God in the Storm?

I know whom I have believed, 

and am convinced that He is able to guard 

what I have entrusted to Him for that day.

2 Timothy 1:12

I read an interesting article on CNN.com's blogs last night.  It was on the CNN Belief Blog, and was written by Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar.  The title is:  My Take: God not in Whirlwinds of Sandy or Presidential Race.  Prothero argues that when superstorms like Sandy arrive, we "tune in to the Weather Channel, not the Christian Broadcasting Network.  And we interpret these events not through the rumblings of biblical prophets but through the scientific truths of air pressure and tectonic plates."  There are many pundits who would proclaim that Sandy was some kind of a judgment warning from God, but I rather think Sandy came about because of our own misuse of this planet. 

There are lots of people out there today who believe they know what God is thinking, what God believes, and who God wants to win the political election.  There are those who want to base policy (such as abortion, etc.), on what God wills (at least according to them).  I don't think any of them are speaking on behalf of God.  They are speaking on behalf of themselves and their own ideas and motivations.  I loved Prothero's last line, "When it comes to storms like Sandy, I just don't believe in a God who drowns black babies in Haiti yet refuses to drown out the voices of cranky white men who claim so irreverently to speak in His name."

More enthralling than this article, however, were the 20+ pages of comments that came directly after.  There were Christians, right and left-wing political wonks, ordinary citizens, atheists, believers, Muslims, Catholics, Republicans, Democrats and every stripe of person inbetween.  Many of the comments were bitter or angry. Many were written by people who could only see their side of the argument.  I have chosen two to leave you with tonight, not because I believe what they say, but because they reflect the majority opinion of those reading the article.  Both were written by men.  Both left me feeling very sad.

I suspect God simply doesn't care.  

Maybe He just gave up on the human race

when we killed His Son 

(or His penultimate prophet, if you believe Islam.)

And when we then made yet more 

pugilistic religions trying to kill each other off.

He clearly hasn't cared for at least 1400 years.

If you believe all the mumbo-jumbo, and if He ever cared,

and if He even existed in the first place that is,

maybe He just went of to try again on a different planet since

this one was so obviously doomed.

I suspect that god just... isn't.  Simple as that.