Haiti and the Church of God

If I were a schoolteacher, I’d probably hand out zeroes to some COG organizations because they did not complete the assignment. In addition, some of the others would receive either an ‘F’ or a ‘D’.

However, at least United Church of God posted a commentary the other day that I feel is important.  In “The Haitian Earthquake: Where Was God?”, Ron Kelley writes:

God does reveal Himself to mankind in the pages of the Bible. We need to read it and understand that God does have a grand master plan for all humanity. The prophet Isaiah begins to answer these questions for us in Isaiah 59:1: "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."

Some mistakenly think that this means that those affected by disaster must be more sinful than others. But Isaiah was describing all of humanity, as Jesus Christ made clear. In reference to the victims of disasters in His day, Jesus asked: "Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:4-5).

I point this out mostly to contrast with recent Pat Robertson remarks that Haiti made a pact with the Devil, and so they have been cursed ever since.  Over and over again, this rumor has persisted, yet when asked for proof, none exists.  That’s because the French basically made it up!  After all, who else would the “godly” French colonialists blame but Satan?

UCG also posted a video commentary that takes Pat Robertson to task on January 15, 2010 – Pat Robertson on Haiti: A Bible Fact Check, at the end of which UCG posts some responsible charities in which people can donate to in order to aid those in Haiti.

I applaud UCG for posting these.  Is this not a large part of I’ve been pounding away at for about 2 weeks now?  Notice they were not afraid to make a stand, and they were not afraid to point people to charitable organizations more equipped to deal with this particular disaster.

I should point out that the SDA Inter-American Division posted a link to the Haiti Catastrophe Fund on their home page.  Today, according to their Atlantic Union Conference, was declared a day of prayer and special collections for the victims.  You cannot tell me that there aren’t some of God’s people in that organization from what I’ve seen (some even observe the holy days, although some are vegetarian rather than distinguishing between clean and unclean meats).

So, what are the other COGs doing?  Be prepared to be severely disappointed.

• CGI doesn’t seem to have a news brief or similar, so no comment on the disaster at their site.

• News seems to be even less important on David C Pack’s site, as it is mostly an HWA museum.

• Church of God Faithful Flock (COG-FF) ditto.

• Ronald Weinland was busy yesterday posting about himself receiving more revelation.

• Mark Armstrong posted a personal on http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.shtml yesterday, about half of which is about the disaster in Haiti.  At the bottom is a “news stories” section with news links, one of which points to the UN relief effort.

• LCG posted a commentary in which they urged people to pray more fervently for God’s Kingdom to come quickly.

• Only today did PCG posted 2 paragraphs on Haiti, buried near the end of their The Week in Reviews.  I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to see how long it takes to find in comparison.

The louder they shout about centralized government, the less they do.  It does not matter if what you are doing is more efficient or not when it’s not the right thing.