Not long after the Boston bombings a friend of mine was seeking theological wisdom to help process the attack. When we both realized that neither her rabbi nor my minister had offered anything especially helpful, I suggested that she watch President Obama's comments on YouTube. They were both thoughtful and profound, I told her.
I was reminded of this conversation when I listened to the president's response this week to the tornado in Oklahoma. Once again, he offered spiritual solace not only to those directly involved but to all of us in the midst of tragedy. Has he defined a new role for the presidency?
If so, he's good at it--which may account in part for his steady approval ratings. His unusual equanimity rarely gives way. That he can speak of the unspeakable time and again defuses some of the terror that accompanies these events.
Minister in Chief is probably not listed in the president's job description. But this work done well makes all the difference.
Showing posts with label Tornadoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tornadoes. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The End of the World
I laughed (along with lots of people) at Harold Camping's apocalyptic prediction this week. On Sunday afternoon I told my family I would be leaving them soon, and at 6:00 that night--when the rapture was supposed to start--I said, "I feel like I'm floating." The jokes about these supposed ends of the world are themselves endless.
But then on Tuesday The New York Times ran two articles together: one on Camping's revised prediction that both the rapture and the world's end will arrive now on October 21, and one on the aftermath of the Joplin tornado--the search for the living and the dead. In reading the articles I realized that the monster tornado hit Joplin around the same time that Camping's saved souls were supposed to be ascending to heaven. At around the same time that the rest of us would begin our hell on earth.
Which is exactly what happened in Joplin, Missouri.
We don't need firebrand preachers and Bible-waving soothsayers to remind us that the end of the world arrives every day for someone somewhere on the globe. If we forget, we're quickly reminded by storms or by illness or by death.
If the rapture ever comes, it will surely take all of us for none of us deserves the suffering we endure. It's part of being human.
But then on Tuesday The New York Times ran two articles together: one on Camping's revised prediction that both the rapture and the world's end will arrive now on October 21, and one on the aftermath of the Joplin tornado--the search for the living and the dead. In reading the articles I realized that the monster tornado hit Joplin around the same time that Camping's saved souls were supposed to be ascending to heaven. At around the same time that the rest of us would begin our hell on earth.
Which is exactly what happened in Joplin, Missouri.
We don't need firebrand preachers and Bible-waving soothsayers to remind us that the end of the world arrives every day for someone somewhere on the globe. If we forget, we're quickly reminded by storms or by illness or by death.
If the rapture ever comes, it will surely take all of us for none of us deserves the suffering we endure. It's part of being human.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
