Pinata Theology: Ignore the Issue and Swing at the Distraction - What Piper Has Taught Us About the Church

Perhaps people are aware of the recent firestorm in the theological and Christan blogosphere regarding John Piper's comments about the tornado that struck a church where the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) was meeting. The ELCA was discussing and debating the issue of homosexuality among their clergy. At the end of the discussion/debate, they chose to allow homosexuals to be ordained in their denomination. The firestorm has come, not regarding the ELCA decision, but regarding what John Piper, well-known author and pastor, said in response to the tornado that struck the building:

The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.

The reactions to Piper's words have been striking. Piper is being compared to a Pat Robertson who repeatedly warns of coming natural disaster upon those who vote against teaching intelligent design in school and destruction for those who promote immorality. Perhaps some of the strongest language has come from Emergent Village leader Tony Jones who although champions civility, inclusivism, openness, and ambiguity, is rather harsh, closed-minded, hateful, and straight-to-the-point:

So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and blamed a small tornado that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a steeple on Central Lutheran Church on the fact that the ELCA delegate were down the street discussing whether to welcome practicing homosexuals into the clergy. He even implies in his post that the lack of warning by the National Weather Service shows that God cooked up this twister with her his pinky at the last minute . . .

My question is this: Where is Christianity Today? Where is Tim Keller? Where are the presidents of Dallas Seminary or Wheaton College? Where is J.I. Packer, Collin Hansen, or Darrell Bock?

These people and institutions will gladly editorialize against liberals and emergents, happily write editorials against open theists or pro-choice Christians. But will they call out John Piper?

Christianity Today mentioned Piper's post in an online news piece about the the ELCA convention. And I can guess, knowing some of them, that they find Piper's interpretation of the whirlwind something between laughable and odious. But will they, or anyone in the Evangelical intelligentsia, finally say that John Piper is outside of mainstream evangelicalism?

I doubt it.

Where is postmodern tolerance when you need it? I will not defend or attack Piper and his comments, for that is not the purpose of this post. I will say that the one quote given above and used by opponents of Piper is only one small paragraph in Piper's entire article. But nonetheless, the words, by themselves, do seem rather shocking and Pat Robertson-ish. Since the firestorm from blogosphere, especially among Emergents, Piper has responded explaining what he was trying to say:

Three years ago God sent the tornado of cancer into my life. It split the steeple of my health and shredded the tents of my sexual life. I wrote an article to myself: Don’t Waste Your Cancer. It could have been titled: Don’t waste your tornado. God’s message to me in my tornado was essentially the same as to the ELCA in theirs . .

That is the message of every calamity (Luke 13:1-5). And every sunny day (Romans 2:4).

I said to myself three years ago: God’s design in the tornado of this cancer is “to deepen my love for Christ…and to wean me off the breast of the world.” It aims to make my besetting sins look less attractive than they ever have.

This tornado “is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination—all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack.” In other words, the cancer-tornado was a merciful rebuke to my worldliness and a timely thrust toward holiness.

This is the lesson that Luke 13:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, 4:17-18; 12:9-10, and many other texts imply for every tornado in any city, and any life, anywhere in the world. Only the details change.

My tornado was a call to repentance. Yours will be too. But that is not Satan’s design. Only God’s. Satan’s design is that you approve your sin. God’s is that you let him forgive it and overcome it.

To me, this clears things up a little bit, but don't expect the rants of persons like Jones to cease. Jones as a vendetta against Piper for reasons that go beyond his apparent declaration that God is judging the ELCA. Jones is the polar opposite of Piper theologically and stands contrary to everything that Piper believes in. In my opinion, Jones, and others like him, saw an easy opportunity to attack persons like Piper and took it.

At the end of the day, I think Dean Denny Burk of Boyce College has raised the most important issue. He writes:

What are we to make of all this? What concerns me most about Piper’s “evangelical” critics is that the direction of their outrage indicates that something is askew in their priorities. There appears to be little concern about the fact that an entire denomination has just taken a public stand against the Bible and 2,000 years of unanimous Christian teaching. There is scarcely a cross word about the fact that the ELCA Lutherans are walking away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, the critics are offended by Piper. Moreover, the offended have responded with what amounts to a lot of ugly mud-slinging—the very kind of stumbling-block to unbelievers that Emergents say they wish to avoid.

I have to say that I think Tony Jones and company and even Greg Boyd have not read Piper’s original article very charitably. Piper never claimed to account for all of God’s motives in this calamity, nor has Piper claimed the punishment of unfaithful Lutherans to be God’s singular motive in the Minneapolis storm. Those who read Piper in this way have missed the point.

Piper is merely applying Jesus’ words about calamities to a current calamity. Jesus did in fact teach that God uses seemingly random calamities to remind all of us of our need for repentance. That truth applies to John Piper’s cancer three years ago, it applies to Denny Burk’s car accident last November, and it applies to Lutherans meeting in Minneapolis this week. As Piper said in the original article, the warning applies to “all of us.” That truth should not be controversial among evangelicals. God help us that it is.

Burk is right. The real outrage isn't Piper's reflection on the events surrounding the ELCA, but the decision made by the ELCA itself. Rather than deal with the issue and what it says about their faith in the gospel, many have rather turned to Piper into a theological pinata. It is these sort of distractions that Emergents and Jesus-loving liberals claim to have moved beyond, and yet the minute they get the chance, they begin swinging at their next target.

The real issue here isn't Piper's comments, Jones and company's rants, but how the blogosphere has completely missed the point here. At least Piper understands the necessity of repentance as foundational to the gospel. Rather than speak of repentance of sin and condemning the actions taken by the ELCA, the theological left has chosen to keep swing at whoever they deem worthy or their bats.

What is really appalling is the complete lackadaisical attitude towards the gospel. While the gospel is being assault, persons like Jones couldn't care less. But then again, what else should we expect. By categorically denying the gospel itself, as Jones and others like him have, no wonder the only thing they find newsworthy here is what that modernistic, right-wing, Calvinistic baboon said about the tornado.

God help the future of the Church!

For More:

John Piper - The Tornado, The Lutherans, and Homosexuality

John Piper - Clarifying the Tornado

Denny Burk - A Second Tornado in Minneapolis

Tony Jones - Who Will Call Out John Piper?

Christianity Today - ELCA Assembly: Was God in Either Whirlwind?

Greg Boyd - Did God Send a Tornado to Warn the ELCA?

Scot McKnight - The Minneapolis Tornado and John Piper

The Pains Project - The Toddler, The Discharge, and The Humidity

Notes From the Center - the tornado to stop the "gays"