RACISM AND LAMPOONING THE VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA ON PASTORS.COM

Forgive me for the loooong letter but it is important. Would someone from your group PLEASE post something about this. My editing is terrible and you probably need to look at the site for yourself but something needs to be said on your site about the horrible things the religious right is saying about victims of Katrina.

I think America needs to know that on Rick Warren's pastors.com website that there are pastors there making JOKES about the New Orleans victims and some of the worst jokes are coming from the website moderators!

Rick Warren is the Right Wing Minister that has the best seller "The Purpose Driven Life" and is appearing all over the place and was just on tv.

The website is a forum to introduce pastors to HIS products and get them to buy them. He has a huge forum that has many pastors on there and the forum is run by his own people. The jokes are demeaning to blacks and the poor and I even contacted Josh Warren (Rick Warren's son?) and was given the cold shoulder. The coarse jokes against blacks, gays, liberals and other minorities continues to go on every day and the WARRENS KNOW IT.

The forum was open to the public for years but recently went to being one that you need to sign up for. All you need is a user ID and you are in. The WORST posts are in the CURRENT EVENTS section.

In the topic: What Would You Do With New Orleans?

A question about what you would do with New Orleans now,
THE MODERATOR of the site posted,

"Fishing should be good there with all the submerged structures."

He was making fun of the houses that had been destroyed!

One Pastor quickly responded,

"And all the sewage and toxic chemicals. The fish might grow bigger."

Other pastors poked fun as well.

One said, Give it back to the French.

One said, use it as a paintball park!

Another Pastor said to, Burn it all, and then said it was his yankee talk coming out!

Still another Pastor responded,

"Evacuate it, leave it as is for the looters to stay wallowing in their mud; they seem to be having fun.
Build elsewhere for the decent folks and don't waste more tax $ on "land Titanic 2".


3) They are DEFENDING the use of the word REFUGEE to describe victims of the hurricane on the forum:

In the topic:

"Use of Word 'Refugee' Stirs Race Debate in hurricane aftermath"

2)In the forum topic: NEW ORLEANS FLASHBACK: OFFICALS WARNED RESIDENTS 'YOU'LL BE ON YOUR OWN'

One Pastor wrote in response about posting warnings:

"You know, they should have printed this at the bottom of one of those go cups you get at the bars on Bourbon Street. Then someone might have read it."


3) In the topic: "Sean Penn at it again. How Stupid can one man be":

They all lampooned Sean Penn and one of the regulars refered to him as a "freak."

4) In the topic: New Orleans City Council President: "Maybe God's Going To Cleanse Us"


One regular posted:

"They want God now, but haven't wanted Him (at least in the true biblical sense) for many, many decades"

5)WORST OF ALL: Blatant racism and class defamation going on in this one by THE website moderator.

In the topic he started:

TOPIC: "These are my kind of men in New Orleans"

He gloats over those who are in their houses and plan to shoot people and responds:

"I wonder how we can ship those guys some more gas and ammo?" This is THE HEAD MODERATOR SAYING THIS!

And when someone comments about his statement he replies:

"I thought about the women and children thing, too. From the description in the article, it seems to be a nicer neighborhood, so they probably had enough sense to get their families out."

And then he later adds:

" No, that's just a fact. There wasn't anyone wearing polo shirts looting and raping."

When I tried to counter his shocking and unbelievable comment the MODERATOR replied

"It's not classism. It's not being mean, either. It's a reality. Politically incorrect, yet a reality. What do you reckon the percentages were "polo shirt" owning looters vs. non? If you don't admit the problem, you're not gonna be very helpful in fixing it."

You can find the above comments in the topic:

Let the Chastening begin.


In the topic:

Martial Law Declared in New Orleans

THE MODERATOR posted

"They should declare Martial Law at least once a year anyhow - usually in the lead up to Easter Sunday."


Rick Warren has taken the Limelight as usual and has been on Larry King and Fox recently talking about the hurricane. The truth needs to get out what HIS OWN WEBSITE is saying!! He has moderators who have been warned about this before who simply ban those who disagree with them. Rick Warren's own family oversees the forum.

I want you to get the word out about this. There are people there who are dying slowly and there are right wing Pastors and leaders in Rick Warrens Purpose Driven Life organization who see it as an opportunity to rake in money, steal the limelight and make racist and class related jokes about those suffering. If we are going to rebuke Mrs. Bush over ONE saying, then Rick Warren needs to be rebuked for what are YEARS worth of crude and racist comments on HIS site.

Sorry for the long email.


Sincerely,
JM