Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone.
Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm Zach Weihrauch.
And in today's episode, we're talking about the blame game.
And we're asking the question, are natural disasters political?

Now this is prompted by an article I read in The Atlantic about how the Texas flood blame game is a distraction.
But, actually, I read quite a few articles over the past week taking different sides on this issue.
It goes like this.
As you know, there's been a massive flood in a certain region of Texas.
The Guadalupe River on July 4 of all days, surged over 37 feet beyond its normal level.

As of the time of this recording, a hundred and thirty-two people are dead with another hundred and fifty missing, and it's believed probably that those missing are also going to be confirmed dead, which means over two hundred and fifty or so people will have lost their lives because of this flood.
Now this has kick started, not surprisingly in our culture, a wave of blame shifting, with some people blaming the Trump administration and cuts they've made, conservatives blaming liberals about cuts that they've made, the national weather service is being blamed, and the Texas flood system is being blamed.
A lot of blame is going around.
And in that particular article I read in The Atlantic, the author makes the point that this actually is just causing us to not focus on what really matters, which is that disasters are more often than not the result of layers of failures.
And, of course, natural causes.

I mean, there are some things that conspire together to form something like this.
There are regions of the world that are predisposed to flooding or wildfires.
And sometimes hindsight is the only way you're able to go, hey, that system didn't work or that repair that we had put off should have been done.

And in fact, this particular area of Texas is called Flash Flood Alley, and that's because it's geographically vulnerable to rapid flooding.
In fact, there were massive floods like this in this area in 1932 and in 1987.
So in other words, in a very crass and scientific way, this region was due for another major flood.
The problem is with the rise of social media and everyone feeling like they're entitled to an opinion that they should share, you also see conspiracy theories coming out and different people arguing that certain people will lead us into future tragedies.
How should we think about this as Christians?

When something like a flood or a wildfire or a hurricane or some kind of disaster happens, should we participate in the blame game?
Well, I wanna argue that we shouldn't.
And my argument goes a little bit like this.
First, blame shifting is fundamentally about dividing us.
In the wake of a tragedy, pointing the finger is making sure that we know those people are the problem and I am not.

But actually, the Bible calls us not to worry about whose fault it is as much as to care for those who are hurting.
Galatians 6 says to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
I think about the parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus tells where the man is robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road.
When the Samaritan finds him, his fundamental concern isn't who did this or even what policies need to be changed to avoid this.
It's not that those questions don't matter, but what matters the most is picking up the guy off the side of the road and making sure he gets healthy again.

Our overwhelming desire right now should be to care for those who are hurting.
I can tell you right now, if you're in Texas looking for a missing family member, you're not worried about whose fault it is.
Not yet.
You're worried about where your family member is or how you're gonna face life without them.
Christians should have hearts that are breaking for the hurting, not fingers that are looking for who to point at to blame.

The other thing is disasters, biblically speaking, are not always someone's fault.
In John 9, Jesus' disciples point to a man who was born blind, and they ask him, whose fault is that?
Is that the parent's fault or is that his?
And Jesus says, at least in that guy's case, that it is neither his fault or his parent's fault.
It is belonging to the purposes of God.

In other words, Jesus says, hey.
God is doing something in the world that is bigger than even you can imagine.
Jesus is saying, no matter who you point the finger at for this man's blindness, you're wrong.
God has purposes beyond your finger pointing, and that means that there are things that happen in the world that are not directly attributable to human error even though we have this innate desire to blame someone.
Look.

The truth is that neglecting preparedness is bad, and not protecting the vulnerable is a problem.
Jesus says in Matthew 25 that whatever we do for the least of these is what we've done for him.
We should have conversations about the best way to protect people, the best way to respond in crisis.
That's just not what we should be talking about first.
It breaks my heart as a country that when things like this happen, we don't naturally bind together and work together to care for those that are hurting.

It should be that we're shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm before we're pointing fingers at each other, talking about who is to blame.
And I'll tell you what else.
Spreading misinformation is sin.
Like, the book of Ephesians says that we are to speak the truth in love.
When our officials are pointing fingers at other people, when they're telling us that the Texas flood is the Republicans' fault or the Democrats' fault, conservatives or liberals, and we join in, we are just as much a problem as they are.

Instead, what we should be telling our leaders is stop telling me who's to blame and start telling me what we're doing to help those that are hurting.
When we jump to blame instead of care, when we jump to finger pointing instead of lifting up, we are revealing the sin sickness of our own souls and of our country.
Christians, let's be better.
Let's want better.
Let's have hearts that are breaking, not fingers that are pointing.

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