Does God Hate Queensland?  

or New Zealand, Chile or Japan?  

The journalist sounded conflicted as she asked me the question. It was meant as a joke – gallows humour as the nation watched cyclone Yasi bear down on the north coast. It was meant partly as bait too. She was half hoping for one of those religious-nutter quotes about God’s judgement on some pet abomination (usually to do with sex). A headline is a headline, after all.

But there was also sincerity to her question. She’d been thinking about it. They’d been talking it over in the newsroom and she’d been delegated to put the question to me. Over the space of a few months our corner of the world has been devastated by storms, floods, fire, and earthquakes of Biblical, even apocalyptic proportions. You’re a religious person. You believe in God. How do you make sense of this catastrophic summer in Australia and New Zealand?

Which Christian leader hasn’t been asked something like that this summer? Which Christians haven’t asked it of themselves? It’s an excellent theological conversation starter and, for a while in the early modern period, theologians just loved being asked about it.