With Hurricane Dorian threatening the Florida coast, some Florida Christians gathered at the Jacksonville Beach pier to battle back the storm with prayer.
Two years ago they did the same thing in the same place when Hurricane Irma was heading toward Florida, but it didn’t actually work because the city of Jacksonville took around $85 million in damage that included $40 million for hauling away all the debris, $15.3 million for emergency response operations, and $16.6 million to replace dunes and berms.
In 2016, as Hurricane Matthew headed their way, no one gathered to pray, and the total for the debris removal, berm and dune replacement, and emergency response only came to $45 million.
Although I respect people’s faith in the power of prayer, I do have one problem with this use of it as, in the event the storm does change course and misses Jacksonville, that would mean it has to come down on other people somewhere else.
It seems these people are being unchristian by asking God to spare them without any feelings about those who will be hit.
It reminds me of those people I saw in interviews after tornadoes who praised God for sparing them and their families because of His love for them, while bodies were being retrieved from the damage around them.