{"id":1578,"date":"2009-08-21T08:45:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T13:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/08\/who-will-call-out-john-piper\/"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:04:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:04:24","slug":"who-will-call-out-john-piper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/08\/21\/who-will-call-out-john-piper\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will Call Out John Piper?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desiringgod.org\/Blog\/1965_the_tornado_the_lutherans_and_homosexuality\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">blamed a small tornado<\/a> that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a steeple on Central Lutheran Church on the fact that the ELCA delegate were down the street discussing whether to welcome practicing homosexuals into the clergy. He even implies in his post that the lack of warning by the National Weather Service shows that God cooked up this twister with <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">her<\/span> his pinky at the last minute.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this is not new territory for Pastor Piper. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desiringgod.org\/blog\/posts\/putting-my-daughter-to-bed-two-hours-after-the-bridge-collapsed\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">He made similar claims to know the Divine Mind after the Minneapolis bridge collapse<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desiringgod.org\/resource-library\/taste-see-articles\/tsunami-sovereignty-and-mercy\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Asian tsunami<\/a>, and other times. And, as might be expected, Piper has been gently questioned by <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/08\/the-minneapolis-tornado-and-jo.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Scot<\/a>, excoriated by <a href=\"http:\/\/pomomusings.com\/2009\/08\/20\/john-piper\/#more-4713\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Adam<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/notes-from-offcenter.com\/2009\/08\/20\/the-tornado-to-stop-the-gays\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Drew<\/a>, and others, and brilliantly satirized by <a href=\"http:\/\/jenellparis.blogspot.com\/2009\/08\/toddler-discharge-and-humidity-john.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jenell<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br>\nAll of this is to be expected. Piper\u2019s twisted logic that interprets some natural phenomenon as authored by God to scare sinners while completely ignoring others shocks us, I think, because he otherwise seems like a pretty reasonable fellow.\u00a0 For words like that to come from bombasts like Falwell and Robertson is to be expected, but Piper somehow seems above that.<\/p>\n<p>But he keeps doing it, so we should no longer be surprised. It\u2019s part of his schtick.<\/p>\n<p>My question is this: <strong>Where is <em>Christianity Today<\/em>?<\/strong> Where is Tim Keller? Where are the presidents of Dallas Seminary or Wheaton College? Where is J.I. Packer, Collin Hansen, or Darrell Bock?<\/p>\n<p>These people and institutions will gladly editorialize against liberals and emergents, happily write editorials against open theists or pro-choice Christians. But will they call out John Piper?<\/p>\n<p><em>Christianity Today<\/em> mentioned Piper\u2019s post in an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2009\/augustweb-only\/133.41.0.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">online news piece<\/a> about the the ELCA convention. And I can guess, knowing some of them, that they find Piper\u2019s interpretation of the whirlwind something between laughable and odious.\u00a0 <strong>But will they, or anyone in the Evangelical intelligentsia, finally say that John Piper is outside of mainstream evangelicalism?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I doubt it.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Want to hear another side of Christianity? Register today for <a href=\"http:\/\/christianity21.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christianity21<\/a>!)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and blamed a small tornado that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a steeple on Central Lutheran Church on the fact that the ELCA delegate were down the street discussing whether to welcome practicing homosexuals into the clergy. He even implies in his post that the lack [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Will Call Out John Piper?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and blamed a small tornado that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/08\/21\/who-will-call-out-john-piper\/\" \/>\n<meta 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