This subject comes up from time to time. It comes up at American Catholic in this post Is Collective Punishment Always Wrong? Be sure to read the comments where the discussion really gets going.
My answer is yes. Now I am not going to get into specifics because well we can't that with a certainty.
However we do seem to have a Catholic Belief in Patrons and Patroness Saints of Nations in which we ask their intercession and blessings. So if you believe we can get blessings it seems there is a flip side to that.
Every time something awful happens, there are religionists who pronounce that it is punishment from God. The latest example is the letter to Governor Jindal from the Westboro/Phelps wackos. But it often is people who have more of a following, and more credibility who are trying to speak for God is these matters.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord, Jesus of Nazareth Himself, tells us what to think about this sort of thing in Luke, chapter 13, verses 1 thru 5.
When God punished the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, He first warned them of His judgement through a Prophet, and they were given the opportunity to repent. A true Prophet would have foretold a tragedy like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and he would have said exactly who needs to repent, exactly what sin of which they need to repent, and exactly what will happen if they fail to repent. If the prophecy does not come true exactly as he says, then he is a false prophet, or just a crackpot. These religionists, like Pat Robertson, always saying that God is punishing America when the hurricanes destroy the coast, or the fires, floods, earthquakes, etc. happen, are just trying to manipulate people.
If any of them can speak for God, let them prophesy, and let us see if their prophecy is true or false.
I do agree with you that too much is to be said to be caused by God's judgment. I mean in the end in most cases we have no idea. So like I am very skeptical
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