Then I will take it as a confirmation from you that God adores the gay parts of town but is seriously annoyed at those who live in trailer parks. Perhaps it’s because of their anti-gay attitudes?

And as for the tornado in Minneapolis, clearly that is because He is pissed about the ELCA’s decision to issue a statement on sexuality that reaffirms the definition of marriage so as to exclude some of His children.

I, unlike Piper, am being glib. But if I were serious, my case is FAR easier to prove than his.

Even the most casual glace would show that God seems to have his hand of protection on West Hollywood, Chelsea, and Boystown while ravaging the more conservative parts of the nation with fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and all sorts of natural disaster.

The problem with folks like Piper is not their insincerity. Rather, it is their willingness to see confirmation of their biases in the world around them without much consideration as to whether their claims make the slightest sense.

Pipers statements remind me of two quotes. The first is from Anne LaMott:

You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

The second was my grandmother who I adored but who was a bit inclined to see the world from her rather limited perspective:

Oh, my. There’s an infestation of whitefly in my roses. It’s a sign of the times; pestilence.

I tried to leave a comment on that site explaining that the damage was not limited to the Convention Center and church, as I live a block away, but alas I was foiled by my unwillingness to give a real e-mail address to them, oh well.

Yes, we definitely need to be careful in this regard. Whether in interpreting the meaning or cause of a natural disaster, or in declaring what the will of God is on a particular issue.

The idea that God is not involved with weather in our day, or does not judge nations via natural or human means however, seems to me an untenable position for a Christian to take biblically. It’s one thing to say a particular declaration of divine judgment and its prophetic significance is mistaken, it’s another to dismiss the idea wholesale.

You may believe Mr. Piper is mistaken in his interpretation of the tornado, but he did not say it glibly, indeed understanding that the warning is for all of us (including himself). I don’t hear Piper piling on here… I hear the somber prophetic declaration of a man who fears God and takes His Word seriously.

When we begin to look for the hand of God in natural disasters, we see a most complex message.

Take, for example, the Hurricane Katrina that some saw as the master of the wind and sea sending his judgment against a city of sin and depravity. But a closer look revealed that the Almighty spared the French Quarter and all the gay parts of town and instead devestated the rural conservative parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

In fact, God’s chose to spare gay bars in New Orleans (the only establishments that stayed open to provide water and limited food to residents, gay or straight) and instead His wrath extended to ripping the roof off of James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a center of anti-gay activism.

Looking for divine interference in destruction is a tricky endeavor. If natural disasters tell of God’s condemnation and judgment, all we can say with certainty is that God hates trailer parks.

Some ponderings on this issue this fine night: http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/08/20/lutherans-approve-statement-what-does-god-think/

The eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia was used by Islamic clerics to win converts en masse in the area by claiming that the eruption was proof of Allah’s wrath at the heathen Hindu practitioners of the time.

The great SF earthquake of 1906 was used by the newly created Pentecostal movement to proclaim G-d’s wrath at the sexual excesses prevalent even back then, in San Francisco.

Another example of Confirmation Bias, that they never blame themselves when Tornadoes and Hurricanes destroy churches.

Prior to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last year, Focus on the Family produced a video asking people to pray for rain during Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Instead the weather was absolutely perfect. Moreover, the Republican Convention was interrupted by another huge hurricane headed towards New Orleans.

Could it be that God had a message in there somehow?