The Insularity Of The Church Does Not Even Protect It From The Weather

Historically speaking, the Church has often sided with wealth and power to the detriment of both the majority of the people as well as its own credibility. This siding with wealth and power was done by the Roman Church in times before the French and Spanish Revolutions and by the Orthodox Church prior to the Russian Revolution. The result was that the post revolutionary public was easily led to believe that Christianity was a religion of oppression  and thus must be seen as an enemy.

Of course one might ask what about the third branch of Christianity. What about Protestants? Are they above making the same mistakes as those from the Roman and Orthodox Churches? The sad answer is 'no.' For in America, the conservative Protestant Church, sometimes supported by conservative Catholics, have backed wealth and power. It has not supported wealth and power in the ways that its predecessors have; but it definitely has supported it. And its support is shown even in articles not relating to economics or politics. The article that will be reviewed here will give an example of that support.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer (click here for a bio) wrote an article on Moody Church Media on what we can learn from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey. What were the lessons? They all had to do with either how Christians should understand disasters and sudden changes or how Christians should live and to the Gospel (click here for the article). In other words, the article teaches us Christians to be 'christiany,' as an important non-Christian friend of mine might put it, in our response to the Hurricane. That christiany response is one that results from being insular. And by insular I mean that we don't listen much, if at all, to views outside our own community. And doing so affords us to, at least passively, support the status quo--that is to support those with wealth and power as they act as managers of the status quo.

Lutzer lists 5 responses we Christians should have to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. They are as listed:

1. We Grieve, We Do Not Judge meaning that the disaster wrought by Hurricane Harvey should cause us to grieve for the catastrophic losses people have suffered instead of piling on by telling them that God was judging them. With the latter comes the assumption of guilt on those who lost so much and an assumption of innocence on those of us who did not suffer. So instead of presumptuously looking down on those who lost so much, we should be saddened by their losses. And our grief should result in helping and giving to those in need.
    
2. Values Are Clarified meaning that the loss of material goods pales in comparison to both the loss of people as well as the loss of our own souls. Thus we should watch how much value we assign to our worldly goods.
    
3. Life Is Uncertain implying that since disaster could always be lurking around the corner, we cannot afford to become content in the world. We cannot afford to let the blessings that make us comfortable now make us feel secure. For once that happens, we will take neither our place before God nor God Himself seriously enough
    
4. We See A Preview Of Coming World-Wide Judgments meaning that because Jesus and others in the Bible tell us that God's judgment, in the form of disasters, will continue to hit the world, we need to learn their purpose. And the purpose of God's earthly judgments are to call us to repentance.
    
5. While There Is Time, We Must Find Firm Ground meaning we should seek to be saved. That is because in the end, there will only be two groups of people: those who are saved and those who aren't. And thus, we need to repent and believe in order to be in the right group.

As a Christian, I have to say that there is nothing wrong in the lessons that Lutzer draws from the disaster caused by Hurricane Harvey. Rather, his fault lies in what he neglects to say. His fault lies in spiritualizing the disaster and the suffering that resulted to the extent that he does not look at temporal causes for the suffering experienced by the residents of Houston.

With 81% of Trump votes coming from Evangelicals, and with Trump dismantling important scientific research including research into climate change, and with Trump dismantling regulations because they prove to be too much of a 'burden' to those who want to build, we need to look to what happened in Houston as a possible temporal judgment for having exploited the environment a region, and the residents. Regarding this last group, lack of proper planning and regulations can unnecessarily expose the residents there increased risks such as those posed by hurricanes.

Now it isn't that if we paid more attention to climate change and had Houston planned the city with enough regulations in mind that Houston would either be spared being hit by the hurricane or be immune to damages that come from hurricanes. But we should explore the possibilities that Hurricane Harvey's strength was enhanced by climate change so that it could have been significantly weaker if we were doing more to address climate change. 

Likewise, did the approach to the layout of the city and a minimalist approach to regulations cause more flooding than necessary even for a storm of Harvey's size (consider this link and that link )? In fact, from Lutzer's point of view, we might wonder whether Houston's approach to regulations and planning reflects a neglect of the spiritual values and priorities mentioned in his article.

So why does Lutzer neglect these temporal issues that, if we learn from them, could limit the effects of future storms or other disasters? Could it be that stricter approaches to writing and enforcing regulations on both those seeking to build and those of us whose way of life or business add to the conditions that lead to great disasters would decrease the profits made by those with wealth and power who already profited too much from lax regulations and ignoring climate science? 

In other words, does conservative Protestantism's support those with wealth and power who enjoy increased profits by supporting politicians like Donald Trump who have little regard for both regulations that would limit the impact of storms like Hurricane Harvey and climate change?

Many of us religiously conservative Christians have often associated our faith with our land and way of life. And in so doing, we, like the people of OT Israel, favor those prophets who congratulate us and tell us to feel at ease, to enjoy peace. And thus, we are slow to listen to those outside of our religious-political tribes who have been warning us of pending judgments. And these judgments aren't necessarily the judgments God brings. Rather, these judgments are the natural consequences for our foolishness in ignoring some real temporal problems.