'God's retribution' — Is nature used to punish sinful acts?

With the most powerful storm in recorded history weakening but every bit as devastating as its predecessors, saint, sinner and blogger alike are again wondering if God really does use nature in retribution for sin.

Religious leaders have yet to weigh in on Hurricane Wilma, but one of Israel's retired chief rabbis, Ovadia Yosef, called its forerunner, Katrina, "God's retribution" against Bush for supporting Israel's withdrawal of settlers from Gaza — a view quickly denounced by other Jewish leaders.

Internet discussion has only intensified since Katrina. Debate over and divining of God's purposes also ensued among Christian conservatives, for instance on World magazine's "Theologica" Web log.

Theologica regular Mike Russell, a former newspaperman and adult convert to Christianity with a counseling practice in College Station, Texas, provoked many responses. He attacked the claim that Katrina was God's judgment upon New Orleans for its "debauchery and ribald behavior."

Citing the Genesis flood, Russell said when God enacts judgment in the Bible "he doesn't seem to allow the unrighteous to escape or the righteous to perish." Moreover God gives a warning and opportunity for repentance before calamity comes. Katrina didn't fit those biblical requirements, Russell contended.

Like many, Russell believes nature is mysteriously flawed due to humanity's fall into original sin, so "Katrina was the result of Sin, but it was not a judgment on sins." Citing the Book of Job, theologians often say humanity can never understand the ways God uses nature.

Other evangelical blogging:

The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, R. Albert Mohler Jr., warned fellow Bible conservatives that "we have no right to claim that we know what this storm means," noting that Job's friends mistakenly thought he was being punished for misdeeds.

Ben Witherington III of Asbury Theological Seminary recalled that Abraham prayed for God to spare Sodom if it had 10 righteous residents (Genesis 18:23-32). Surely New Orleans, or Biloxi or Gulfport, Miss., had 10, he commented.

Witherington also noted that Jesus rebuked disciples who sought divine judgment upon people who rejected them (Luke 9:53-55) and taught that ultimate divine action against cities awaits Judgment Day (Luke l0:13-15).

Others noted that Jesus chastised those who saw God's punishment in Herod's bloodshed (Luke 13:1-3), the natural disaster of a tower's collapse (Luke 13:4-5) or a man's blindness (John 9:1-4).

And the president of the Affiliation of Christian Engineers thought that "instead of blaming God" we should blame the "engineering design deficiencies in the New Orleans levee system."

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