Crazy Pentecostal Pastor Blames Horrific Fires on Pro-Choice Laws

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 7:49 AM on February 10, 2009.

The Australian state of Victoria is currently being ravaged by severe bush fires--a natural disaster of epic proportions, in which entire communities have been lost to fire. Nearly 200 people have already been confirmed dead, and the total may be as many as 300. Native flora and animal populations have been decimated.

Shaker Eden emails: "Nearly 1000 homes have been lost. To put that in perspective, the second worst bushfire ever left 70 people dead." And Shaker Rachel emails from Victoria: "Over 180 people have died, whole towns have been obliterated, and the fires are still raging across the state. It's an awful tragedy." (Donate to the Australian Red Cross' Victorian Bushfire Appeal here.)

Enter Pentecostal Pastor Danny Nalliah of (the unfortunately-named) Catch the Fire Ministries to pour some salt in the (literal) wounds--y'know, just like Jesus would.

The Catch the Fire Ministries has tried to blame the bushfires disaster on laws decriminalising abortion in Victoria.

The Pentecostal church's leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah, claimed he had a dream about raging fires on October 21 last year and that he woke with "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".

...Asked by the Herald if he did not believe most Australians would regard his remarks as being in appallingly bad taste, he said today: "I must tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear."

There are thousands of homeless people desperate to find shelter, hundreds of people injured, people grieving at the loss of family, friends, pets, property, people seriously at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, more suffering than it's really possible to comprehend in whole--and this despicable fuck looks across that charred and heartbroken landscape and sees an opportunity to exploit, just the perfect chance to shame pro-choice women (and their allies), to blame them, to admonish them that asserting their autonomy is to blame for a national tragedy.

I can't even begin to explain how sputtering mad this shit makes me. And when I get mad, I pick up my teaspoon.


Donate to Reproductive Choice Australia here.
Donate to Pro-Choice Victoria here.

Our thoughts, our hearts, and our teaspoons are with you, Shaker Sisters in Victoria.

Tagged as: religion, pro-choice, australia, fires, tragedy, preacher

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.