Reflections on the Hati Earthquake Disaster

UPDATED: The news only gets worse - now the death toll may be in the hundreds of thousands.

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The news flowing in from Haiti is horrific and the nation's capital city is being described as "worse than a war zone." As one of the world's most impoverished countries, the devastation could not hit in a worse place - not that any place would be appropriate for such death and destruction - since 80% of the population live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, I think of the millions and millions of dollars spent by the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the Southern Baptists, and Christianist organizations to deprive LGBT Americans of equality under the civil laws. I cannot but help think that all that money would not have been better spent in places like Haiti. To me, it's yet another example of how warped and perverse the Christian message has become in the hands of self-righteous bigots such as Pope Benedict XVI who lives in incredible splendor while his fellow Catholics in Haiti live in abominable conditions. Wouldn't the money being spent by the Prop 8 supporters be better spent in aid to Haiti? What would Christ do? Here are a few highlights from MSNBC:
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake to hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.

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The devastation was so complete that it seemed likely the death toll from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake would run into the thousands. International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said an estimated 3 million people may have been affected by the quake and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.

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France's foreign minister said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was apparently among the dead. The archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, was also killed, Father Pierre Le Beller said from France after speaking to missionaries who pulled his body from the rubble.

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Haitian President René Préval told the Miami Herald that he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament building, describing the scene as "unimaginable." "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he said.

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U.N. peacekeepers, many of whom are from Brazil, were distracted from aid efforts by their own tragedy: Many spent the night hunting for survivors in the ruins of their headquarters, where more than 100 people are missing.

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To me, it is obscene that alleged Christians spend millions of dollars to make gays second or third class citizens rather than aid places like Haiti. They are truly modern day Pharisees.