Caught while trawling the worldwideweb is the following email appeal by an apparently respectable Christian outreach organisation. As is evident, the unsurpassed grace of God and his unlimited output of mercy and forgiveness for those who do not know what they do is manifested in the touching words of the letter-writer....
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"... in Banda Aceh, the gateway to Mecca and the gathering of terrorists in Indonesia, it was hard to find a dry place to bury the bodies. In Phuket which is known globally as the sin resort of Thailand, the tidal waves swept half a kilometer inland and wiped out all of its massage parlors, brothels and bars. In Sri Lanka where a terrorist plan was afoot to burn all the churches in the east coast on Jan 1, 2005, God wiped out the other buildings of worship and spared the churches. Sri Lanka pleaded utter helplessness. And Andaman's many islands, that may yield India's worst causalities, remain cut off from the world.
CNN reported the warning of meteorologists that the entire earth is “shaking” and changing its course “like a drunkard”. This is a warning of God which came many years ago in Isaiah 24:18b-20 and Joel 2:10. Hebrews 12:26 warns that shaking is inevitable and “what cannot be shaken shall remain”. The Word speaks of yet another earthquake to come, the worst “since man has been on earth” Rev 16:18. What has happened is a clear wake-up call within God’s perfect plan, not His permissive plan....
Except for Aceh where communication is lost with our graduate pastors, all other places where *** has its presence have been spared by the Lord. In Nias... buildings were swept into the sea but the churches remain. Praise the Lord!.....
Your urgent prayers are requested.
With blessings.
*******"
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Budak's gentle reply (emailed) to this man of God is as follows:
Mr ****,
While nobody should begrudge your email call for help for ***'s work in Southeast and South Asia, your painting of the tragedy as a divine manifestation of God's wrath is heinous, totally un-Christian in your absence of mercy for both saved and unsaved, and appalling in the presumptuousness of the pride with which you cast judgement on the victims.
You seem to rejoice in the wiping out of "massage parlors, brothels and bars" as if the lives lost therein are worth naught in the eyes of Christ. Pre-emptive strikes by God are also part of God's love, I suppose, since his destruction of Sri Lanka's houses of worship bar churches is a act of heavenly justice that no Christian may condemn, but indeed sing hallelujah at the perishing of God's enemies.
Whatever good works *** has done, I now know better than ever consider supporting such Christian leaders as yourself who arbitrarily invoke Biblical curses onto innocent victims of earthly disaster. No doubt you would shed not a tear should further blights strike all un-believing individuals in the world, allowing the remaining saints to bring forward the establishment of an earthly kingdom of God.
Sincerely...
To add a note of fairness, the said gentleman (in private correspondence) has clarified that it was not his intent to condemn or be derogatory. But one wonders still how congregations can swallow similar words from pulpits without batting an eyelid at the righteous invocation of Mosaic catastrophe upon hapless sinners in this supposed age of mercy and redemption. Should he find one day himself in the pews again, budak's conscience would give him no peace if he fails to speak up (and likely be thrown out) against such unctuos interpretations of human tragedies.
Posted by: budak | 29 December 2004 at 02:21 PM
Excellent reply to the man of God. His is a warped reaction to a tragic natural disaster.
Posted by: passerby | 01 January 2005 at 07:39 PM