Prayer in the whirlwind
The answer that comes out of a tornado is not the kind of answer we want.
The tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, flattened two schoolhouses, left 24 dead and demolished 12,000 homes in a suburb of 41,000 residents near Oklahoma City. It was as powerful and as destructive as a tornado can be.
This time, there were no preachers saying that the tornado was a form of divine judgment—perhaps because Oklahoma is in the heart of the Bible Belt and thus, in the eyes of the conservative preachers and theologians who have elsewhere glimpsed God’s hand of judgment, not deserving of God’s destruction. One resident told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she was not thankful for the blessing of surviving because she was an atheist. But in Oklahoma City atheists are a distinct minority. That means a lot of faithful, active Christians were in the path of this tornado.
The best answer to theological questions about the tornado was kindness shown to the victims. And on this count many people reached out to help clear debris, as well as give money for recovery. My niece and sister-in-law, who live in the Oklahoma City area, volunteered at a pet rescue shelter. In a building the size of three football fields, they said, were sheltered innumerable dogs, cats, birds, ferrets and other pets, waiting to be claimed by their owners.
