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Clerics debate God's role in catastrophe


NorthJersey.com
Clerics debate God's role in catastrophe

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

By JOHN CHADWICK
STAFF WRITER

A North Carolina preacher sees the hand of God in the destruction of New Orleans.

As America 's faith communities mobilize to help Hurricane Katrina victims, they're also engaged in an age-old debate about God's role in disasters.

The Rev. Philip "Flip'' Benham, leader of the North Carolina antiabortion group Operation Save America, spoke approvingly last week about how Hurricane Katrina had shut down New Orleans' bawdy nightlife and forced the cancellation of a gay pride gathering.

"The whole parade of drunkenness, homosexuality and passions of the flesh was just washed away," Benham, an evangelical preacher, said in an interview. "If you believe in God, then you have no choice but to ask yourself whether God is making a statement."

Benham is among a small number of Christians nationwide who have gone public with their belief in an angry God exacting vengeance on a city known for its hedonism and tolerance of homosexuals.

But their insistence that God allowed the storm to happen has struck a nerve among others who believe in an all-powerful and loving God.

By last week, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood had heard enough. An orthodox rabbi who is close with many evangelicals, he nonetheless lashed out at those blaming the disaster on personal sin. The maverick rabbi and author even invited Benham, whom he knows, onto his syndicated radio talk show for a debate.

"It's a phenomenally arrogant attitude for someone to say they know why people are suffering," Boteach said afterward. "It makes a mockery out of religion."

Boteach said it's not just Christians voicing those sentiments. He said a visiting rabbi at his daughter's school said the hurricane was God's retribution against America for urging Israel to relinquish Gaza.

Boteach said he sees suffering as the result of a "flaw" in the universe rather than God's will. And he said Jews believe in challenging God to fix the problem.

"We demand that he does," Boteach said. "It's not our objective to understand the flaw; it's to get rid of it."

North Jersey clergy explain the tragedy in disparate ways. Some see God acting behind the scenes for reasons that are unfathomable. Others reject the notion that God inflicts suffering to punish mankind.

"To say God is micromanaging us by sending a natural disaster isn't fair to the God that Jesus preached about," said the Rev. Tom Ivory of the Catholic Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River. "I don't believe God punishes the innocent for the sins of the guilty."

A Muslim cleric agreed.

"I know there are good people there and that God would not visit his wrath," said Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, a North Bergen resident who runs a mosque in New York City. "I tend to defer to God's mercy and compassion rather than his wrath, because his mercy overtakes his wrath."

An evangelical Protestant pastor in Elizabeth blamed the disaster on man, not God.

"This is only a disaster because of man's lack of care and love for his fellow man," said the Rev. Gary Hartley of Christ Fellowship. "He didn't prepare for the disaster, even though he knew it was coming, and he didn't show any care for the people in imminent danger."

Hartley also said Jesus explicitly discouraged people from viewing calamity as punishment for sin when he spoke in the Gospels of 18 people who died after a tower fell on them.

"Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem ?" Jesus asks his disciples in the Gospel of St. Luke. "I tell you, no!"

Nevertheless, for scores of religious people, God moves the heavens and the Earth, and his will is behind all natural occurrences - including hurricanes.

"Not one atom or molecule of the universe is outside His active rule," read a post-storm statement on the Web by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville , Ky.

Several North Jersey preachers said they believe God allowed Katrina. But they stopped short of ascribing a specific purpose for the destruction.

"I think God allowed Katrina for some reason," said the Rev. David B. Thornton of United Presbyterian Church in Paterson. "And I think it serves as an opportunity for all of humanity to realize the sovereignty of God."

An evangelical pastor in Bergen County said the disaster could be seen as a reminder for the nation to get right with God and repent from sin.

"I can't pretend to know the will of God, but when something like this happens, you have to pause for a moment and ask if it reflects the judgment of God on this nation," said Bill Fritzky of Abundant Life Assembly of God in Washington Township.

Nevertheless, Fritzky stressed that the Christian response should be to help the victims, not cast blame. He said his congregation is taking up a collection.

"It's a great opportunity to show the love of God," he said.

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