We could do an empirical study, I suppose, to check your theory that God sends hurricanes and earthquakes and other natural disasters to smite those places where the people have turned away from what you proclaim to be God's way. All we'd have to do is set up two independent sets of judges, one evaluating nations and communities according to your standards of what God rewards and punishes, and another to comb through the records of natural disasters.
I can't claim to have done it, but I would bet my fortune against yours (Ha!, great bet for me, in view of which of us has really been serving Mammon! But that's another story.) that no such correlation is to be found. In any event, I don't think that any natural calamity has yet befallen that American Gemorrah in Pennsylvania where the Court found that the teaching of Intelligent Design runs counter to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against any government "establishment of religion."
But as I said, you are right that nations do get punished for their sins. We can see this now with the price America is paying for entrusting the power of the presidency to the likes of these Bushites.
This regime has been conducting a veritable exhibition of many of the sins most deeply condemned not only by the Bible but also by the wisdom of the classical world.
**They have refused to bow before the law.
**They have killed and stolen.
**They have been filled with hubris, and have over-reached.
**They have dishonored the truth.
**They have been indifferent to the plight of the poor, and have served instead the rich and mighty.
**They have not loved their enemies, let alone their neighbors.
**They have not walked humbly, but have swaggered and strutted.
**They have not feared the Lord, nor bowed to any authority higher than themselves, including the Constitution.
And tens of millions of Americans have all the while exalted these leaders.
