Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Superstorm Sandy: Election Catalyst for Obama in an Act of God

I grew increasingly worried as I watched the approach of Superstorm Sandy toward the Eastern Seaboard last week--and not just for the safety of those in its path. Until the hurricane started monopolizing the newswaves, serious accusations about the president's role dealing with the Libya embassy terror attacks were gaining huge traction, but with the storm, God flipped the course of the election.

Fox news had previously featured nearly continuous coverage of serious issues calling into question the president's handling and spinning of a premeditated 9-11 Anniversary terrorist attack that left four Americans dead. Hillary Clinton's insistence immediately that the attack was a spontaneous protest of a YouTube video quickly was discredited as information surfaced about real-time viewing of the hours-long terrorist assault in the White House situation room. The executive deception aimed to squelch evidence of the president's incompetence in the embassy incident (and by implication any urgent foreign affairs). The truth of a premeditated, organized attack would destroy Obama's oft-asserted campaign boast that "al Qaeda is on the run!"  Its revelation could have Watergate-like effects, showing him complicit in concealing a major, deadly event. And as many note, nobody died in Watergate, the cover-up of a break-in to steal documents that led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.

But with Sandy's threat, the demise of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others was swept aside. As the swirls on the weather map moved closer, the evacuation of thousands in the most populated areas of New York and New Jersey naturally overtook the airwaves.
With the touchdown of the hurricane and its attendant death and destruction, as well as the loss of utilities for cities that inconvenienced and even imperiled many additional thousands, the president gained the opportunity to step forward into the limelight non-stop. I don't own a TV, but imagined ceaseless coverage of a savior-president lifting muck-encrusted children from car rooftops and rescue rowboats.

Even my fantasies were surpassed by the over-the-top praise Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey lavished on Pres. Obama during his near-immediate damage-viewing excursion: “the President has been all over this and he deserves great credit.” He said Obama's response had been "outstanding," despite the fact that half a million citizens remain without power and gasoline is rationed a week following the governor's kudos.

After viewing tonight's results, my husband told me of exit polls that asked the role President Obama's handling of Superstorm Sandy had in voter's decisions: "About four voters in 10 say Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy was important in their vote (42 percent,)" notes Fox News, "and they backed the president by a better than two-to-one margin. Fifteen percent said it was the 'most important' factor in their vote."

The storm was an Act of God. No political strategist planned it, and yet none could have invented a better boost for Obama's reputation and aid to his success. It was as if God was speaking in favor of Barack Obama's re-election, or perhaps commenting on the behavior of those involved in the campaign.

It's a Jewish belief that God helps those go in the direction they truly want to pursue. If one wishes to pursue good, he receives help from Heaven; if his desire is toward evil, his path that way is smoothed.  I don't really know what God had in mind in bringing Superstorm Sandy at that very time and place, but I know it conveys a message, and last night's election results spur our urgent need to decipher its content.

8 comments:

  1. Makes me think of the time the Israelites spent in the wilderness. God fed them daily, but it wasn't enough. So He gave them the meat they craved, but also brought His judgement on them. Just like the Israelites, our country is full of stiff-necked people, rejecting God, but expecting His blessings. He's giving them what they want, but they ain't gonna like it.

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  2. Interestingly, the name "Barack" means "lightning" (the kind in a storm) in Hebrew. I think you're right, Kim; your comment suggests we might consider the change in values that brought approval of gay marriage in four states, after consistent rejection previously.

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  3. Interesting Jewish belief, though not different than a Mormon belief: we have something similar, in that you can ask God for help and receive it -- even to your condemnation. I saw this as Mitt Romney's trial of Abraham. He was willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, (even at the peril of his life) but for some reason, God has intervened and not required it. Yet I know Romney had his full heart in this.

    At least Mormons are off the cult list. And some people of faith have a bond. But I am sad for our country.

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  4. Diane, you may be familiar with this New Testament Scripture from Romans 1:18-32. I believe we are witnessing this very judgement right now in our country, what with the rise in immorality coinciding with the rise in atheism.

    18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

    19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

    20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

    21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

    22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

    23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

    24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

    25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

    26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

    27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

    28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

    29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

    30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;

    31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

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  5. What I find interesting is the inability of conservatives to look objectively at their own actions. Now, admittedly, that is a shortcoming shared by both sides of the political spectrum however it is institutionalized by the Republicans even to the extent of punishing its members for engaging in any kind of introspection. Jon Stewart pretty much nailed it this week when he said, "the party of personal responsibility is now trying to find someone to blame". If Romans is correct, your god must not like you guys very much.

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  6. Yes, lots of blaming going on. We were all stunned by Obama's win. Now Republicans are trying to figure out why it happened. A perfectly normal response. And as humans we want to assess blame because it helps us cope, I guess. It's wrong, but that's how humans behave, on all sides of the political spectrum. It started in the Garden of Eden. It hasn't let up since. Now if we could all just get past this and take responsibility, that would be awesome. But easier said than done.

    Btw, I don't see Romney's loss as God not liking us. I see it as God giving a childish nation what it wants: a president who wants to give us the free stuff we crave and all the immorality we desire. The Democratic Party is the one to do the job. But there will be consequences. And we'll all suffer for it.

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  7. Just as God actively 'works', so does His 'enemy' who endeavors to work against the will of God. But this enemy can only do so permissively. Has God removed His hand from this great nation or is it the beginning of was is 'inevitable' according to the prophesies given to us in the old Testament and those revelations given in the final book of the new testament. In the words of Bob Dillon, "The times they are a changin'".

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  8. Sorry I didn't read your fine column at the time, Diane, but after Michael mentioned it on the show last week I looked it up-and you're not gonna like it, but I think I know what God was doing with the storm. Perhaps. But be warned: I'm gonna sound horribly cynical and negative. Because I have "written off" the voting plurality of Americans after Obama's first victory, I told my friends for a year and a half BEFORE the 2012 election that the only question to me was whether God was, basically, "finished" with America or not. (You guess which result means what.) Now I doubt many of my fellow Christians would agree with me. After all, American Christians are probably only a few percentage points less narcissistic than their non-Christian counterparts (like they are in virtually every other "sinful" statistic poll you hear about). But I read in the story of the Exodus, chapter 14, that it was TOTALLY God's idea to tell Moses to turn the people around, so Pharaoh would come after them. Now why would God do this? Because Pharaoh had been found wanting on God's scales (if I may steal from another Old Testament story-the handwriting on the wall) and God was determined to make an END of Pharaoh and his whole army. It was God's plot from start to finish. Read it for yourself. Reminds me of a famous quote from a Billy Graham(?) sermon from probably 40 years ago now which goes something like this: If God doesn't judge San Francisco (or was it America?), he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah! Now, I'm not singling out any particular sin, here. I'm just making the point that God is not mocked. Just before the Flood of Noah's day, scripture describes the world as being full of violence. I wonder how many were murdered in Chicago during the hours that the jury was deliberating George Zimmerman's guilt this weekend-which we'll never hear about because it doesn't fit the agenda. All our society's wickedness at every turn has become too much for me to bear, so consequently, I can't stomach much politics any more. My once all-day-every-day habit of talk radio has diminished to a trickle. I rarely need to hear the news and I might tear the radio out of my dash and throw it through my car window if I have to hear Barak Obama or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi again. Let the liars keep on lying. No one on Earth can stop them, nor do they need their sound turned up to know those politicians (among others) are lying to advance their political agenda and have no fear of consequences. But God is NOT mocked. He can and will make an end someday, and I believe it might be very soon. Americans don't think divine retribution could happen to us, but I know God isn't an American and he doesn't make exceptions for ANYONE. So until such time as he sees fit to execute his final plan, I'll just devote my time to the few who still love the truth. Maybe they're read this and be encouraged to forsake their futile, eternally insignificant endeavors for more godly ones. Till then, I'm keeping a bag of marshmallows ready, metaphorically speaking-for when the fire falls. 'Cuz I WILL be there, cheering God on! If the foundations are destroyed, what (else) can the righteous do?

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