ABC Asks Tornado-Struck Pastor: 'How Do You Reconcile Your Faith With This Tragedy?'

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

For the MSM, there's nothing like the occasion of a natural disaster to challenge the faith of religious believers.

On today's Good Morning America, Kate Snow interviewed the Rev. Larry Lynn, Pastor of the Lady Lake Church of God, whose buildings were totally levelled by the tornadoes that recently struck central Florida.

A minute or so into the interview, Snow asked a question that challenged the core of the pastor's religious belief: "How do you reconcile your faith with the enormity of this tragedy?"

Pastor Lynn answered in a manner consistent with the most basic Christian principles: "This is just a temporal thing. We deal in the eternal. Temporal things change on a daily basis. I don't know what today might bring, but I'm prepared for it. I don't know what tomorrow might bring, but I'm prepared for it, because I know who holds tomorrow. My confidence is not in the things of this world, but in He who sits on the throne and in his son, Jesus Christ."

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[weegee]

I agree, maybe she was looking for him to give a positive message and some reason to the others effected by this.

I have heard the same type of questions after these type of events, "why did God allow this", the pastor put it in perspective.

I'm more familiar with the exploitive tv reporter standing over someone crying about losing their family, their home, etc. being asked "How do you feel now? Can you tell me what you are feeling?" A few will respond with outrage over being asked such an indelicate question.

Sometimes there is even an agenda behind it, as when they ask to interview the families (wives/parents) of fallen soldiers "for the local angle" and then drop the 10pm interview of same family when they don't lash out at the Bush administration and the war (some have called in to radio later to complain, as it isn't "all" of the families being dropped from the later broadcast, just those who didn't answer correctly).

[Lancey Howard]

[MinuteGal]

We're an action forum. I wish someone could get this thread to the reporterette for her edification. I don't know how, unfortunately.

Tragic weather upheavals are temporal things, faith is eternal. It's what gets you mentally and physically through tough events.

"On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is shifting sand"

Leni

[Mom MD]

Who ever said that 'become a Christian, nothing bad will ever happen to you?'

Unfortunately, a lot of TV "religion" hucksters say just that.
Then there are the ones who say if things like this happen to you, your faith just isn't strong enough.

It is often our own (those who claim to represent Christians on TV, whether they are truly Christian or not can be debated) that do us the most damage.

[angcat]

lol

[MamaB]

Real faith is dealing with the loss of a daughter in 2004, and since that time, a brother, husband, bil, mom and 12 cousins. I know who holds tomorrow and it ain't me! My brother died in May last year, my husband on July 8, my bil on Jul 30, and my mom on 6 Jan 2007. I know God is in control and HE knows what He is doing.

[Coldwater Creek]

I am so sorry that you have been hit so hard!

My own husband has stage four cancer, I am having to face a trying time myself. If I did not have the Lord to lean on, there is just no way that I could make it.

[Scarchin]

I think it's an age old question.

If there is a God, why does (fill in the blank) happen?

[fish hawk]

You are the first one here to speak what my thoughts were. Yes, the question was very secular but maybe the Holy Spirit brought it up so as the Minister would relay the meaning of "faith" to a large audience.

[bvw]

You can and must earn your way in. Why do you think the world, as it is, exists?

Let me get back to the Dad and Mom. They devote their lives to you, build a marriage and a home for you, feed you, educate you, clothe you, comfort you, each day passes with their concerns and worries and aggravations on your behalf -- the grey hairs that come from each of your mistakes and *you* claim it all is for nothing? That you can run away, be rebellious, ruin your own room, wreck the car, have rotten friends over a party that destroys the house and the family's reputation but that as long as you just "accept" that they are your parents -- you are redeemed??!!

You must live in bizzarro world.

In the world we all live in, there is justice and mercy both. There is testing and redemption. Your own inner personal acceptance of what your parents are for all that parenthood properly is is only one step -- and not even necessary if you still *perform* all the necessary duties to yoru parents and to yourself on their behalf. I mean, they are your parents, no matter whatever foolish notions you may get that they are not, or that you are somehow completely independent of them.

The Ten Commandments make a clear delegation of that duty and responsibility a man has to G-d, to one's own parents. When we consider the proper role of child to parents, and the relationships between them, we are considering the relationship between man and G-d.

We wold never say, I hope, that the best part of our relationships to our Parents will be at some future, eternal, time, after we both are dead and purely spiritual beings, if by so doing we shirk our proper duties to them today in the real world.

And that's the way it is between G-d and us. The "today" is here for reason, and is not to be made trivial, scorned, ignored or denied for the sake of some "oh we believe!" Eternity. For when that "Eternity" is entered it will be entered with much less of you than could have been had, had the world and what happens in it been met like a man of good family and parents and not as a bastard victim, bastard by choice of completely denying that his Father built a house -- in the physical world too -- for him.

[MamaB]

I am sorry about your husband. Mine was told he had liver cancer about April and it was 8"x5"x5" and he died on Jul 8. My mom would have been 103 on Apr 26th and she was more than ready to go home. In fact, she had been singing a song about Going Home for about 5 years. We will miss all of them.

[an amused spectator]

She learned her lessons well in the City of Evil:

Profiles in Class Warfare: Kate Snow Flashes $20 to Demagogue Tax Cut, a May 11, 2006 blog article by some guy named "Finkelstein".

[4Godsoloved..Hegave]

One of my favorites as well!!

[RightWhale]

It's probably the first and most common question. All religions deal with it. Unfortunately for the sound-bite lady, it is not the kind of question that can be directly answered in words to most who watch TV.

[highimpact]

You can and must earn your way in.

I'm sorry you feel that way, because you cannot and will not "earn" your way to heaven. No human being can live up to the standards set by Jesus. No human being, before or after Jesus Christ walked the Earth, has lived a life free of sin. You, by virtue of being human, have already broken most (if not all) of the ten commandments. Your only path to heaven is a personal relationship with Jesus, and your acceptance of Him as your savior.

[RightWhale]

Engles of Marx/Engles was wealthy and retired early due to total business success and supported Marx and also did the heavy writing. Marx was creative but couldn't write coherently. Learned that on The Rest of the Story.

[Coldwater Creek]

Wow! 103 That is a long time in this old world.

[Mr. Jeeves]

A minute or so into the interview, Snow asked a question that challenged the core of the pastor's religious belief: "How do you reconcile your faith with the enormity of this tragedy?"

What answer was the interviewer expecting? "Yes, I was so wrong. God led me astray - I should have listened to Al Gore. From now on, I will adopt the True Faith of Global Warming, and Saint Albert will be my divine guardian." ;)

[MamaB]

I think she thought that when she turned 90. She only had one sister left out of a large family, she had lost her husband, a daughter and a son, a grandson and a granddaughter and a great grandson. She always said if you can not say anything good about a person, then do not say a word. She influenced many, many people during her lifetime. Everyone loved her.

[Zack Nguyen]

Thank you. I have always been amazed at that story, and the faith that attends it. It is also one of my favorite hymns.