Lees, I Am not sure that you believe that these children would be better off as Southern Baptists rather than Catholic. It that the case you are free to send missionaries. However I can not see how you can take an advantage of a disaster to take these children away from their culture and religion. This is very much like rice christians used by missionaries in the past. If did not produce good christians and gave the missonaries a bad name that in fact lesson the number of christians in the next generation.

I do not know whether this children practiced voodo. But I am sure their own church would condemn it.You say if Christians do not want to change the religion of others they should not be there. What happen to Christ command the feed the hungry and love your neighbour. This is why I hope most foreign Christians are there.

Sure it would nice if Indonesians were closer to Christ but these does not mean that God is not speaking to them through their own religion. The Vatican Council 11 says what is good in another church comes from God.

Apparently Robertson and the Muslim clerics in Iran have some sort of theo-geological agreement with one another when it comes to what causes earthquakes. Robertson said the Haitians got quaked because of an earlier pact they made with Satan to rid themselves of their French masters, and now a senior Iranian cleric is saying women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are the main cause of earthquakes in that country.

Cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi said " Many women do not dress modestly...lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes." [and] "A divine authority told me to tell the people to make a general repentance. Why? Because calamaties threaten us."

In 2008 an Israeli MP blamed parliament's tolerance of gays for the earthquakes that had hit the Holy Land. Shlomo Benizri, from the ultra-orthodox Shas Party said the tremors were caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy". In an address to the Knesset he called on Israeli lawmakers to stop "passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes".

Maybe the Iranian government should come up with some kind of illustrated seismic clothing chart for the Iranian earthquake monitoring public. How about a drawing or diagram of an Iranian woman which tells/illustrates what magnitude earthquake can be expected from revealing an ankle, then a calf, and a whole or half knee and on up to a thigh which would be somewhere around a 7.5 or an 8 on the promiscuity scale?

WakeHolden. You might be right there. Religious extremists always sees natural disaters as God punishment for our sins. In the last week we have had two earthquakes in Australia one in Adelaide. 'The city of Churches"and Kalgoolie the raunchy gold mining outback town. They were low about 5 anf did little damage. I wonder what Go was saying to us. What are we being punish for ?

A magnitude five quake is not God's punishment. It is God's stern but loving warning to stop whatever it is you're doing that is upsetting God. Instead of coming right out and telling you not to do something (he tried that in Genesis with disastrous results) God likes to keep you guessing.

So when a magnitude 5 hits, take inventory of your conduct, and gradually eliminate the things you are doing that displease God, such as believing what Pat Robertson says, painting a Hitler mustache on an Obama photo, or being Newt Gingrich.

There are various natural disaster punishments for various conducts, and although innocent people are also greatly harmed during these events, God feels it's worth it if he can punish those who offend him by doing bad things like dishonoring their father and mother, or contemplate having other Gods before him.

So you see--God isn't stupid. He really knows what he's doing. Can't you tell?

I can only imagine how wonderful heavenquakes will be when I finally get off this God-forsaken planet. I'm thinking they'll all be off the charts.