Fundamentalist, evangelical, and conservative Christians are often quick to see God’s hand in misfortunes that befall us, both natural disasters and human created tragedies. They often see such events as a message from God to warn us and re-direct us to take a different path.
- John Hagee argued that Ebola was God’s punishment for Obama’s policy on Israel.
- James Dobson stated that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was God’s judgement on America.
- Franklin Graham blamed Hurricane Katrina on God’s punishment for homosexuality.
- Pat Robertson declared that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment on America for abortion.
- Jerry Falwell contended that the Aids epidemic was God’s punishment on gay people for their lifestyle.
- Both Falwell and Robertson believed the tragedy of 9/11 was due to God’s wrath against the United States for our sins.
And the list goes on.
It is noteworthy that these conservative religious leaders are so quiet about the calamities that we are confronted with today: COVID-19, two hurricanes simultaneously hitting the Gulf coast area, record wildfires in California, record flooding in Nebraska, Iowa, and the along upper Mississippi River. Why are they so silent about God’s punishment in the face of such disasters?
These disasters are occurring during the Presidency of Donald Trump, a man strongly backed by conservative Christians. They have been vocal in their support of Trump, many of them seeing him as a man sent by God:
- Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, an evangelical, declared that Trump was “God’s chosen one”.
- Former U.N. Ambassador Niki Haley said, in relation to Trump’s election, that “…God sometimes places people for lessons and sometimes places people for change”.
- Franklin Graham stated, “God was behind the last election.”
- Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale said, “Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation.”
- Former Representative Michele Bachmann stated, “…we will in all likelihood never see a more godly, biblical president…”
Perhaps their hesitancy to connect our current string of misfortunes with the hand of God is due to the curious occurrence of these tragedies with Trump inhabiting the White House. How can they reconcile Trump’s election and the occurrence of such misfortunes? There is little doubt that if Hillary Clinton was currently our President that these Christian groups would have no hesitancy in tying these disastrous events to God punishing us for electing Hillary.
Progressives are at a real disadvantage in tying natural disasters or human tragedies to the wrath of God. They are too willing to look for scientific explanations for natural phenomena like diseases and hurricanes. If they weren’t so tied to scientific explanations, and instead relied on religious ones, it would be easy to portray the COVID-19 tragedy as God’s attempt to derail Trump’s re-election and punishing us for electing him in the first place. What better evidence could there be of God’s opposition to Trump than to send two hurricanes, for the first time in history, simultaneously to hit the shores of the United States during the Republican Convention to re-nominate Trump?
We will not be hearing anything about the current spate of natural disasters and human-created tragedies being connected to God’s wrath or punishment from either conservative religious groups or more progressive ones.
Amen