SENTINEL WATCH March 15, 2010 ISSUE

GOD IS NOT ANGRY WITH HAITI

JEREMY CARPER

NOT LONG after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, some religious pundits began to suggest that this event had been sent by God to punish Haitians for having made a pact with the devil decades ago. This theme that God had a hand in permitting—or perhaps even causing—suffering for His children is one that arises with nearly every tragedy, but it's still baffling why a God the Bible describes as love would do this (see I John 4:16).

The theology that supports the concept of an angry God who produces evil to torment His children cannot answer the question at all satisfactorily. Meanwhile, atheist groups have pounced on what some have called the "insanity" of believing in an all-powerful God who might capriciously send disaster after disaster to a suffering humanity.