PAT ROBERTSON, DONALD MILLER, HAITI & GOD ~ 1/15/10

Wow. Talk about painting a target on your back. If you haven't seen or heard it yet, click here to check out the blundering remarks made by Pat Robertson a couple days ago regarding the disaster in Haiti. In all the eruption of reaction since then, author Donald Miller has penned an interesting response to Mr. Robertson's remarks. Without going crazy on all of this, here's my take.

Without question, the timing of Pat Robertson’s comments was deplorable. Perhaps his theology wasn’t much better. I do see three things:


1) God should be allowed the opportunity to speak to us through any circumstance, whether blessing and gain, trial or disaster, either personal or large scale. “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis; The Problem of Pain, 1940). I am not pointing fingers at Haiti. I am pointing fingers at all of us. Me too.

2) God has not changed. I say this in response to reading one part of Miller's blog. There seemed to be an implication of some difference in God's character between Old Testament & New… “We live in the New Testament, not the old. Lets spread God’s unconditional love.” Just as God required a faith response in the Old Testament in order to experience the full benefits of what Jesus would do in the New, He still requires this today. This means that to some degree, we have a choice in how we will experience the unconditional love of God. I am not pointing fingers at Haiti. I am pointing fingers at all of us. Me too.

3) God’s unconditional love has not changed. Just as God loved people in the Old Testament, so God continues to love everyone on earth today, despite how they react to Him, and Matthew 25:35-36 ("For I was... and you gave...") continues to be the way Christians are to echo the compassion of God. We can be sure that the suffering in Haiti breaks God's heart. And that He is there.

Father, we ask that you would manifest your mercy-- spiritually, physically, emotionally, in the lives of the Haitian people right now. Heal sick bodies. Perform miracles. Expedite rescue and relief. Glorify your Son. In Jesus' name, and for His sake, Amen.

Surrounded By Grace,

Josh