Pope Gives Anti-Gay Speech; God Blows his Hat off

Uh-oh, up up and away goes the hat!

God: 1
Pope: 0

Hmm, I have a feeling God might be a bit upset with the pope.  If freak natural storms are a sign of the Almighty's disapproval of certain events (as many Christian conservatives believe) then the storm that hit during the pope's speech in Spain on August 21st can only be interpreted as a sign of a divine thumbs-down.

In his speech at World Youth Day's Saturday mass, pope Benedict started on an anti-marriage equality rant.  That's when the skies darkened, lightning flashed, torrential rain fell, and the strong winds began to blow.  If any of you are familiar with Spain, you'll know that A) Spain is majority-Catholic and has marriage equality, and B) rain is very rare in Spain during the summer months, let alone severe thunderstorms.  This was an extremely unusual weather event.

Tents were blown over, the pope's skull cap was whisked into the atmosphere by a mighty, rushing wind, and the platform he was on began to shake because of the violent winds.  Six people were injured, two of them seriously.

Pope Benedict is no fan of marriage equality, that's for sure.  Last year in Portugal, Spain's neighbor which also has marriage equality, the pope decried same-sex marriage as "insidious and dangerous."  (As opposed to what, I wonder; priests molesting little boys?)

With his plans altered by the forces of nature (or God, depending on how you look at it), the pope had to exit the scene and release a printed version of the message he intended to deliver.  Part of that message was a tirade against same-sex marriage, how only straight people deserve to marry, all the usual rigamarole.  He did manage to say to the crowd that "The Lord calls many people to marriage, in which a man and a woman, in becoming one flesh, find fulfillment in a profound life of communion."  Then began the winds...

Chalk it up to one of those freak natural occurrences, or chalk it up to disapproval from the Big Man upstairs.  Either way you slice it, pope Benedict didn't get to deliver his anti-gay remarks that day, and I think that's pretty hilarious.

Footnote:
It has been brought to my attention that the pope actually said "the Lord is sending us His blessing with the rain" during the storm.  Okaaaaay...a blessing in the form of violent winds, dangerous lightning, and injured people?  Uh-huh.  Perhaps a simple cooling, misting rain would have been a better blessing...