SENATOR: KATRINA PROVES GOD IS PISSED

Hank Erwin, a Republican state senator from Montevallo, Ala., says God sent Hurricane Katrina to punish the United States for its sins. No, really. Just read what the senator wrote in his weekly column to the media:

"New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness. It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."

Apparently too busy to destroy Las Vegas or the porn shop in your city, God (as envisioned by Erwin) decided to use the old hurricane-into-the-Gulf-Coast trick. So uninspired, especially coming from a deity.

The Birmingham News reported a negative reaction to Erwin's column from Christian leaders:

William Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, suggested another response from Christians to the disaster.

"I have no idea what sort of senator or politician Mr. Erwin is, but he's sure no theologian," Willimon said. "I'm certainly against gambling and its hold on state government in Mississippi, but I expect there is as much sin, of possibly a different order, in Montevallo as on the Gulf Coast. If God punished all of us for our sin, who could stand?

"Next week, 300 United Methodist clergy from north Alabama are spending a week working together to help folks in trouble on the Gulf Coast," he added. "That seems to me a much more appropriate Christian response than that of the senator."

Erwin now joins such luminaries as Louis Farrakhan and al-Qaida in Iraq in giving props to God for whipping up Katrina. Just wait until the big quake hits San Francisco. Erwin might die from the excitement of blaming sodomites for plate tectonics.