"Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land."
There are natural results of heaping all of your people and belongings in places that are vulnerable, and the expected result of a sea-born storm on a heavily populated urban center is exactly the devastation we now see. There is a reason that almost all of human mythology (yes, Christian scripture as well) points to our status not as owners and destroyers, but as caretakers and healers of the land. This isn't the first time a city has seen destruction of this type, and it certainly won't be the last - especially if we insist on heaping up wealth and people and their THINGS in coastal areas while driving up global temperatures and attempting to legislate away the consequences (no, really).
In the mean time, let's remember the actual Biblically correct reason for the destruction of some cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. It wasn't due to homosexuality or politics. It was due to the same things that plague our large, mammon-worshiping cosmopolitan centers today:
"...She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." (Ez 16:49b-50)
In the mean time, let's remember the actual Biblically correct reason for the destruction of some cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. It wasn't due to homosexuality or politics. It was due to the same things that plague our large, mammon-worshiping cosmopolitan centers today:
In the meantime, I am with the rest of creation waiting
"...in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)
Maybe one day those that claim to be the children of God will cease destroying everything God revels in and calls good and cease their breathtaking, breakneck dive into abject mammon worship. Maybe then creation will finally see the children of God come into their own as those who promote freedom instead of wage-slavery, glory instead of class hatred, and stewardship rather than the decay that currently haunts our world and is championed by its money grubbing leaders. Maybe then, finally, those who claim to follow the Christ will remember that he tied all of the other commandments to loving your neighbor, and will actually heed the Psalmist and the author of I Peter both, and begin not just to cease evil and seek peace, but to actively pursue it. Maybe when we do this we can "dwell in the land forever." (Psalm 34:14 & 37:27, I Peter 3:11)
Try this for some thoughts on the Bible as a text-book for agrarian consciousness...
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So, after some thought, I realized that this post seems a little harsh. To clarify:
I am in no way suggesting that Sandy was at all a judgement of any type. I certainly am not implying that the accumulation of wealth in Wall Street cost the homeless their shelters or that the racist bigotry of the city government cost the livelihood of those in immigrant communities - at least not via Sandy. Rather, I am pointing out the consequences of certain lifestyles and cultural choices which appear to be the norm in much of the country.
See, in my view, "judgement" of the OT biblical sort tends to be of the "reap what you sow" variety. This was probably even more true of nations as a whole than for the individual. When the prophets railed against those who forgot justice and the care of the poor, they weren't pointing at individuals but at the system as a whole. System failures and failures of leadership led to "judgements" as readily as did personal failures. Thus, when Israel failed to heed the call to avoid political ensnarement with Egypt, they suffered the consequence of invasion and conquest. When Rehoboam chose to listen to his juvenile advisers and not his elders and overtaxed his people, he lost part of his kingdom. When David's wife, Michal, laughed at his dance before the ark, she failed to have children. The fact often ignored was that, though these were interpreted as divine punishments, they were also natural outcomes. The Jews lost out to Egypt's enemies, Rehoboam had a tax revolt, and Michal probably didn't get visited by David much afterwards for, ahem, relations.
The same thing applies to Sandy and her causes. By avoiding every warning from those who know and care about the earth - from indigenous peoples to religious advocates for earth care to scientists - and instead racing for more things, larger incomes, more power, and individualistic mammon worship, we have managed both to create cities which are a drain on the environment and poised for destruction, as well as the storms and increased sea-levels that destroy them. Maybe, it is time to listen to our "advisors" and "prophets" before we self destruct as a civilization and a people.
I am in no way suggesting that Sandy was at all a judgement of any type. I certainly am not implying that the accumulation of wealth in Wall Street cost the homeless their shelters or that the racist bigotry of the city government cost the livelihood of those in immigrant communities - at least not via Sandy. Rather, I am pointing out the consequences of certain lifestyles and cultural choices which appear to be the norm in much of the country.
See, in my view, "judgement" of the OT biblical sort tends to be of the "reap what you sow" variety. This was probably even more true of nations as a whole than for the individual. When the prophets railed against those who forgot justice and the care of the poor, they weren't pointing at individuals but at the system as a whole. System failures and failures of leadership led to "judgements" as readily as did personal failures. Thus, when Israel failed to heed the call to avoid political ensnarement with Egypt, they suffered the consequence of invasion and conquest. When Rehoboam chose to listen to his juvenile advisers and not his elders and overtaxed his people, he lost part of his kingdom. When David's wife, Michal, laughed at his dance before the ark, she failed to have children. The fact often ignored was that, though these were interpreted as divine punishments, they were also natural outcomes. The Jews lost out to Egypt's enemies, Rehoboam had a tax revolt, and Michal probably didn't get visited by David much afterwards for, ahem, relations.
The same thing applies to Sandy and her causes. By avoiding every warning from those who know and care about the earth - from indigenous peoples to religious advocates for earth care to scientists - and instead racing for more things, larger incomes, more power, and individualistic mammon worship, we have managed both to create cities which are a drain on the environment and poised for destruction, as well as the storms and increased sea-levels that destroy them. Maybe, it is time to listen to our "advisors" and "prophets" before we self destruct as a civilization and a people.
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