The Rift, Part II
I am following the stories about New Orleans,
Biloxi, and other beleaguered cities of the Gulf Coast.
It appears that the hardest hit
portions of the population are the poor (and in New Orleans, which is more than
2/3 black, that means mostly black people), the underclass, those barely
surviving in the best of times. My heart goes out to them, along with my
prayers. I'm also trying to help a bit in a more practical sense, with a
donation to Red Cross. And possibly others as well, but I haven't decided
yet.
So that's why I have a hard time
accepting it when some fundamentalist Christians (so-called) blame homosexuals
or other "sinners" and say that this is the judgement of God on New Orleans for
their sins.
If that were true, why
would God's judgement fall more harshly on the poor, and leave the richest
people (relatively) unscathed?
This is
a poor representation of Christ's love for a lost world. I'm ashamed of those of
my Christian brothers and sisters who are trapped in this kind of
thinking.
And I remind them of Jesus
own words about a couple of similar (if smaller) disasters, from Luke13:1 to
13:5 (NIV):
(13:1) Now there were some
present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mixed with their sacrifices. (13:2) Jesus answered, "Do you think that these
Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered
this way? (13:3) I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
(13:4) Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you
think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? (13:5) I
tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all
perish.
The message is: we ALL need to
repent of our sins, our lovelessness, our selfish and uncaring attitudes, our
judgmental attitudes, and really show the love of Christ. At times like this, we
(Christians in particular) should be bridging the rift in our culture and
reaching out to those who are left out of the reckoning of the high and
mighty.
No, if anything, this is God's
judgment on all of us. All of us will be affected. That's obvious already. I
think there are nonobvious ways in which this will change this country. I hope
it will be for the better, but I don't count on it.
Posted: Fri - September 2, 2005 at 10:51 AM