Episode 69: We Didn't Start the Fire
Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.
Amity: Fires are burning through Southern California. We don’t know how they started. Arson, fireworks, and unauthorized camping are potential causes. Driven on by hundred mile an hour winds, these fires quickly spread and devoured entire neighborhoods.
There are currently three remaining active fire incidents remaining: Palisades, Eaton, and Auto with the latter being 100% contained. Over forty thousand acres have been burned. The Eaton fire has produced the largest number of fatalities.
While the evacuated homeowners watch their homes reduced to ash, conservative politicians and commentators lay blame for the severity of the damage on California's “woke” policies. The suggestion being that in an effort to create a safe, inclusive environment for emergency services workers, incompetent people were hired for quotas and media appearances rather than merit. This from the same people supporting the wildly inadequate and unqualified choices of the current president elect.
Beyond that there are outright lies congruent with conservative fantasies about the inability to stop the blaze. Blame is laid on Native Americans, the tiny Delta Smelt fish, and homosexuality.
A few have even gone further, claiming that this is a divine punishment for the excesses and abuses of the entertainment industry and the moral values it spreads in the media.
Lemuel: The fires in Southern California are not God’s retribution at a center of sin and vice. You can find examples in the Bible of God taking action against countries and kingdoms. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah provides an interesting example. Here the twin cities of the plain are to be destroyed for their population’s indifference to suffering, their misuse of prosperity, and mistreatment of foreigners seeking shelter for the night. These things are emphasized in Ezekiel 16:49
“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
Even the Old Testament God was reluctant to destroy them. The Bible mentions a divine envoy being sent to investigate Sodom thoroughly before assigning destruction. Even then, God consults with his friend Abraham before making this decision. This is related in Genesis 18: 20-33.
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[b]
23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Amity: The city of Los Angeles is not represented solely by an entertainment industry. Overall the city is very religious, with 1,700 Christian churches, 202 jewish synagogues, 145 Buddhist temples, and 48 mosques.
The Los Angeles Diocese is the largest in the United States, with nearly five million members. There are two hundred and eighty Catholic parishes in the Los Angeles area. One hundred and fifty four Methodist churches. Five hundred and seventeen Baptist churches. Sixty five percent of the city claims Christianity as their faith.
Lemuel: The fiercest and most wrathful interpretation of God is reluctant to bring punishment on his children, even when the deserve it. The seventy-five thousand persons displaced by the fire crisis are victims of an unforeseen disaster.