Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Unsystematic Theology

Home
Progressive Christian
Should We Pray For God’s Protection From Hurricanes?

Should We Pray For God’s Protection From Hurricanes?

Last updated on: September 8, 2017 at 4:14 pm by Kyle Roberts

Should We Pray For God’s Protection From Hurricanes? 2017-09-08T16:14:08-05:00 Kyle Roberts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m going to shift gears for a while with my blogging.

Instead of trying to come up with my definitive response to various cultural happenings, I’m going to ask more questions.

Or, I’ll questions that other people are asking me.

And I may venture an answer to the question. Or I may not.

Like this one, which someone asked me the other day–someone who had Hurricane Irma in mind:

“Is it legitimate to pray for God to spare people from disaster, or does it only make sense to pray for comfort and strength during and after disaster?“

Now that’s a good question.

I’ll venture a response to this one–however tentative and humbly.

I’ll be honest. I rarely pray for God to change history. I don’t pray for miracles, if by miracles you mean something like divine interventions or interruptions in the natural order to disrupt the normal course of events.

I used to, but I hardly ever do anymore.

I don’t pray that God would cure someone of terminal cancer. I don’t pray that God would mercifully take away someone’s dementia. And I don’t pray that God would push Hurricane Irma in another direction–that it would turn sharply east instead of on its current course–or that God would make it magically disappear.

Maybe God is simply awaiting our earnest prayers, very able to puff the Hurricane off its current course (or squelch it to nothing). But if God could and would simply do all sorts of life-saving miracles if enough of us would just muster the energy, will, or faith to get on our knees and ask hard enough–well, that’s not a God I can either love, worship, or believe in.

So I don’t pray for God to do something miraculous with weather patterns, or mutating cells, or plaques in the brain that cause dementia.

I don’t pray to God for those things because, to me, to do so suggests that God is at least something like a cosmic manipulator–withholding good things in the treasure chest until we get up the courage, stamina, or energy to go ask for them. This would be a God who allows great damage to happen to others because I (and we) didn’t pray hard enough, with enough faith, or with the right words.

Granted, if I was trapped in south Florida right now, I’d be on my knees mustering petitions to God. Urgency–and wind and water–might change my theology.

So, it is different a matter, perhaps, to ask God to save an individual person from natural disaster–rather than to ask God to alter the entire weather pattern.

But even focusing the issue to the individual (or specific group) also raises the age-old theological problem of “selective miracles.” Why would God heal Harry but not Sally? Why would God spare Antigua but not Barbuda? Theologians who believe in some form of interactive divine providence puzzle about that one.

In any case, I’d answer the question by saying that (for me) it makes the most sense theologically to pray for comfort and strength during and after disaster. To pray for peace and courage–to pray for wisdom in moving forward.

My approach might be a version of that well-known statement of C.S. Lewis: prayer is meant to change us (inwardly), not to change God (or the course of history as God determines it).

I think prayer is really mainly for redirecting our hearts, shaping our desires to conform to the love of Christ. I don’t think it will do very much good for us to pray for God to change the path of the hurricane.

Nonetheless…

I do think we should all start taking climate change very seriously. In other words, let’s pray, yes. But let’s focus our prayers to inspire us and lead us to wise and courageous action, as the waters warm and rise and as the storms grow fiercer.

But enough about me. What do you think?

Hurricane Irma Nasa Worldview [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Previous Post

September 2, 2017

The Inconsistent Docetism of Evangelical Theology

Next Post

September 14, 2017 The Problem With Liberal Christianity (From the Perspective of a Radical Christian)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2020 November 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 December 2018 July 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz