Act of God vs. Natural Disaster

Driving home from dinner last night Doug & I were listening to Michael Savage. Michael is on vacation so Curtis Sliwa was hosting.

The topic was, of course, the earthquake and tsunami in central Asia and whether it was an "Act of God" -as many people call it- or a natural disaster. And, if it was an Act of God, why?

Many people called in with the explination of the Original Sin and skewered their way around that, but my first thought was the 10 Plagues of Egypt.

The Plagues were visited upon Egypt because the Pharoah wouldn't release the Jewish slaves. So, according to the Bible, God will punish many for the acts of one.

In my mind, and I'm sure many will argue, the Christian God may be all forgiving but he can be vengeful (remember, he created man in image of Himself).

And lets look at the past year: Locusts swarmed Africa, the terrible hurricanes in the Carribean and Florida, record tornadoes in the US (even Hawaii!), the continuing fear of mad cow disease... Remove the hurricanes and tornadoes and you have 2 of the 10 plagues right there.

So, if this is an Act of God, why?

Now I'm certainly not going to question God but I wonder if it could be because he is under attack? He is being systematically removed from the public eye for fear of offending non-Christians while symbols of other faiths are replacing Him with no complaint. Maybe Christians have taken "turn the other cheek" to a new extreme and we need to fight as hard to keep our beliefs as others fight to keep theirs?

Or maybe this was just a natural disaster...