Guest Post by Morbo
A few months ago, signs advertising something called the “D.C. Festival” began appearing all over the Washington metro area. I was puzzled. The signs highlighted that the speaker would be Luis Palau but said little else. I know Palau is an evangelical television preacher — but the signs said nothing about this being a religious rally. In fact, they led one to believe that the free festival on the National Mall was merely a family fun day.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus advised his followers, “Do not hide your light under a bushel.” Christ is saying to be proud of your faith and don’t be afraid to share it. Palau decided not to take that advice. He seemed to want to trick people into attending an evangelical event where they would be hit with an alter call and a fundamentalist hard sell. (Of course the media did eventually report that the festival was evangelical in nature. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was also criticized for endorsing it and advising city residents to attend.)
God was apparently not amused at Palau’s stunt. The D.C. region had been suffering from a drought, but on Oct. 8, the first day of the festival, the skies opened up. It didn’t just rain, it poured. I’m talking biblical proportions here. The area experienced minor flooding and sporadic power outages.
Prior to the festival, Palau bragged that as many as 100,000 or more would attend. In fact, only about 5,000 hardy souls decided to brave the deluge. Several events had to be cancelled. Palau was flummoxed and told The Washington Post he could not understand the weather. After all, he had given God plenty of advance notice. The festival was in the works for two years.
The second day was overcast, cool but rain free. The Post estimated a larger crowd of about 50,000 — still far short of Palau’s predictions.
Palau claims to be non-political. I was willing to cut him some slack, but during his speech, which he managed to deliver despite the downpour, he asserted that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes were God’s message to America that we need to repent. There goes the slack. I really get angry when dumb preachers and politicians blame the American people for those tragedies.
Anyway, I think I’ve figured out why it rained so hard: God, being omniscient, must have known Palau was going to say this offensive thing. He sent the rain because he was angry, and I don’t blame him. After all, no one likes to be accused of mass murder.