoid publicising in any slight way the sick views of these people. But in the end garbage like this should be dragged out into the light so that they are shown for what they are, cynical opportunists who are prepared to use a terrible event (which should unite the community) to divisively push their hateful message of intolerance. I can only hope that with the dramatic fall of the Bush regime and the tangible shift back towards rationality as the central tenet of Western society, we will see this get the reaction it deserves from our leaders and from the community generally – disgust at irrational and bigoted nonsense, not ‘tolerance’ of ‘religious views’.
Catch the Fire may be a familiar name. That’s because they are the same fundamentalists who received a personalised message from John Howard when he was frantically selling himself to every right wing group of wackos who might conceivably vote for him. Nice work John, you really did the office of PM proud. This is the same Danny Nalliah from Catch the Fire who has previously run as a candidate for Family First, the lunatic fringe party who now seem to be pushing the Government into a mandatory Internet filter via Senator Fielding’s crucial Senate vote.
Old Danny has given us his number, so feel free to use it to tell him what you think:
Danny Nalliah is available for interview on 03 9794 8211 Media contact: Jason Golden on 0404 952 768
Disclaimer: these are my views, and my views only.
Update: here is an ABC Blog on the same topic. Interestingly, it points to this, which is Danny’s initial “warning” about the fires. What is deeply disturbing about this blog is that some of the comments posted seems to subtly suggest that if Victoria needs to be punished, maybe the Lord’s followers are going to have to be the ones to inflict that punishment. For example, “Trevor” says:
Fire will indeed come but not for the reason you have said.
and
Become a father to the fatherless and a friend to the alien. says the Lord. Yes do this and I will save you. I will save you and not as an urchin from a house fire. When you see the fire I start you will smell your clothes and they will be fresh.
Update 2: More on the hilarious antics of Pastor Nalliah and his “magic hands”.
Update 3: Catch the Fire are, of course, Sarah Palin fans, and recount the following, er, ‘prophecy’ to us:
It was at this moment Sarah Palin reached out for me to help her up, and as I was assisting her to stand, I was now face-to-face with her, and God said, “Open up your mouth and I will fill it.”
Dave at Balneus also has questions about “Trevor”.
I had never before today even heard of this “prophecy”. And if you live in Australia, knowing a hot summer and a high fire season is coming, its a pretty easy and general prophecy to make. It’s not as if major bushfires are that unusual here.
As a Christian, I find it a little disturbing that an alleged man of God who says he heard from God something pretty serious concerning a judgement against the people of this state did not, as far as I know, publicly announce it. Perhaps at least write a couple of letters to the papers ?
I mean, what good is a prophecy nobody hears ?
I can imagine the condemnation and ridicule one would endure for a prophecy of judgment, but at least you’d get it out there. The press would love it, you’d get slammed for it, but if you really heard from God, so what, you put up with it, right ? If you really heard from God, you feel compelled, that you MUST say something to everyone. How could you not ? And (this will sound horrible) if nobody repents and everybody burns, sadly, you’re vindicated at least, right ?
Now, put yourself In God’s shoes for just a moment (please humor me). You give this guy a prophecy concerning a judgment against the people and he only tells his immediate peers, maybe puts it in the church newsletter, and they have a prayer meeting about it, and that’s it.
Would you be impressed ?
Did God pick a cowardly scumbag who lacked the intestinal fortitude to make his prophecy public ? Or is it just a bit suspicious ? Prophecies of judgment are supposed to warn people in the hope that people will repent. In the Old Testament there were times when people repented and judgment was averted.
So there’s my little theological two cents for what its worth (which isn’t much because I’m just another cowardly hypocrite).
But even this cowardly hypocrite is not impressed.
Oh wait…
It appears there was a press release, dated Novemeber 7, 2008.
Here is where you will find it:
http://catchthefire.com.au/blog/2008/11/07/stop-press-urgent-prayer-needed-regarding-australia-especially-the-state-of-victoria/
But wait for it…
It even has a picture of the Sunday Herald Sun which has “HORROR FIRE WARNING” in bold on it. You can click to enlarge it.
It is dated NOVEMBER 2, 2008.
Danny Nalliah, you’re not a prophet, you’re a goose.
Hehe, I guess I’m too much of a defamation lawyer to possibly suggest a thing like that. But yeah, it is interesting… convince a bunch of people that you have a direct line to God Central TM… tell them God’s plan is to BURN TEH UNBELIEVERS, oh and by the way, it’s fire season… distribute matches… and presto! The Earth is cleansed of its sins.
I think the best evidence that there is no interventionist God up there is the fact that Mr Nalliah hasn’t been smote, smited, smitted, whatever the past tense is, repeatedly and with extreme prejudice…
For those who have jumped from here to my INITIAL post on Nalliah and Trevor because of the comment by LegalEagle, I’ve written a detailed followup post discussing the proper responsibilities of clerics in the internet age, analysing what Nalliah could and should have done when Trevor commented, and then implying regulations that would “de-register” religions from tax benefits (and others) if they do not act responsibly.
See "Internet Pastoral Responsibilities of Clerics: Nalliah and Trevor" (2009-02-12)
The Federal government is quietly looking at removing most religious tax breaks anyway, so watch this space.
There is no justification whatsoever for a religious group to receive tax exemption (which, ultimately, everyone else pays for) in a secular 21st century nation.
Nalliah just demonstrates the kind of crap which can safely fly under the radar most of the time because it amounts to “religion”.