God, Hurricanes and Ray

I am always wary of people calling God to their side in any conflict, from sports to war. Now Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, has spoken as though he knows the mind of God. God is sending hurricanes because he's mad at America. (see http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/17/nagin.city/) As with most leaders who invoke God in this way, Mr. Nagin's opinions are the ones that God supports. So God is sending hurricanes and we'd better listen to Mr. Nagin.

First, God may be mad at the United States of America... or not.

Either way, Jesus made it perfectly clear that calamity is not a sign of God's particular disfavor on a particular group. In Jesus' day, a tower had collapsed and fallen on a small group of people. Jesus said, in regard to the incident, "Do you think that tower fell on those people because they were worse sinners? No."

New Orleans has a reputation (I haven't researched it, but it's apparently well-deserved) of being a city of corruption. Did God aim the hurricane at New Orleans because they are worse sinners? Jesus says, "No."