in the same speech, nagin further stirred controversy by claiming that "god is mad at america. he sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country...surely he doesn't approve of us being in iraq under false pretenses. but surely he is upset at black america also. we're not taking care of ourselves." nagin then went on to relate an imagined conversation with the deceased rev. martin luther king regarding both the response to katrina and the modern problems of black america which he believes offended god.