If you ask for help after a disaster, be aware of the kind you may get:

[Are_grits_groceries]

Proselytizing Evangelicals Back at It in Flood-Damaged Towns

In June, we brought you the story of Roz Payne, who sought assistance from 2-1-1 for her flooded North Hero camp and instead was met with a Southern Baptist prayer circle. The "help" came in the form of a minister and his wife, members of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief of New England, who, rather than helping salvage Payne's belongings that were worth saving, suggested they pray.

As Payne told reporter Andy Bromage, “I do not think holding hands in a circle in the name of Jesus helped to save the contents of my house.”
<snip>
Now, in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, there are reports of similar spiritual meddling. Rev. Emily C. Heath, pastor of Wilmington and West Dover Congregational churches, says she has witnessed untrained chaplains masquerading as Red Cross volunteers in her community.

Last week, as Heath helped organize relief efforts in Wilmington, one of the towns hardest hit by flooding, she noticed people wandering around town wearing T-shirts that said "Chaplain." Some of them were wearing badges from the International Fellowship of Chaplains, which has ties to the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, and has been accused of fundamentalist extremism and anti-gay rhetoric.
<snip>
http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011/09/proselytizing-evangelicals-back-at-it-in-flood-damaged-towns.html

and if they showed up here after a disaster, there would be a 'come to Jesus' meeting that they wouldn't forget.

[cali]

1. this will go over well in Vermont.

Not.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. If a sky wizard wants to take credit for sending help he/she also needs to take credit

for sending a disaster.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Just tap your Swiss Bank Account and hire Jebbie Bush & Cronies, Inc. (R)

If you have enuf money, you will get some help on the temporal plane from the republicons' Disaster Profit Corporations.

----

Jeb Bush forms new company and gets into 'privatized' disaster response

Source: St. Petersburg Times

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is getting into the for-profit disaster response business. ..... Bush has joined forces with O'Brien's Response Management, an emergency planning company, according to a story in the Maritime Executive on its web site today.

According to the Maritime Executive's story, O'Brien's is a a wholly owned subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc. and joined forces with Bush's company, Old Rhodes Holdings LLC, to help the company expand into new markets. "O’Brien’s provides emergency planning, disaster response, preparedness consulting, crisis communications and regulatory compliance services to corporations and governments,'' the report says.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4996061

[w0nderer]

4. if they aren't walking on the water, they're useless n/t

[malaise]

5. Let us PREY!!!

So what's new???

[phylny]

6. I know it's easy to take offense to this

but I cringe at broad brush statements. I know many other church groups that do wonderful things. After the tornado in Glade Spring, VA I saw churches spring into action, from local food pantries, shelter, and clothing to the Southern Baptist mobile showering facility when the people needed it most. Say "thanks, but no thanks" and move on.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. The article is directed

towards those people who are showing up with no material items and are just proselytizing. They are like vultures picking at whatever spiritual bones are available. People in these circumstances are in extremely vulnerable conditions and IMHO need unqualified help.

The people who do proselytize at times can seem as if they are offering a trade. If I will listen to their spiel about their God no matter what my faith may be, then I can have the supplies. Not all of the groups give that appearance or feeling, but too many do. If they want to set up some way to make people aware that spiritual guidance is available, fine.

If I remember correctly from my pew days, God's love and grace are freely given. Whatever is offered should be handled that way too. It should come from a place of deep concern about those that need help, and not from a requirement that it be done in God's name. The first way does not make people feel any more indebted than they probably will, the second way can seem to come from a smug place of superiority because the givers have 'faith' and are saved or whatever.

Don't help me because it gives you spiritual brownie points. Help me because I need it and you truly care. If that feeling is engendered in you because of your basic beliefs and your faith then that's one way it can be part of your nature. People who don't believe in God or are of a different faith can offer the same kind of help and love even without meeting the beliefs of some other faith.

[Javaman]

8. I have issues with any religion that sees opportunity in tragedy. nt

[Tesha]

9. "I said the CIA, you idiot, not the UJA!"

(Points to the first person to identify that line...)

Tesha