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the tornado to stop the "gays"

Aug 20th, 2009
by Drew Tatusko.

Who Said It?

The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.

Pat Robertson?

Ken Silva?

Jack Van Impe?

Fred Phelps?

James Dobson?

Nope…

It's the inglorious vainglory of John Piper via The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality :: Desiring God.

As soon as someone preaches this utter swill, they are discredited right out. There were no storms at the PCUSA 218th General Assembly as I recall. Also, that storm for which James Dobson and his cronies prayed to hit the Democratic National Convention never happened. This is conspiratorial bunk that uses the bible as a weapon of ideology, not a source to find God's grace.

This sort of "theology" tries to divine God's pre-destined program for us by picking and choosing natural events that appear to confirm a pre-existing ideological condition. It's not theology, it's insurance to justify one's own ideology.

It is not theology, but idolatry. It is extracting what you want God's will to be from nature rather than attend to that progressive revelation which may, and likely will, send this sort of Pharisaism asunder. For that is what we learn from Jesus. The more you think you have the Gospel cornered, the more you are relying on your own divinations and ideas. When this happens, as with learning anything new, one is less attentive to revelation. One becomes more attentive to one's own whims and God looks just like you – an epiphenomenon of your own foolishness and absurdity.

John Piper has moved into this territory of self-delusional idolatry. If God looks like him, which he seems to think does, I want no part of it. Why? I think God is better than that. And so, we all should strive to be better than than the crap he is now offering.

UPDATE: Check out Adam's reflection as someone more "in the know" about Piper. And be sure to check out my fellow Keystone Stater Jenell Paris' wonderfully titled: The Toddler, The Discharge, and The Humidity. It really is nasty humid from where we sit in our respective locations today. I work for a small Catholic college in the tradition of the Religious Sisters of Mercy about 2 hours from where Jenell works at Messiah. God must not like either the Religious Sisters of Mercy or the Church of the Brethren this week. I will await her son's repentance as well. And liberalpastor shows us how God must have missed the target of sin and shame. Maybe God has been hanging out with Dick Cheney whose aim was off when he shot his friend in the face.

Here is an additional post on Piper:

God always does what is wise. God loves us so much he kills us. God has a wonderful plan for your life…..death.

I suspect Pastor Piper would have us praise God for allowing our house to be destroyed;for allowing our family members to plunge off a bridge to their death.

Count me out. I have no interest in a God who does such things to us. According to Piper such things are supposed to make us fear God.

I suspect for many people, hearing of a God who maims and kills to send people a message, makes them anything BUT fearful.

The God of John Piper? I want nothing to do with such a God.

And neither do agnostics and atheists. This kind of theology is exactly why the non-religious have a lot to say these days.

Which leads us to the question of the day: Did Piper pick a peck of pickled pomposity?

Related posts:

  1. put down the bible, stop speaking, and evangelize with your work
  2. stop talking about "gay marriage"
  3. raising kids as a post-fundamentalist
  4. gays in the church: an economic approach
  5. determinism: a core problem with piper

Posted in: Society, Stupid Religion, Theology.

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  • Paul Moore
    I'm new to this blog, but allow me to share that I tried to share a biblical and theological response to Piper's claim at:
    At http://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/
  • and as you know i have oodles of posts on the very question asked that this post does not have to do with. i do have an lgbt category. but my guess is that mr. urutu will disregard those as well since he wants a specific answer to the question rather than to think about the basis of the question itself.
  • Some readers may also find Piper's thoughts (http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/745) from the 2007 collapse of the I-35 W bridge in Minneapolis to be of interest, where he argued that God allowed the bridge to fall so that people could fear him. Spewing this kind of stuff is not uncommon for him, unfortunately.

    But I mention this to also draw attention to Greg Boyd's responses to that post. He is also a pastor in Minneapolis, of course. He has profound wisdom that, I think, many of us who read Drew may resonate with. There is this post (http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/2007/08/why-35w-bridge-collapsed.html) on why the bridge collapsed, as well as this one (http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/2007/09/35w-bridge-collapse-and-book-of-job.html) where he responds to an allegation that his view is inconsistent with the book of Job. Great thoughts that are full of wisdom and grace, I believe.
  • Oh, just discovered this blog — and /added into Google Reader subscription list!

    Your comment(s) were even better than the original post…
  • Julieunplugged
    You are lucky to know Drew. He's top notch, first rate theological profundity and snark. I like my daily dose with a stiff drink.
  • some day i am going to believe your flattery :-)

    good tag line too. "daily dose of theology with a stiff drink"
  • Julieunplugged
    Feel free to adopt sans credit. ;-)
  • Julieunplugged
    Oh Drew, you must be drowning in happiness today. :D Awesome stuff.
  • hathos dear. pure hathos. :-)
  • knowtea
    I can recall a few years ago that a tornado hit part of my hometown of Birmingham, AL, destroying at least one church and one school completely. Hurricane Katrina devastated many churches, including the church of my wife's childhood. I don't recall reading any divinations from Piper after those events that these churches were being judged by God for this or that. How is he getting this inside information? Does God talk to him like he used to talk to that TV evangelist who looked like the Joker--Robert Tilton? Does he read tea leaves? Use the I Ching?
  • I wonder if, were some ill to befall Piper's church, would he find what sin he needs to repent of? Would he see it as a sign of God's displeasure? Or would he see it as an attack of the Devil and a direct reason to continue along his "path"?
  • Heh. What did Piper have to say when Hurricane Gustav went after the Republican National Convention last year? I seem to have missed it. :)
  • i forgot about gustav! i thought THAT was intended to make landfall in Denver for Obama's speech as prayed for by Focus on the Family. man, God's aim must suck.
  • Yeah, and think of how much God must hate poor people when he wiped out their houses in New Orleans.
  • Kage Urufu
    While you give all sorts of rhetoric, you fail to persuade any Christian about your position with any textual evidence from Scripture supporting homosexuality.
  • any Christian? odd that i myself am one. also odd that there are numerous christians who do find this persuasive. also odd that this has absolutely nothing to do with textual "evidence" about homosexuality but a bizarre statement that makes a post hoc error to claim that a storm is god's wrath on gays.

    this is not a persuasive piece. but one to challenge a really bad and dishonest assumption that piper makes.
  • Kage Urufu
    Upon what basis can you call yourself (or your readers) Christians, though?
  • This is a good start. You do the math:

    I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

    And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

    Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

    And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

    And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
  • Kage Urufu
    Also, Drew, citing the Nicene Creed only makes you a Trinitarian. Believing the Bible makes you a Christian.
  • Brian Merritt
    Every night I get down on my knees and pray to the Bible. I believe in the Bible. I have one that I have made out of gold that looks like a calf.
  • so you can believe the bible, but not in jesus christ the only begotten son of the father? well call me a polytheist then! guess the sun revolves around the earth separated by a big dome in the sky too. so that's why satellites can orbit the earth! wow. thanks for the revelatory insight in how to be a christian!

    btw - muslims and jews also "believe the bible" along with a lot of hindus with whom i have spoken. for them jesus was an incarnation of brahman or vishnu.
  • Kage Urufu
    I wonder why liberals make strawmen from a conservative position... I find it amazing that you won't even begin to engage in a serious discussion with me.
  • Why would anyone try?

    Why would anyone care what some random stranger on the interwebs thinks?
  • i am engaging you. i don't think you have offered much other than to suggest that 1) i am not a christian, 2) i am apostate, 3) the creeds don't define christianity 4) a very vague notion of biblicism does. all of these are bsurd points and i have, admittedly with a great deal of sarcasm, dealt with each of them. and none of these are particularly relevant to this post e.g. piper's post today about the tornado was utter swill that should be criticized for it's sheer lunacy. that's what i did. you want to talk about that. fine. you want to continue offering your judgment, fine. but if it is the latter you seek i will continue nailing it with contemptuous snark as that is all that it deserves.
  • Brian Merritt
    It reminds us of the straw that the Egyptians made the Israelites make the bricks out of as punishment.
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