Kirk Cameron was recently in Florida and took the time for a short video at the Orlando airport to give an update on his travels and express a thought he had about the coming Hurricane.
The thought was this:
[My friend] you know, says [Hurricane] Harvey was a once in a lifetime event because the destruction was unprecedented with that hurricane. There’s another one coming up that they say is the largest recorded hurricane on the Atlantic, and the devastation from that, we don’t know how much it’s going to be. But, how should we look at two giant hurricanes coming back to back like this. Do we write it off as coincidence or statistical anomaly?
Cameron then reads from Job 37 and God’s declaration that he saturates clouds, scatters lightning, and makes the clouds turn around and around. The passage also says God does that either to water the Earth or for punishment. Cameron then proceeds…
“This is a spectacular display of God’s immense power. And when God displays his power, it’s not without purpose. We may not know what that purpose is, but it’s not random. We know weather serves the purposes of making us respond to God in humility, awe and repentance.”
Cameron then encouraged people to pray for Floridians.
A few things about Cameron’s statements.
- Cameron is right, that God causes weather occurrences. Storms “do God’s bidding” in Psalm 148:8. God sent a tempest in Job 1:4. Storms and waves and wind are the product of God’s work (Psalm 42:7).
- Cameron is right, that inclement weather is an opportunity to repent (see again Job 1). If a disaster comes upon a city, it was God who – in one way or another – did it (Amos 3:6).
Cameron could have also pointed out that God sends good weather to cause people to repent. After all, God also uses kindness to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). God is responsible for the seasons, and for the weather that accompanies them (Genesis 8:22). But then again, it wasn’t on account of the nice weather that Cameron did this video in the first place, so one shouldn’t expect him to point out that nice weather is also an opportunity to recognize God’s lordship and to turn to him in repentance.
So, Cameron made some pretty Biblically defensible statements. How did people respond? They responded by collectively throwing a hissy.
Patheos blogger, Michael Stone, scoffed at the notion God would send hurricanes to make people repent. He writes…
Cameron is toxic. His glib explanation and justification for his imaginary God’s cruelty and immorality is moronic. If God really wanted to give us “a spectacular display” of His supposedly “immense power” one would think He could do it without all the death, destruction, and misery…As for suggesting that hurricanes are part of God’s “purpose,” this is laughable. Cameron’s God is a misogynistic, moral monster, that lacks any moral standard, and apparently approves of rape, incest, genocide, and slavery, among many other unsavory and decidedly immoral acts.
Entertainment Weekly also scoffed at the notion, calling his video a “finger-wagging message,” and explain the weather anomalies as caused by “climate change.”
The former Growing Pains star and evangelical Christian has taken to Facebookto post a finger-wagging message that declares God sent the incredibly destructive and devastating Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma as divine punishment for our collective sins and to teach us “humility.”
Predictably, the Huffington Post also got in on the guffaws at Cameron. It’s columnist, Ed Mazza, said…
He then encouraged viewers to use that as an answer to children asking about the storms, which have killed dozens, left thousands homeless and done untold damage.
The fact is, in the scheme of things, one hurricane coming on the heels of another hurricane is not at all an “anomaly.” If you remember, it happened in 2005 and happens regularly. What Cameron did NOT say is that this was a special judgment from God for a special sin. Cameron has been getting a little goofy (particularly in his associations) in recent years, but he’s not Pat Robertson-goofy. And in this video, all he did was point out the obvious.
In the mean time, actress Jennifer Lawrence’s assertion that the hurricanes are “nature’s wrath” for Donald Trump has received little attention.
