God's Judgment
After the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo mused, "I think it is tembatsu (divine punishment)" presumably for the Japanese being tainted with egoism and populism . Meanwhile, a Russian Orthodox priest, Alexandr Shumsky, wrote (use Google Translate to read an English translation) that the catastrophe must be a judgment of God, significant as occurring during Lent, for the technological progress toward a new world order and for an offense some in Japan caused against the motherland of Russia. A recent poll showed that while 56% of Americans believe God is in control of everything, 38% of Americans responded that natural disasters are a sign from God with 29% believing that such disasters could be divine punishment. Among white evangelicals, 53% believed that God punishes nations for the sins of its citizens. I've recently been reading some sections in the Book of Mormon that have some relevance to this issue. This post p