Religious family abandons U.S., gets lost at sea

[shemp]

Religious family abandons U.S., gets lost at sea

A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday.

Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband "decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us" when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May.

But just weeks into their journey, the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile where they are resting in a hotel in the port city of San Antonio.

Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said. The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment.

Awfully decent of the government you hate to help you out, I must say. If they wanted to leave so badly, why come back at taxpayer expense? If Chile doesn't want them, then let them get another boat and sail off again. If they hate the U.S. so much, why aren't they resisting repatriation?

Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don't believe in "abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church," she said.

U.S. "churches aren't their own," Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence.

Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being "forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don't agree with."

The Gastonguays weren't members of any church, and Hannah Gastonguay said their faith came from reading the Bible and through prayer.

"The Bible is pretty clear," she said.

How far out there do you have to be to believe that all churches in the U.S. are under government control? Maybe this belongs in Conspiracy Theories?

Hannah Gastonguay said the family will now "go back to Arizona" and "come up with a new plan."

I hope that plan doesn't involve any more taxpayer expense.

 

[This Guy]

Let's hope the new plan doesn't involve harming the children.

They should have followed God's plans and built a proper sea going Ark. They coulda taken some pets along, and had a great time!

 

[The_Animus]

Maybe it's just me but it seems like the religious right in the US increasingly doesn't understand what separation of church and state means, nor what constitutes religious discrimination. I hope all people like those in the OP link leave and stay gone.

 

[Manopolus]

Maybe it's just me but it seems like the religious right in the US increasingly doesn't understand what separation of church and state means, nor what constitutes religious discrimination. I hope all people like those in the OP link leave and stay gone.

I agree. I see similar belligerent nonsense on Facebook all the time. I'm not entirely sure what is driving it... none of it makes any sense whatsoever. It seems there's some sort of growing need in modern variations of Christianity to feel persecuted in the very society which they have dominated for centuries. This was not the case 30 years ago.

Perhaps it's a function of the level of denial required to maintain such silliness in the face of the greater availability of information?

 

[Olowkow]

I agree that this intense need for feeling persecuted has been a relatively recent development, even though it is built into Chrisianity in the Bible, but the intensity is more than likely a result of the proliferation of conservative right wing talk radio and publications such as WND. Fox News certainly doesn't help either. These people are being routinely lied to by shysters who just want to make a buck, and often, not always, the most religious are led to faith because of a severe lack of understanding of reality and science due to poor education.

The outcome is potentially similar to those who blindly found faith in a paranoid schizophrenic and followed Jim Jones who led them to their deaths.

 

[Mister Earl]

She says the bible is pretty clear, but doesn't like abortion? The bible is one of the most pro-abortion books there are!

 

[pgwenthold]

Maybe it's just me but it seems like the religious right in the US increasingly doesn't understand what separation of church and state means, nor what constitutes religious discrimination. I hope all people like those in the OP link leave and stay gone.

Oh, it makes perfect sense to me. "Persecution" = no longer allowed to have the special priviledges you used to have.

Christians are feeling completely persecuted because government, driven by an increasingly vocal community, is no longer willing to give the religious, and specifically christianity, special priviledges.

This isn't about Christians getting more sensitive, it's about non-christians standing up for fairness. That's what has become more prevalent. The reason it is becoming more prevalent is because it is right.

 

[tsig]

Religious family abandons U.S., gets lost at sea



Awfully decent of the government you hate to help you out, I must say. If they wanted to leave so badly, why come back at taxpayer expense? If Chile doesn't want them, then let them get another boat and sail off again. If they hate the U.S. so much, why aren't they resisting repatriation?



How far out there do you have to be to believe that all churches in the U.S. are under government control? Maybe this belongs in Conspiracy Theories?



I hope that plan doesn't involve any more taxpayer expense.

Apparently their gps* failed them.

*gods' positioning system.

 

[tsig]

She says the bible is pretty clear, but doesn't like abortion? The bible is one of the most pro-abortion books there are!

It's not abortion if you drown the women before birth.

See the bible, re flood.

 

[Ray Brady]

Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don't believe in "abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church," she said.

So they object to perceived State interference in the Church, yet the primary examples of this they offer are abortion and homosexuality? Wouldn't this indicate that their problem is that the government hasn't outlawed abortion and homosexuality?

I suspect that their true grievance is that the State isn't interfering MORE in people's lives.

 

[Agatha]

I wonder how much research they did into Kiribati before they chose it as their destination? Quite apart from the fact that it is likely to be the first nation to disappear entirely due to rising sea levels, it is extremely poor and is only kept going by overseas aid.

From Wiki:

Kiribati is one of the world's poorest countries. It has few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits on Banaba were exhausted at the time of independence. Copra and fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. Kiribati is considered one of the least developed countries in the world. In one form or another, Kiribati gets a large portion of its income from abroad. Examples include fishing licenses, development assistance, worker remittances, and tourism. Given Kiribati's limited domestic production ability, it must import nearly all of its essential foodstuffs and manufactured items; it depends on these external sources of income for financing.

The economy of Kiribati benefits from international development assistance programs. The multilateral donors providing development assistance in 2009 were the European Union (A$9 million), the United Nations Development Program (A$3.7 million), and the World Health Organisation (A$100,000).[46] The bilateral donors providing development assistance in 2009 were Australia (A$11 million), Japan (A$2 million), New Zealand (A$6.6 million), Taiwan (A$10.6 million), and other donors providing A$16.2 million, including technical assistance grants from the Asian Development Bank.[6][46]

The major donors in 2010/2011 were Australia (A$15 million), Taiwan (A$11 million); New Zealand (A$6 million), the World Bank (A$4 million), and the Asian Development Bank.[47]

And from http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/kiribati-a-nation-going-under/590/

The population pressure is now so great that a health catastrophe foments; hundreds of squatters are living where dwellings are banned — on top of Tarawa atoll’s main water lens, the shallow underground bubble in which fresh water gathers when rain seeps through the ground. This lens is the main source of fresh water for tens of thousands of people — water from it is pumped throughout Tarawa. The squatters living atop this vital supply, which sits barely 1.5 metres below ground level, keep pigs and dogs and are likely to be burying animals nearby. There is a real possibility of serious contamination, such as by cholera, triggered by faeces or decomposing tissue leaching through the ground to the fresh water.
[...]
Only about a third of all dwellings on south Tarawa have a toilet. Most people simply wade into the sea or use the beach, a practice which has rendered inshore fish too dangerous to eat. And swimmers risk disease.

Paradise indeed. Just the place that a responsible couple would take their small children to.

 

[George 152]

Apparently their gps* failed them.

*gods' positioning system.

You mean they didn't rely on real navigation with silly stuff like charts and a sextant and chronometer ?
But they had a radio to scream for help

 

[fuelair]

Maybe it's just me but it seems like the religious right in the US increasingly doesn't understand what separation of church and state means, nor what constitutes religious discrimination. I hope all people like those in the OP link leave and stay gone.

I'm for that^^^^^!!!!!

 

[fuelair]

I agree. I see similar belligerent nonsense on Facebook all the time. I'm not entirely sure what is driving it... none of it makes any sense whatsoever. It seems there's some sort of growing need in modern variations of Christianity to feel persecuted in the very society which they have dominated for centuries. This was not the case 30 years ago.

Perhaps it's a function of the level of denial required to maintain such silliness in the face of the greater availability of information?

Highlighted is the entire and only point. Their widdle feewings got all hurted.............

 

[MikeG]

I know we're not taking this story in any way seriously, but there is a danger here. Drawing too many conclusions from the fact that these poor navigators happened to be religious might just be seen as gloating at the misfortune of a group we don't agree with. Imagine finding the converse: some religious forum somewhere gloating over an atheist skipper who sailed around in circles for weeks, somehow connecting the irreligiosity with the navigational issues. See what I mean?

Mike

 

[tsig]

I know we're not taking this story in any way seriously, but there is a danger here. Drawing too many conclusions from the fact that these poor navigators happened to be religious might just be seen as gloating at the misfortune of a group we don't agree with. Imagine finding the converse: some religious forum somewhere gloating over an atheist skipper who sailed around in circles for weeks, somehow connecting the irreligiosity with the navigational issues. See what I mean?

Mike

Your concern is noted.

 

[hgc]

How far out there do you have to be to believe that all churches in the U.S. are under government control? Maybe this belongs in Conspiracy Theories?

Let's just back up a minute. How far out there do you have to be to believe that "the Bible is pretty clear."

That reminds me of the old joke: Nixon's hair is actually straight; it's his head that's wavy.

 

[Olowkow]

I know we're not taking this story in any way seriously, but there is a danger here. Drawing too many conclusions from the fact that these poor navigators happened to be religious might just be seen as gloating at the misfortune of a group we don't agree with. Imagine finding the converse: some religious forum somewhere gloating over an atheist skipper who sailed around in circles for weeks, somehow connecting the irreligiosity with the navigational issues. See what I mean?

Mike

I see that point, but I disagree.
Could be I'm too far removed from thinking like a theist, but I don't see that. I see no gloating, but face palming over the fact that these folks totally misunderstood the perfectly acceptable culture they had, and proceeded to abandon it in favor of some unknown more than likely even more ridiculous restrictions on their beliefs--or tried to at least.

For me it's the irony of misinformation which turns out to be the pathetic setting they found themselves in, and endangering the kids with superstitious nonsense.

 

[Darat]

Have they now renounced their god - or was it all their fault for not being true enough?

 

[tsig]

Have they now renounced their god - or was it all their fault for not being true enough?

Believers always blame themselves thinking that they weren't sincere enough in their faith.

Good thing they weren't Aztec or it could have gone hard on the children.