God\u2019s Judgments<\/a><\/em>, takes on this theme, takes on Christians for their lack of nerve, critiques \u201cworldview thinking\u201d (more later), and proposes a Christian theory. We\u2019ll look at this book for awhile.
\nI begin with an admission. 9\/11 shook me and I gave a response to a small audience at NPU about \u201cGod\u2019s presence in his seeming absence\u201d as we sought answers from under the rubble. I stated in my classes that OT prophets would \u201cknow\u201d what was going on; I didn\u2019t. I also yearned \u2014 and still yearn \u2014 for discernment or a method for knowing how to make meaning of historical events like this. I wanted \u2014 maybe you did too \u2014 a prophet to stand up and tell us what God was doing, to make meaning out of a horrible event.
\nI joined left, right, and center in being repulsed by the quick responses of Falwell and Robertson.
\nBut, if we believe God is in control, what can we know? That is the question Keillor asks. Are we afraid to press to the conclusion that our theological logic leads? Do our humility that we might be wrong and the politically-insensitive reality or public discourse combine to silence the Church? Do they eviscerate from the Church a conviction that the Christian faith \u2014 with its Old Testament and New Testament sense of history \u2014 involves a philosophy of history? Are we surrendering our concept God is control?
\nKeillor, in three quick chps, shows that the media had theories but none of them had to do with God, that right-wingers and left-wingers as well as centrists were quite confidently united in the view that 9\/11 was not a judgment from God, and that the Christian worldview (next week) actually prevents Christians from entering into the biblical sense of God\u2019s control of history and the Christian\u2019s confidence to come to terms, by faith, with what God is doing in history.
\nThe conservative patriot sees markets and military as consistent with God\u2019s design for the USA and that \u201cprophetic cries of judgment\u201d are unacceptable because they are \u201cunpatriotic\u201d (41).
\nCentrists fear the use of exclusivist religious language will destroy the conversation of democracy.
\nLeftists, with \u201cits version of the Enlightenment utopian project\u201d seek \u201ca people, idea or force to being justice to history: the proletariat, socialism, science, revolution, diversity, multiculturalism\u201d (43).
\nKeillor\u2019s question is this one: Why was the nation attacked? He does not seek to answer why specific individuals were in the symbols that the attackers struck.
\nThere has been a yearning for a book like this one to be written; no one seems to want to write it; will anyone agree with it?
\nNB: I\u2019ve read two chps and the spine has already snapped and pages have begun to fall out; I hope the arguments are more stable.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s my simple contention: if you believe God is in control of all, then you are driven to think either (1) that catastrophes are divine judgments or (2) that God has surrendered \u201ccontrol\u201d to cosmic or human forces. When 9\/11 occurred, many of us watched with horror, pondered, and prayed, but very few of us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\n
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