When Fundamentalist Preachers Attack

September 11 2001, terrorist planes crashed into the World Trade Center , and the Pentagon.

The end result was thousands dead. All the bodies weren't recovered before people started capitalize this tragedy to promote their own ends.

The claim that, God , has an invisible shield that protects America, has questionable validity.

Consider

This from the department of justice.

In 2000, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced approximately 25.9 million crimes, according to findings from the National Crime Victimization Survey.

-- 75% (19.3 million) were property crimes

-- 24% (6.3 million) were crimes of violence

In 2000 for every 1,000 persons age 12 or older, there occurred

--1 rape or sexual assault

--2 assaults with injury

Murders were the least frequent violent victimization --about 6 murder victims per 100,000 persons in 1999.

Summary findings

Does this shield only work for land only and not the things living on it?

Well maybe not the land either America has had serious attacks to it's land. Most of these attacks also had causalities.

World War II

Alaska

Hawaii

Pacific North West

Is the theory that God keeps the Causalities down? This doesn't work either. Despite the hysteriathe civil war had number battles that had Causalities higher thanthe attacks on the World trade center, and the pentagon.

Civil War casualties

Civil War Casualities

Friday September 14 5:35 PM ET

Robertson, Falwell: U.S. Vulnerable

By CHRIS KAHN, Associated Press Writer

The Rev. Jerry Falwell and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said the United States was vulnerable to this week's terrorist attacks because the nation has insulted God and lost divine protection.

``God Almighty is lifting his protection from us,'' Robertson said in a four-page statement issued Thursday by his Christian Broadcasting Network.

``We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of ... health,wealth, material pleasures and sexuality.''

Falwell, a Baptist minister and chancellor of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., said Thursday on Robertson's religious TV program ``The 700 Club'' that he blames the attacks on pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way.

``All of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen,''' Falwell said.

He added later, ``God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.''

``Jerry, that's my feeling,'' Robertson responded. ``I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.''

Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, said Friday the comments of Falwell and Robertson ``were stunning. They were beyond contempt. They were irresponsible at best, and a deliberate attempt to manipulate the nation's anger at worst.''

Robertson, who founded the Christian Coalition and unsuccessfully ran for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, said in his statement Thursday that Americans have insulted God by allowing abortion and ``rampant Internet pornography.'' He also chided the U.S. Supreme Court for, among other things, limiting prayer in public schools.

"We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye,'' Robertson wrote. ``We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, 'Why does this happen?'''

Robertson was among conservative religious figures who backed President Bush in last year's election. A White House official called the remarks ``inappropriate'' and added, ``the president does not share those views.''

Falwell said Friday that he didn't mean to blame any one group.

``But I'd say this is a wake up call from God,'' Falwell told The Associated Press. ``I feel our spiritual defenses are down. If we don't repent, then more events might happen in the future.''

Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., compared Falwell's and Robertson's comments with militant Islamic rhetoric that has been condemned worldwide.

``It trivializes theology. It trivializes the dead,'' Leonard said.

God Gave U.S. 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says

By John F. Harris

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 14, 2001; Page C03

Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded."I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."

Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "

People for the American Way transcribed the broadcast and denounced the comments as running directly counter to President Bush's call for national unity. Ralph G. Neas, the liberal group's president, called the remarks "absolutely inappropriate and irresponsible."

Robertson and others on the religious right gave critical backing to Bush last year when he was battling for the GOP presidential nomination. A White House official called the remarks "inappropriate" and added, "The president does not share those views."

Falwell was unrepentant, saying in an interview that he was "making a theological statement, not a legal statement."

"I put all the blame legally and morally on the actions of the terrorist," he said. But he said America's "secular and anti-Christian environment left us open to our Lord's [decision] not to protect. When a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the result is not good."

Robertson was not available for comment, a spokeswoman said. But she released a statement echoing the remarks he made on his show. An ACLU spokeswoman said the group "will not dignify the Falwell-Robertson remarks with a comment."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

Over a year later and more comments

"Falwell remarks prompt Hindu-Muslim clashes, five killed."

Oct 11, 2002

By RAMOLA TALWAR,

BOMBAY, India - At least five people were killed Friday in Hindu-Muslim rioting and police gunfire after riots broke out during a general strike to protest remarks by a U.S. religious leader calling the founder of Islam a terrorist. Forty-seven others were injured.

The rioters attacked each other with knives and stones during the one-day strike called to protest what the Rev. Jerry Falwell said on the U.S. television network CBS early this month. Muslim organizations called Falwell's remarks derogatory and blasphemous.

The conservative Baptist minister told the television network Islam's prophet "was a — a violent man, a man of war."

"Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses," Falwell said. "I think Muhammad set an opposite example."

Two Muslims and one Hindu were killed by police gunfire and one Muslim and one Hindu died of stab wounds in Sholapur, 360 kilometers (225 miles) south of Bombay, the capital of western Maharashtra state, said Kirpa Shankar, the state's junior home minister.