By Chuck Robison 
This article appeared in the January 14, 2015, Hill Country News.
Many preachers claim God either directly acts, or indirectly but willingly allows, natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. in order to destroy evil and send a message to the world to ‘wake up’.
As a card carrying, well-educated Pastor-Theologian, I am keenly aware of the constant temptation to speak ex cathedra about God. Therefore I avoid it as best I can.
I don’t know why God does a lot of things, but He does and He makes the rules. In the realm of Nature, He has some very definite rules and they are always enforced. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.
Evangelical Christians, lacking a real leader like Billy Graham, have sought out politicians to be their leaders, especially since many church-grown leader wannabes have fouled out with bad behavior. These politicians have courted the votes of the Evangelicals. But….and this is very important….the politicians will tell us anything somebody wants us to hear. Because they are beholden to their Corporate masters, they bring their masters’ Corporate Message to the churches that ask them to speak to various groups.
This has happened enough now that we can trace how it came to pass that many Evangelicals believe that we are not powerful enough to damage the environment; that there is no climate problem; therefore, government should follow the Evangelical groups and stop making costly and harmful regulations and declare there is no climate change.
In the meantime, at least for the past four years, we have seen weather all over the world become MUCH more destructive. Our global scientists all say that this is just the beginning. We have already passed over the tipping point into a damaged and malfunctioning environment and as a result we may never recover.
So, given that prospect, one way out is to make up some excuse that sounds like God is bringing this disaster on so somebody will wake up. God never punishes evil. He supports love and kindness. He is supporting His own rules and allowing those who break them to bring dire consequences to all who cannot see how the Corporations, who want all the money, rig this global environmental crisis in their own short-sighted favor.
People, in and out of the churches, need to wake up. That’s for sure. But these increasing climate disasters are much more the predictable and natural consequences of our ignoring what seems to be the elephant hiding in plain sight in the living room of the world. WE HAVE ALL THE POWER WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WORLD’S CLIMATE, WE HAVE USED IT UNWISELY AND HAVE PLACED OUR WORLD IN SURE DANGER AS A RESULT.
We have done this to ourselves and you can be certain that God is not going to suffer our foolishness in blaming Him.
Will you be so willing to blame God when Ft. Worth is severely damaged by a major earthquake? Surely you know fracking is the cause. God, disguised as Nature, is about to demand we stop this destruction of our environment.
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