Offering comment or opinion during times of disaster or distress from a Christian perspective can result in pretty strong reactions.
I wrote the other day about the danger of claiming more knowledge than God reveals about why disasters happen.
The disaster in Queensland has largely been devoid of any invitations to prayer from civic leaders. In addition there seems to be some sensitivity to any specifically Christian references by leaders on the part of some commentators.
They may not know exactly what these Bible references mean in the particular context in which they are being used, but they know they don’t like them.
Steven McDonald considers issues like this in his post ‘God Sends Rain on the Just and on the Unjust’ at Cloud of Steam.
Yesterday, the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, a former trainee Roman Catholic priest, quoted Matthew 5:45…
There was a bit of comment about Mr Abbott using Biblical language, including that it was a “vengeful God quote“. The context here clearly shows that Mr Abbott was talking about how some people got flooded and some did not. If it seemed an odd quote, perhaps it would have been better to have quoted the whole thing…
Read the whole post here…
via Cloud of Steam.
mgpcpastor's blog 
The absence of references to prayer has been interesting. Substituting “thoughts” in its place seems to suggest that telepathy is a better option for a secular Australia!
Thanks for the link.
No sweat.
I watched a Presbyterian minister from Melbourne get absolutely creamed for a Facebook comment which observed that as bad as these disasters are they pale beside the coming judgment of God.
He got so smashed in the comments that he deleted the post.
Wisely, I think.