God's Wrath and Natural Disasters: Whom Do We Blame?
While I worked 500 miles away from my family, I got word that my dad's office and my aunt and uncle were evacuated because the Waldo Canyon fire burned closer and closer.
Eager for up-to-the-minute news on the fire and more detail than my family gave in text messages, I scanned tweets and refreshed the newspaper's website like an insomniac on caffeine, listening to scanner traffic of firefighters setting up command centers and relaying information as each home caught fire.
Tweet after tweet with the hashtag #waldocanyonfire scrolled down my screen. Hundreds more poured out every minute. Tweets ranged from helpful: the sheriff and mayor used Twitter to ask people to stay off cell phones to keep lines free for emergencies; to overly dramatic: "watching the city burn from my porch </3"; to outright misleading, information which spread through the Twittersphere when retweeted by others. A wave of tweets promoted almost certainly photoshopped photos of the inferno. Because there was no gatekeeper, information (and misinformation) could spread quickly.
Constant updates intensified my feeling of impending doom as homes and a cherished landmark burnt to the ground. It was tempting to feel as if God had deserted or forgotten Colorado Springs (though as some facetiously pointed out, it's difficult to claim God was casting judgment on the town that houses Focus on the Family, Compassion International, Summit Ministries, the Navigators, and countless other ministries).
After scrolling through every new tweet for a solid hour, it was clear that few contained helpful new information. Many were retweets of other helpful tweets, cluttering my feed with the same details. A myriad of other tweets implored celebrities to repost a tweet and "spread the word" that Colorado Springs was in danger from the fire.
Some Twitter chatter was helpful, but the medium also gave a voice to the same rubbernecking voyeurs who were clogging traffic up and down the highway in Colorado Springs that night. And sure, virtual rubbernecking is a lot less physically dangerous and distracting than physically blocking traffic to take a photo. I found a sort of mindless catharsis in retweeting fire photos and other information, but how helpful is it, really?
After about 200 dramatic tweets from various people "watching their city burn," I wondered if there wasn't a more helpful outlet for personal grief and shock than letting the world know about it. Wildfire Tees quickly launched a website selling a half-dozen new t-shirt designs to raise money for Care and Share, the Colorado Red Cross, and other fire relief funds. They found something to do to help while their city burned.
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Ramonita Stock
I found a sort of mindless catharsis in retweeting fire photos and other information, but how helpful is it, really?
Arakiba
God is obviously punishing certain areas and certain parts of the country with these natural disasters. That's why so many tornadoes hit Texas and so many hurricanes hit the southeastern states. We have to look to see which areas of the US don't suffer such disasters (or at least, not as often as others). The northeastern states, from New England down to the DC area, seem the safest. God is clearly pleased with them and is protecting them.
deepse
James - oh you of little faith! It seems you doubt the reality of God due to his demonstrated lack of power to stop the wildfires. And you are certainly correct to do that. Yet you do not, totally, understand the attraction of Christianity to the Christians. For Christianity is a faith completely uninterested in the power of God. Christianity is in reality founded on the non-existance of God - how else do you explain the notion of the 'hope' found in Christ? Hope? Hope in what? Hope that the realities of the universe, realities far and away best explained by the non-existence of God, will be mitigated not by the reality of God, but by the HOPE that he exists and can help us.
James
Hannah, thank you for your post. I think I have heard the piece "It is Well With My Soul" - a very nice composition. You wrote: "He had many tragic things happen to him. He lost all his wealth in the Chicago fire, and then he lost his 4 daughters at sea, with only his wife surviving. As he later took a ship crossing over near the area where his daughters drowned, the words to the hymn came to him. It's a beautiful hymn, praising God ..." Honestly, that sounds absolutely terrible. Presumably God allowed all of this to happen, since - of course - God created everything, including evil (Isaiah 45:7). I'm wondering how anyone could praise God for allowing their 4 daughters to die. Ditto, for these wildfires - God presumably allowed the fires to burn. He didn't have to do that, in my view, and yet he did. Many homes and livelihoods were destroyed, which leaves me wondering - where was God? If God comes in after the fact/disaster to being comfort and peace, why couldn't He step in before the disaster and prevent it from happening in the first place? Sorry, I'm just wondering out loud. :-)
hannah
I love God whether good or bad things happen to me. My love for Him is not based on that. My love for God is based on the fact that He first loved me, He created me, and sent His Son to die for my sins. Are you familiar with the composer of "It is Well With My Soul"? He had many tragic things happen to him. He lost all his wealth in the Chicago fire, and then he lost his 4 daughters at sea, with only his wife surviving. As he later took a ship crossing over near the area where his daughters drowned, the words to the hymn came to him. It's a beautiful hymn, praising God and saying that no matter what happens to him, he knows his sins are nailed to the cross, his life is in the hands of God, and it is indeed, well with his soul.
James
Julie thank you for your comment. You wrote - " Indeed, the very fact that God allowed this terrible hardship into people's lives is evidence of His love." From this, I read that "God allowing these fires to burn down many peoples' houses" is "evidence of His love." If someone I believed loved me allowed my house to burn to the ground without doing anything. I would not in way way think they loved me. Would you?
JULIE DAUBE
James, the love that I saw came from God's people offering comfort, help, and hope to those who have been impacted by the fire. The love of God was also demonstrated by a Christian teen in Mountain Shadows who ran through her neighborhood knocking on doors to warn people that the fire was approaching their homes. Her actions saved two lives - a sleeping mother and her little girl who had no idea that the fire was so close. This teenager could have been packing her own belongings and gathering precious mementos, but she chose to think of others instead (her family lost their home in the fire, making her selfless act even more remarkable). I also saw God's love exemplified in Christians at my church who volunteered to sift through the rubble of destroyed homes to help the victims find anything of value that remained. I also saw God's love in members of a prayer team from my church who have been praying with victims of the fire. Indeed, the very fact that God allowed this terrible hardship into people's lives is evidence of His love;there are some people who would never recognize their need for Him without such a tragedy, and I believe He is using this disaster to show people how lost they are without Him. A far bigger tragedy than losing one's home in a fire would be spending an eternity separated from God.
James
[Article] "Jeremiah does so for much of the book of Lamentations. But then, right in the middle of the book, sandwiched between tales of woe and tribulation and feelings that God must have deserted us, comes a reminder. Its the reminder that, even in the middle of terror, and even when it seems God himself would be held responsible for that terror, we can trust his goodness: But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I find it intriguing how "The steadfast love of the LORD" resulted in a big chunk of your town being burned to the ground. What kind of "love" are you referring to?
JULIE DAUBE
As a follow-up to my previous post, Governor Hicklooper described the view of the fire from his plane as looking "like a military invasion." A Fox news reporter said the same thing. If you are going to chide people for posting "overly dramatic" tweets, then you need to point your finger at our governor as well. When I consider the many profound reflections that could have been written about this fire, I was extremely disappointed in this article.
JULIE DAUBE
I think you were a little unfair to those who posted phrases such as "Watching my city burn." From a distance, it really looked like the entire front range was on fire, as I saw in pictures taken by my coworkers who were watching the flames from their office windows. As someone who lives less than a mile and half from the blaze, I was under a pre-evacuation warning and knew that some of my friends in Mountain Shadows could lose their homes that night. I found it extremely helpful to read their status updates on Facebook so that I could pray for them more effectively. I will never forget one friend's update: "My neighborhood is burning." (At the time, I had taken a break from the news coverage and hadn't yet heard the fire had reached Mountain Shadows.) In tears, I ran to my husband, and we cried out to God on our friend's behalf. We continued praying for her and other friends in the area throughtout the night. Later, we rejoiced to learn that her home was spared, even as we grieved for those who lost everything. I felt that updates on the fire on Facebook and other social networking sites helped people stay connected during an extremely traumatic time and created a sense of community during this disaster. In the future, please try not to be so judgmental.
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