Maud Newton, a writer, critic, and editor whose work has appeared in Harpers, Esquire, NYT Magazine, and The Guardian, took umbrage with Ron DeSantis. Specifically the fact that DeSantis referred to the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island as “biblical. She tweeted:
“DeSantis said there had been ‘biblical’ storm surge on Sanibel Island…This language is an evangelical dog whistle—i.e., it’s not climate change, it’s God.”
She deleted the tweet. But Pepperidge Farm remembers. And so does Twitchy. In fact, you can read it here.
Newton soon added, “Sometimes I stand by a tweet but delete it because I have spent enough of my life amid the rantings and abuse of Rapture-obsessed evangelicals. Good time for a Twitter break. See y’all ✌🏻.”
She has since limited replies to the tweet to “People @maudnewton mentioned.” Nothing like an echo chamber to make you feel vindicated.
As a writer, editor, and critic, Ms. Newton’s research skills could use a tad bit of honing. The term “biblical” — as in “biblical proportions” — has nothing to do with whether or not an event was caused by God. It actually refers to the scope of the incident and the damage done. An extraordinarily destructive event is said to be of “biblical proportions.” It is not connected with the Rapture, something that not all Christians agree on. This used to be common knowledge before we replaced teaching language arts and history with social engineering. And more to the point, had Ms. Newton simply used a search engine, she would have found multiple definitions of “biblical proportions.”
Defintitions.net says:
of biblical proportions (adjective)
Of or pertaining to a natural disaster or other cataclysmic event so immense that it brings to mind biblical accounts of horrific catastrophes.
of biblical proportions (adjective)
By extension, of or pertaining to a thing or occurrence having vast size, extent, or consequences.
The Free Dictionary defines the phrase as meaning:
Of a huge or catastrophic size, magnitude, or severity.
Even the Urban Dictionary, of all things, has this:
This refers to something which happens on the grandest scale possible on earth. This includes apocalypse, major war etc.
That search took me all of five minutes.
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Another Twitter warrior posted:
“Ron DeSantis said the flooding was of ‘biblical proportions’. G/d sent biblical floods for one reason, just sayin.”
If this particular “scholar” had read the biblical story in question, she would know that after the Great Flood, God promised never again to destroy the world with a flood. He is through using floods as a tool for His wrath. But she can be forgiven to a certain degree. Most detractors of Christianity — and for that matter, many Christians — take passages of scripture and biblical stories out of context. It’s never useful or helpful, no matter who does it.
Sigh. Ladies, ladies, ladies. We get it: You don’t like Ron DeSantis, you don’t like men, you don’t like Christians. And you really dislike white male Christians. You’re not exactly breaking new ground, here. And we all know that Twitter exists for cheap shots, misinformation, temper tantrums, and forcing everyone to agree with you. But for your own sake, for your own edification, can you at least get the facts right? It’s still a quasi-free country and you can hate whomever you want, but at least have enough respect for yourselves to use the correct references. Unless, of course, it’s too hard to do a little extra work. Or if the context doesn’t matter.
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