As fires roared through Colorado a couple of weeks ago, Pat Robertson and the other self-appointed interpreters of God’s Divine Will were strangely quiet. They are often quick to point the finger of judgment at places that they feel have been deserving of a good smiting; far-away places like Thailand, Haiti, or even New Orleans. Colorado, on the other hand, was a little too close for comfort. With organizations such as Focus on the Family headquartered in Colorado Springs, it has been called the Evangelical Vatican. So, was some sort of miscalculation made in the heavenly realm?

It’s hard to fathom God sending cataclysms to punish people who don’t have much more in common other than an area code. But, perhaps, there is a more obvious message to be gleaned from these increasingly frequent natural disasters. God allows me to suffer the consequences for poor decisions I’ve made in my own life, so why wouldn’t He let the human race reap what we’ve collectively sown? This would include actions such as clear cutting whole forests, stripping mining and mountain top removal, fracturing through shale, and pumping pollutants into the water and air. (more…)