Last week, the president of an ultraconservative Catholic outfit had the gall to wonder if the massive tornado outbreak in Illinois was linked to the passage of a marriage equality bill. Barely 24 hours after the tornadoes died down, Robert Ritchie, president of America Needs Fatima, a project of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property; made a post on his group's blog wondering if the tornadoes were either "God's chastisement" or "one more merciful warning from Providence."
I know Christianists have the right to be wrong. But did they have to be wrong this time? This may be a week old, but I figure a little sunshine is in order. The only appropriate response to such bile is "You're despicable"--preferably with a Daffy Duck voice.
This article would be disgusting enough by itself, but a little more digging on Ritchie's organization reveals some even more disturbing information. TFP is the American branch of Tradition, Family and Property, a Brazilian-based outfit that maintains every pope since John XXIII has been under Communist/Marxist influence. According to the UN Refugee Agency, TFP was heavily bankrolled by the Pinochet dictatorship, and was linked to attempts to assassinate John Paul II and Ronald Reagan. And back in 2011, TFP's student chapter held an anti-marriage equality rally at Brown University in which members were seen wearing military-style black uniforms.
And yet, this is a group that the National Organization for Marriage apparently works with fairly often. The most benign interpretation is that NOM doesn't do their homework.