Ten Commandments seem like such a small number of things that God would tell us not to do. Don’t kill anyone. Okay, cool, we can deal with that, seems pretty straightforward. Don’t covet your neighbor’s donkey. No problem there, I get mine wholesale and the quality tends to be pretty good. Then, from what I understand, there are eight others.

Now, by no means am I a theological scholar, but to the best of my knowledge there isn’t a “Thou shall not be homosexual” commandment. Same with “Thou shall not be a Jewish leader looking for peace in your country.” And, I may be reaching with this one, but “Thou shall not have dissent within a democracy,” doesn’t pop up anywhere that I know of. But, then again I could be wrong; I kind of glossed over Exodus.

According to the news the past several years, especially within the last few months, it has come to my attention that we got short-changed somewhere along the line with what God does and doesn’t want us to do.

God is pissed, and by all accounts he doesn’t seem to be taking it any more. Consider: Jerry Falwell helpfully informed us 9/11 was God’s version of a kick in the nuts because of gays and their “unholy” ways.

Pat Robertson, good friend of God and national crazy person, let us in on the fact that God was simply doing his heavenly duty by turning Ariel Sharon into a vegetable. After all, how dare a Jew give away a piece of land that was causing incomprehensible bloodshed? The balls on that guy.

The New York Times recently reported that New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin is jumping on the “holy wrath” bandwagon.

“Surely God is mad at America,” quoth Nagin in his semi-infamous Martin Luther King Day speech. “He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country.”

The true question is what is more offensive: The fact that incredible amounts of pain and suffering on thousands of people can be so easily pigeon holed as, “Well, you brought it upon yourselves,” or that a public leader is using the celebration of a civil rights icon to chide a nation.

Allowed, all of these men are entitled to their opinions. The already much-maligned Nagin has not done himself a favor by throwing himself in with the likes of Falwell and Robertson. After catching flak for his handling of the hurricane situation, you would think the man would be walking on eggshells. That doesn’t seem to be the case, however, with his apparent willingness to join the “creepy religious guy” club.

What’s more frightening is that someone who isn’t known for insane ramblings is so quick to point to divine intervention. This little shot off at the mouth (which caught little attention, because of his vaguely racist comments elsewhere in the speech) is indicative of the swing to the religious right this country has been making bit by bit.

When our own government officials are taking us back to the hellfire and brimstone days, we’re in danger of alienating a large cross-section of the population that isn’t completely insane. Obviously Mr. Nagin feels that God was upset about something, and he has every right to feel that way. He shouldn’t have belittled the victims of New Orleans by saying the death and destruction could have been prevented if we hadn’t rubbed a certain deity the wrong way. It seems to be a tad disingenuous. We expect that from the nut jobs, not from the mayor of one of the most famous cities in the United States.

Granted, Nagin did apologize for his comments, but anymore that’s become standard procedure for politician screw-ups. It’s high time to stop attributing all the pain and destruction in the world on the fact that America is a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

Then again, if Nagin, Robertson and Falwell are right, it’s time we start stocking up on duct tape and plastic tarp.