Still in the Whirlwind

Over at CNN Belief Blog, Stephen Prothero (My Take: God No Longer in the Whirlwind) has an interesting piece, interesting especially in light of Michelle Bachman's recent comments in Florida claiming that the earthquake and now Hurricane Irene are a wake up call to the politicians in Washington. I would agree with the author who looks for rationale in science and explanations in tectonic plates, etc. Yet, being a Christian, I also believe that God has control over those tectonic plates, ocean currents, and air pressure. There is a secularized Christianity that looks for explanations to these events only in the scientific. I disagree. Yes they are related to the movement of natural phenomenon, yet what kind of a god is God if he has no control over these events - the name for this view is Deism: a god who is uninvolved and distant and who lets the world take care of itself. I find this god to be somewhat small and emasculated. The flip side are the vocal "conservative" Christians who open their mouths and sound like kooks. They rightly honor God as Lord of the wind and the waves but then pretend that they have a special access to him that the rest of us must respect (usually for a fee paid to their "ministry"). Interestingly enough, the Old Testament had a litmus test for those who pretended to speak for God; 100% accuracy. The penalty for a swing and a miss was death. (Deuteronomy 18:20) I wonder what the likes of our modern day prophets would think about that?