Doug Miller's on a tear, as evidenced by his recent post on Ray Nagin's public foolishness: New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S.

Here's Nagin, from the source Associated Press article:

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country."

"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans — the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

I applaud Nagin for attempting to tie the Creator's anger to our presence in Iraq. While misguided, his heart is in the right place. As much as I detest the nonsense of racial separatism, I also know Nagin's impulse is for good in his statements about black America and rebuilding a "chocolate" New Orleans above.

Unfortunately, any benefit which might have accrued from his statements is destroyed by the cognitive dissonance involved in selectively divining the One True God's direct intervention in human affairs whilst simultaneously believing anything you do is of your own free will. It just doesn't work that way, Ray. That's pure human egotism wishing for special attention from The Lord. Let's place the blame right where it belongs: poor planning by people, financial concerns trumping a populace's continued well-being, lack of enabling education and, yes, the belief that, come what may, "God will provide." God didn't provide, so now you blame us for invoking God's wrath when the honest answers are plainly writ in the society around you?

Posit an omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent God, the kind of God most Christians believe in, elsewise they're not really Christian. The kind of God who has a hand in "the fall of every sparrow" and with a Plan for everyone.

If you believe God sends hurricanes because he is angry with our actions, then you believe God does not control our actions. You believe we do, indeed, possess free will and may take actions God does not desire.

If we may take actions God does not desire, then God has no power over us.

By believing God sends hurricanes to the evil, or smites Israeli Prime Ministers for remaking the borders of "his land," you actually believe God is not omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Because if God is so high and mighty, and the universe and everything in it does proceed according to His design, then it is not possible for you or anyone else to do anything other than His will according to His plan.

If all you can do is His will, why should He be angry with you?