Note by Hurricane Sandy Survivor Mike
Amid the destruction and death caused by Hurricane Sandy there are stories of hope and redemption. A young man named Mike, washed out into the bay from his home on the Jersey Shore, managed to make his way back to shore and the shelter of a neighboring home. There, in the dark, he wrote a desperate note asking anyone who found it to “tell my dad I love him,” and ending with the words “God all mighty help me.” Unlike over 100 other victims of Hurricane Sandy, Mike survived. He was reunited with his father. For Mike, God was a source of hope in the midst of a terrible tragedy and ordeal.
But already the voices have started. Already, fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other clerics are calling Hurricane Sandy God’s justice and God’s punishment on the wicked people of New York, New Jersey, and New England.
It’s the same as after every tragedy and natural disaster. While hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people suffer and die, there are those who, instead of seeing God’s mercy and God’s help in the midst of human suffering, see only God’s wrath and God’s judgment upon those whom they believe God has condemned.
For more on punishment vs. mercy, please click here to read on.
