It’s difficult to ignore any sort of calamity that’s visited upon the cult-ish Nevada desert festival known as Burning Man as some kind of divine judgment on what’s going on there. It’s also easy enough for Burning Man defenders to dismiss such assertions as puritanical hogwash.
However, when it strikes a structure at the festival known as the “Orgy Dome,” just how much more ham-fisted does the Lord need to be to get his point across?
The structure — which the New York Post described as a “sex haven” and “one of the festival’s most notorious attractions” — was damaged “beyond repair” by high winds during the event, held during the week before Labor Day.
“The sex haven — a sprawling, air-conditioned private tent outfitted with beds and mood lighting where consensual Burners can freely get it on — was left ravaged by the high winds during the fierce storm in Black Rock City on Saturday, organizers shared on social media Monday,” the New York Post reported.
The organizers of the “Orgy Dome” initially gave the “beyond repair” verdict, but later called for supplies to rebuild the tent.
“Our build team worked so hard this past week to *erect* our lovely space,” the group said on Instagram, along with footage of the damage. (Get it, ahahaha, hilarious.)
“Unfortunately, the winds yesterday undid all that labor and wrecked our structure. We are still here and thankfully safe, we hope to gift the playa some workshops and will keep you updated.”
Do you think what we’re seeing is actually God’s judgment against the pagan, hedonistic gathering?
The mood in the comments section could best be summed up by this one: “That’s Jesus Christ saving people from std’s.”
Well, perhaps not just sexually transmitted diseases, but giving them second thoughts about Burning Man itself, which is an orgy (pun intended) of cultish self-absorption and hedonistic behavior.
If you’ve only a passing familiarity with Burning Man, you may be surprised that this is not a music festival. It’s not Coachella or Lollapalooza in the desert. No, it’s just a bunch of people going to the middle of the arid Nevada wasteland and camping in a man-made circular tent city like this with tens of thousands of other people, usually engaging in behaviors frowned upon by either the law or propriety:
The Burning Man seen from above: a temporary city built in the middle of nowhere for 75,000 people (and then disassembled)
[read more: https://t.co/hiach0vjJ8]pic.twitter.com/UgodBAcqdx
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 17, 2023
When not taking psychedelics or having biblically illicit relations inside the “Orgy Dome,” the festival is a quasi-spiritual quest organized around 10 principles which more or less explain themselves: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.
If you have the time, you can pretty much find a Bible verse to counter every one of them. Radical inclusion? Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” The same applies to radical self-expression, particularly as it regards, say, the “Orgy Dome.”
Also consider Psalm 119:10: “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!”
Gifting isn’t necessarily bad, although within the context of the 10 principles, one might point to Luke 16:12: “And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”
But then again, this doesn’t necessarily need to be explained to the solid Christian, because being out in the middle of the desert in a place where there is something called the “Orgy Dome” is likely engaging in some form of sinfulness. This isn’t to mention that the festival is named after a literal statue of a man built of wood that’s burned at the end of the camp-out, which is hardly the only pagan-esque sacrifice you’ll find there. If you ever find yourself asking whether your godly instinct is in line with what the Lord desires, you shouldn’t have to query once you hear those things.
And, if you didn’t get the message, God’s wind certainly sent it. It’s like a low-rent Tower of Babel being toppled right before our eyes. Yet, people will probably wonder whether or not there was some message here. Maybe through the haze of dust storms and drugs, they’ll finally get it. Probably not, though.
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