Piper and the Bridge

Reading one of "those" web sites today I found severe criticism of Doug Pagitt of Solomons Porch because in a podcast interview he described the following comment in this article by John Piper as "medieval" ... the background is Piper is having a conversation with his daughter about the collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis on August the 1st, at the time of writing Piper says that...

Most of us who minister at the church cross this bridge several times a week. At this point I don’t know if any staff was on the bridge. Desiring God offices are about a mile from the bridge. There are no firm facts at this point about the total number of injuries and fatalities.

Piper reports  a section of the conversation at bed-time with his 11 year old daughter as going like this...

Talitha said, “Maybe he [God] let it fall because he wanted all the people of Minneapolis to fear him.” “Yes, Talitha,” I said, “I am sure that is one of the reasons God let the bridge fall.”

Now the author of the Web site says that Piper is stating "right Christian belief" and that Pagitts critique of it as "medieval" proves that he, Pagitt is "no genuine Christian pastor."  Now having spent a week with Doug I have my opinions on him and I'm sure if people have read his books and/or met him in person they/you will have formed your own opinion... but, TBH I, like Doug, am stunned that anyone, let alone someone as public and well known as John Piper would a) teach an 11 year old (especially at Bedtime) that God allows innocent (possibly even Godly people with whom Piper himself ministers) to die on order to make people fear him! and b) that if in the midst of a tragedy he found himself saying the above, that he would then write it up in an article about the event!  "Medieval" seems quite an apt description to me!

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church: Spirituality: theology

Comments

[Nicholas]

I agree, quite midieval. . . Thanks for the support.