Thy Will Be Done

We've got another potential hurricane heading toward the Gulf states this week, so we'll have even more opportunity to discover what's been bugging God. Since these hurricanes are obviously coded messages pointing to his wrath (as well as her/him reminding us that we should mend our ways). Reuters has an article about the goodly sized portion of the US populace that believes Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for our sinning ways:

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, submerging entire neighborhoods for weeks with its ferocious tidal surge, some say it was not a freak act of nature but a message from an angry God.

That's the belief of some Christians in the United States, who have been warning the Mardi Gras capital, long known for its hedonistic ways, was bucking for a good dose of divine retribution.

"There's been a black spiritual cloud over New Orleans for years," the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of influential American preacher Billy Graham, said during an appearance this month at Liberty University, a Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia.
[...]
Indeed, millions of people, particularly in the Southern Bible Belt states, believe the physical world will come to an end as the result of a supernatural event, such as those described in the Bible's Book of Revelation.

Those who embrace this Apocalyptic vision -- about 15 to 20 percent of U.S. Christians by some accounts -- have been bolstered in their beliefs by what they see as a spiritual decay in America that has lasted for decades.
[...]
Skeptics note Christians have been making incorrect predictions for 2,000 years about Judgment Day, including shortly before the dawn of the new millennium a few years ago.

Although most who subscribe to the idea of the world ending sooner rather than later peacefully practice their faith, there are a small number on the fringe actively working to help speed up the process, sometimes violently.

Often referred to as "Apocalyptic cults," these groups have on occasion convinced their followers to commit mass suicides in the belief that the world as they knew it was ending.