Seeing God's deeds in tornadoes' wake
As students and faculty at a Southern Baptist university clean up, they also ponder what the event means in a theological sense.
JACKSON, Tenn. -- God is not an abstraction at Union University. Here, business classes might begin with a prayer. Biology students are encouraged to take creationism as seriously as they do evolution.
So what does it say about the nature of God that the campus was shredded this week by a barrage of tornadoes? What does it say that no lives were lost, despite $40 million in damage?
Greg Thornbury is relishing the opportunity to explore those questions when his students return to this Southern Baptist campus, perhaps in the next few weeks. Thornbury, dean of Union's school of Christian studies, said he plans to make the disaster -- and the response to it -- a catalyst for student discussions about responding through faith, and the opaque and sometimes baffling motives of God.
"If we didn't, we'd have blown it," Thornbury said Thursday, standing on the squishy carpet of the religious studies library. "We're preparing people to become teachers of God's word, to be missionaries, to be the leaders of relief organizations."
As students returned to the west Tennessee campus to identify their smashed and overturned cars -- about 1,000 had been wrecked by Tuesday's winds -- they marveled at the scope of the damage. All but one of Union's 33 buildings had been hit; some were falling to pieces.
They wondered how anyone managed to survive, and they wrestled aloud with the role their God may have played in it all.
"Basically, I know God kept everyone at this school safe," said Amber Campagna, an 18-year-old freshman. "I don't know why God let it happen -- but I really believe he was testing every student here."
Crediting good fortune to providence is not uncommon at Union. When the $20-million science building was dedicated last year, the main donor, Roy L. White, said: "I think God has got his hand on Union University."
But Thornbury, a clean-cut, smiling presence in glasses and a wind-breaker, warned that guessing the mind of God is a tricky proposition for humans. To make his point, he quoted from Deuteronomy: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God."
God's motive for destroying the school, he said, "is probably in the realm of the things that belong to the Lord. . . . But what we can say is, look at the solidarity here. Why do we have people from the whole country rallying around this cause? I think that says something about what God has revealed to us."
