More Jibba Jabba
God and Hurricane Katrina
I saw a posting on a message board, probably from some
smart @ss atheist or agnostic asking if Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment for
gay marriage, or what-have-you. I didn't read the post itself, because I
would rather not answer a fool according to his folly. However, it's a
fair question, so here's my thoughts.
No, God did not send a hurricane for judgment. If God wants to punish, he can do a lot better than that and with a lot more accuracy. Why send a Hurricane to take out multitudes who support both sides of an issue?
The poster no doubt uses this type of argument to rationalize his non-belief. After all, how can a good God "allow" this to happen. After all, God's purpose is to make us all fat and happy, right? Whatever.
Hurricane Katrina was not a judgment on God, but rather a judgment on us, by us - not by God. We judge ourselves. And the verdict rings loud and true: we are a rotten people in need of a savior. Ask yourself why anybody had to die and suffer? Unlike a tornado, they knew it was coming days in advance and could evacuate the entire area. However, not everyone did, and the reasons they stayed is the judgment.
Some stayed because they simply could not afford to leave. They had no vehicles and not enough money to travel. Where is the generosity? Why do we have poor? We should be beyond that. After all, if we are wonderful humanistic society who doesn't need God, then we should have eliminated poverty. How can we have such wealth that we cry about $3 gasoline, while we have people who are too destitute to escape certain death? Something isn't right. But that's the American way, right? Exactly.
Some stayed because they wanted to protect their property from thieves. Again, in an ideal world, this should not be a fear. We shouldn't hold possessions that high that we would risk our lives for "stuff", no? If it were lost, we could depend on our fellow man to help us out in our time of need, right? Again, this shows the imperfection of our society.
Some stayed to loot. Nuff said.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, you heard some of the horror stories and you saw some people - in the absence of law and order - reveal their true nature. I'm not talking about stupid philosophical questions about breaking into a store to steal a water so that you and your family can survive. Screw that. (This shouldn't even be an issue if we were as perfect as we would like to pretend - life is more important than stuff). I'm talking about people who have a "might is right" attitude - those who are strong and lord it over the weak. This wasn't true for everybody, mind you, but it occurred at a greater frequency than before the hurricane. And it's the way of the world, rather it happens in an Iraqi prison or when a society hides behind it's superior military or economic strength.
To blame God for a Hurricane is like blaming God when the weather gets cold and a homeless person freezes to death. It's not God's fault. It's our fault. Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. He put no value on wealth. He invested in people. He told us to do the same, and to clothe the poor, feed the hungry, and defend the fatherless. If we did this, there would be no homeless person to freeze in the cold. There would be no poor people in New Orleans who couldn't afford to leave and there would be no people staying to defend their property, because they wouldn't value it so much, and there would be no people out to steal property. However, instead of realizing how screwed up our priorities and values are, we turn to the very Lord who tried to teach us how to avoid these catastrophes and blame him for not supporting our selfish and greedy lifestyles.
Trying to use this tragedy to support non-belief is simply a load of crap. The day before the hurricane, the non-believer didn't believe in God. Now, he hides behind a hurricane to try and rationalize his non-belief. Nothing changed in the mind of the person. If you want to know who to blame for the tragedy, don't shake your fist at the sky, go look in the mirror. I did and I didn't like what I saw. It's up to me to do something about it, and it's up to you.
