It's Gods punishment?

[DisneyDotty]

Now here is my take on this subject....

In nature there are many set patterns that are part of the natural world that were instilled on earth to run when certain variables come into play. Like bad storms when the waters get warm....frontal boundries that cause tornados when the conditions are right.... When the plates of the earth move we get earth quakes and so forth. We as humans choose to live in places that have these naturaly occuring things. They are not(in my estimation) sent to cleanse the population because of "bad" people, or evil places....it is just part of the natural order of things. SO if we live where there are risks associated to nature we have to realize this and do the best we can in those areas or find some where else to live. It is just the randomness of nature....not a devine plan to punish people.

What she said.

 

[themepark]

There isn't any more evil in New Orleans than there is anywhere else. So that reasoning is a bunch of hooey. Only simple-minded, pompous, and hypocritical people would make such statements about this being punishment from God. Good for you for standing up to them!

 

[wvrevy]

God does not send disasters.

SURE he does...Says so right there in the book. Plagues...floods...earthquakes...it's all in there.

Why should anybody be surprised that there are ignorant people out there spouting this kind of nonsense ? We had two well known religious personalities in this country say, just as the terrorists themselves believed, that the 9/11 attacks were brought on by America turning our back to "god". Why on earth would anybody be surprised that ignorant people are continuing to prove their ignorance ?

 

[ducklite]

He said it's punishment for the evil people.

The guy is smoking the pipe, and anyone who believes this type of rubbish is smoking it too. Sorry, an entire population geographical region isn't "evil"

That's one of the most obscenely absurd things I've ever heard.

Anne

 

[wvrevy]

The guy is smoking the pipe, and anyone who believes this type of rubbish is smoking it too. Sorry, an entire population geographical region isn't "evil"

That's one of the most obscenely absurd things I've ever heard.

Anne

Again, it's in the bible that "god" has done this in the past. In fact, he's done much worse, including deliberately targeting children for death as punishment to their parents.

If you believe one (the bible), then why not believe the rest ?

 

[lbgraves]

What a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites! Whatever happened to casting the first stone?

 

[Charade]

God does not send disasters.

:

Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

[wvrevy]

What a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites! Whatever happened to casting the first stone?

But...but...they really like the stone-throwin' part, and if they stuck to that there wouldn't be no more stone-throwin'...and they do love them some stone-throwin'...

 

[WDWHound]

In our church this week, we had 4 guests who had evacuated from New Orleans. They are relatives of one of our members. One of them is a Methodist minister. When she was asked to say a few words, this is roughly what she said (to the best of my memory, I really wish I had written it down).

"I called a friend of mine who is a fellow minister in Louisinna to see how he was doing. He said his church and some homes had taken wind damage, but there was no flooding and for that they felt blessed. Thats when it came to me. My home is under 20 feet of water and the state of my church building probably just as bad, but I am blessed. I have lost most everything I own, but I have the things that matter. I told him that when people ask about me, tell them I am not just fine, but blessed. I have the love of my familiy and friends and, more importantly, I have the love and strength of my God. Yes, I am blessed."

Did God send the storm? Personally, I don't think so. I do know that that I have met 4 people who God was standing by after the storm. Thats where my focus will be when I think about God and the hurricane, on those who are finding strength in him and on a remarkable women who after losing everything, still calls herself blessed because of the powerful and sustaining love of God.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I'm glad you stood up and said something. I really wish that some of these people would reach the Age of Enlightenment.

Many people take the Bible (Old and New) way too literally. Almost nothing in the Bible can be either proven or disproven. It is a book written by men. Not God. It is a collection of stories. Many of which were around in various forms and religions for centuries before the Old Testament was ever written.

It is meant to be a guideline and not the absolute.
Unfortunately, many people are more focused on being religious rather than spiritual.

 

[wvrevy]

If god hogs the credit, then why not the blame ? Seems to me that the hurricane was more an act of god than the rescue, which was handled by fellow MEN, not divine providence.

Seems strikingly simple, to me.

 

[mom2alix]

In our church this week, we had 4 guests who had evacuated from New Orleans. They are relatives of one of our members. One of them is a Methodist minister. When she was asked to say a few words, this is roughly what she said (to the best of my memory).

"I called a friend of mine who is a fellow minister in Louisinna to see how hew was doing. He said he church and some home had taken some wind damage, but there was no flooding and that they were blessed. Thats when it came to me. My home is under 20 feet of water and the state of my church building probably just as bad, but I am blessed. I have lost most everything I own, but I have the things that matter. I have the love of my familiy and friends and, more importantly, I have the love and strength of my God. Yes, I am blessed."

Did God send the storm? Personally, I don't think so. I do know that that I met 4 people who God was standing by this weekend. Thats where my focus will be, on those who are finding strength in him and on a remarkable women who after losing everything, still calls herself bless because of the powerful and sustaining love of God.

Your friend sounds like a great person and a true Christian.

Serena, perhaps you should send a copy of the new testament to your Dad's pastor. Tell him it's a good read, he should try it.

 

[ducklite]

Again, it's in the bible that "god" has done this in the past. In fact, he's done much worse, including deliberately targeting children for death as punishment to their parents.

If you believe one (the bible), then why not believe the rest ?

I prefer to believe that there is a constant struggle between God and Satan, and this time Satan won.

Anne

 

[wvrevy]

I prefer to believe that there is a constant struggle between God and Satan, and this time Satan won.

Anne

Satan can't win unless god allows it...one of the benefits of being omnipotent.

 

[Lessa of Pern]

a dear friend of mine...who is too busy feeding refugees at the Astrodome right now to post this himself...sent the following article to me:

THROUGH JEWISH EYES

by Chaim Steinmetz

The images of suffering are overwhelming. Watching TV coverage of Hurricane Katrina you can feel the anguish of the victims of this awful disaster. An unpredictable confluence of circumstances brought about a "perfect storm" that killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Katrina is a true human catastrophe.

Unpredictable as this hurricane may have been, the human reactions to it are all too predictable. Immediately, there is finger-pointing.

On the political front, President George W. Bush is blamed for a variety of failures ranging from a slow response to the disaster to having caused the global warming which led to the hurricane. Religious authorities with agendas of their own come to speak in God's name and blame the catastrophe on their opponents. A group called Repentance America said it was God's retribution for New Orleans being a "sin city." Repentance America did not issue any explanation of why the hurricane managed to miss Las Vegas.

On the Internet a popular Israeli rabbi is sure that this catastrophe is retribution for American support for the disengagement from Gaza. I found this opinion curious; the sobbing woman I watched on CNN who had lost her daughter and was searching for her missing sons didn't strike me as a supporter of the disengagement.

And, of course, radical Islam couldn't miss this opportunity to dump on America either. A high-ranking Kuwaiti official, Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, said: "It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire."

This confident explanation was issued a day after hundreds of Muslims were stampeded to death in Iraq.

These finger-pointing explanations are not only deeply flawed, they are also deeply insensitive. The Talmud says that anyone who gives a grieving person an explanation that the victim's sins caused his own suffering violates the prohibition of verbal abuse. Many Jewish philosophers wrestle with the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

Some explanations do consider man's culpability. However, what is misunderstood is that their explorations are meant to defend God's goodness, not torment victims of suffering by blaming them for the crime.

IN FACT, even the entire project of defending God's goodness is suspect. First of all, God does not need a defense attorney; He can make a case for himself. And God continues to make a case for himself in every sunrise, every leaf, every breath we take.

Furthermore, any explanation we can offer will seem meaningless to sufferers. Those who are suffering feel their pain on a personal level; abstract explanations do nothing to alleviate their pain.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik offers a very different view of a Jewish response to suffering. He says that the question of why bad things happen to good people is unfathomable. Even worse, any answer offered will imply that we should passively accept our fate and assume that God did everything for the best.

Soloveitchik points out that, on the contrary, Judaism actually refuses to make peace with death and tragedy. When someone dies, Jewish law requires that we mourn bitterly and tear our clothes. This is because Judaism demands that we be enraged by tragedy.

To Rabbi Soloveitchik, the real question that has to be asked is: How do I respond to tragedy? Our obligation in the face of a catastrophe is to act: to comfort and aid those who have suffered, and to use human creativity to prevent future catastrophes. The only Jewish response to tragedy is to restore human dignity and rebuild the world.

The response to this tragedy is, rather than pointing fingers, to join hands in rebuilding the world. The most important lesson of any large-scale disaster is the commonality of all human beings; we have all have the same vulnerabilities and the same aspirations.

Most importantly, we are all created in the same image of God. It is up to us to learn how to live together as brothers and sisters, and help each other with their burdens.

I am hopeful that besides the noisy finger-pointers, most people will respond properly to this catastrophe. In the past I have witnessed how disasters have the unique ability to unite people, even antagonists, in a common cause.

LAST JANUARY, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists gathered together in my Montreal synagogue for a service on behalf of the victims of the Asian tsunami. Representatives of the warring Sinhalese and Tamil communities both attended, and a representative of the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, thanked the Jewish community for its efforts on behalf of the disaster victims. People who normally do not talk to each other joined together in common cause.

Last week, students at Montreal's Hebrew Academy, moved by the news reports they have heard, began mobilizing fundraising and letter-writing campaigns for people they have never met, the victims of Katrina.

I am too uncomfortable to issue prophetic statements. But if I have to guess what God wants in the wake of Katrina, it is a recognition that every human being shares God's image, and that every person, whether they live in Indonesia or New Orleans or Kuwait or Israel, should learn how to join hands, not in pointing fingers, but in rebuilding the world.

Chaim Steinmetz is the spiritual leader of Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem in Montreal, Quebec, and is a member of Edah, an advocacy group for Modern Orthodoxy.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Saffron]

Satan can't win unless god allows it...one of the benefits of being omnipotent.

LOL! I never thought of that before!

See, as a Christian I don't see that as an insult (and I know you didn't mean that as an insult), but I bet some do find that insulting, although I wouldn't know why. To me it's something to think about. But then again, I never believed the "Satan is amongst us" stuff. Evil is amongst us, there's no doubt about that, the Ted Bundys of the world prove it, but I don't believe in the "Satan V God" stuff. I don't believe a lot of the stuff I'm supposed to believe. I'm a selective Christian I guess.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Satan can't win unless god allows it...one of the benefits of being omnipotent.

That deserves an AMEN!

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

If god hogs the credit, then why not the blame ? Seems to me that the hurricane was more an act of god than the rescue, which was handled by fellow MEN, not divine providence.

Seems strikingly simple, to me.

Seems simple to me too! There's lots of examples of this - For Example: What really bugs me is when people undergo complex and difficult surgery, using the tremendous skill of the surgeons - then say it was God who saved them..........So the Drs were just bystanders then?!

 

[lovethattink]

Satan can't win unless god allows it...one of the benefits of being omnipotent.

So true. Maybe the family of the OP needs to revisit the book of Job.

 

[Betsyt82]

Lessa of Pern..........thanks for sharing your article