Originally published at: Weatherman prays on air as deadly tornado hits Mississippi (video) | Boing Boing
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Whenever I see a showy public display of prayer Matthew 6:5,6 comes to mind. Admittedly it almost seemed like more of a quick comment than a full on prayer though. I was expecting something lengthy and meandering.
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While no deaths were reported in the small town, the tornado killed 23 people in the wider Mississippi region.
Well, that worked out great! His prayer deflected the death onto some other town that didn’t pray as hard.
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So…. who’s god created the tornado?
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He (and other people in the newsroom) clearly know people in the town, he literally asks his off-camera colleagues to make sure that they’ve called and warned those people about the tornado.
So yes, he’s very concerned that a deadly tornado is about to rip through a town containing people he knows. If giving a short prayer is how he copes with that concern I really don’t mind it.
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Mmm Shai-Hulud. Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.
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Yeah, and it’s not keeping him from doing his job as best he can. He knows this is bad and he’s a bit overwhelmed. But we have to make fun of him because we’re smug petty fucks.
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Tornadoes are no joke!
And unlike Kansas, I believe basements are much less common in the south. I saw some of the destruction pics, and whole neighborhoods were flattened.
The house I am currently in has no basement, so hopefully I won’t need it!
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The brevity of the kneejerk prayer is made up for in its intensity. For someone who’s not accustomed to making sincere and unquestioning appeals to supernatural entities in moments of distress it still comes across as a pathetic and empty waste of time.
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Sounds like he shoulda prayed harder and saved more people. I blame him.
(JK, I don’t blame him)
While I am not personally of the opinion that Jesus is going to save anybody from a tornado no matter how nicely you ask, I respect that some people find it comforting to imagine there’s some sort of benevolent force in control of the things they are not. It was certainly no less useful than anything else he could have said or done in that moment, anyway, already having accomplished his more important job of telling people to take shelter.
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And it’s not like he demanded others pray with him or even asked others to pray with him. IMO expressing one’s faith is not a problem until or unless it affects others negatively.
With apologies for modifying Zechariah Chafee, Jr.'s quote, just like your arms "Your right to swing your faith ends just where the other man’s nose begins. Again IMO he didn’t come close to anyone else’s noses.
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I grew up in Texas. Specifically in Wichita Falls, which got hit by a monster tornado like this when I was 10. The tornado missed our neighborhood, but yeah, no one in that town had, or to this day has, a basement. I’ve always heard various reasons for this, mostly having to do with the water table, that don’t make any sense to me, but whatever. Sales of in ground tornado shelters skyrocketed there in the 80s, though, so…some people in the south have those.
As far as they praying goes…eh. I don’t like it, but it’s down around 1,947 on my list of things that bother me today.
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Meh, so what, it was a brief request for help that if you blinked you missed.
He’s an ordained minister with strong faith, he wasn’t preaching, he asked his God to help with what was about to be a devastating situation.
Could he have asked for that help silently? Sure, but I’m sure, to him, asking God for help is second nature.
There are people in those communities that said hearing him say that made them take it even more seriously, so maybe his 4 words/Jesus did make a difference.
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Putting this brief moment aside and looking at the bigger picture, I used to feel this way when I left the church as a young adult… “it’s not for me but I don’t really care who believes, it is their business and not mine… and they aren’t affecting me”.
Well, now I really dislike the way the religious right is affecting society and my patience for their supernatural beliefs has evaporated. It’s long past time for society to stop coddling to this fear mongering, anti science, child abusing, privileged hate cult that has way too much power in politics.
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And you just assume that every religious person is part of that.
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Yes, I assume most religious voters vote against the well being of society.
I assume most religious people continue to go to church and do zero to change the internal problems the church has while also continuing to fund the abusers and fear mongering. If you are not campaigning to fix the problems then you are part of the problem. Also see bad apples and their bunches.
Having watched the video, I see someone fulfilling his job, but feeling overwhelmed with concern for a local community and reflexively saying a very short prayer to allow himself to continue on with that job.
Yes, it was on public airways, and yes, it was in a southern state that has weaponized a certain type of Christianity, but this didn’t feel like coercion or dominance, this felt like a brief heart-felt moment at a tough time.
This guy is not the enemy.
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Better to be in a not-religious hate cult, I guess.
This post reads like insular provincialism. I was raised in a culture where this behavior is utterly unremarkable, and seeing content like this always makes me aware of how cold-hearted it will look to anyone within that culture. There are bigger fish to fry than tagging a man fearing for his friends and neighbors and telling him that he’s doing it wrong. It’s counter-productive.
Edit: Unless your intention in posting the clip was just to share a dramatic and moving moment, in which case, OK.
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