Perhaps, under normal circumstances, I would have let such an image just slide under my radar of commentary; however, I can't. Folks, especially church-folk (whether they attend a church or work in one or just claim some allegiance to God or Christianity, in this case) need to make sure they FULLY understand the message they send when they carelessly or un-carelessly forward "religious" e-mails. I had one very quick thought when I received this e-mail this morning and I share with you an edited response I sent to my colleague: "Funny, then, how God didn't apparently give a damn about the 49 people in Buffalo." (the death toll has since increased to 50) So, I picture a revamped picture with the Devil's flaming hot hands casting Flight 3407 down onto a house (no doubt with a child looking out the window) as a ball of flames.
- During the flight of 1549, God was with the birds that haphazardly flew into the engines.
- During the flight of 1549, God was with the pilots who had been well-trained as they guided the plane into a safe belly landing into the Hudson River.
- During the flight of 1549, God was with all the people as they followed the instructions of their flight crew and remained calm enough to follow evacuation procedures.
- During the flight of 1549, God was with the passengers as they used flotation devices and waited for rescue crews in freezing cold waters.
- During the flight of 1549, God was with the first responders as they did what they had been well-trained to do to man boats and proceed with a rescue mission.
- God DID NOT tell the birds to take flight at that moment and take a path of suicide into those engines.
- God DID NOT miraculously take over the cockpit controls and land the plane on the river.
- God DID NOT hold the plane up in the water.
- During the flight of 3407, God was with the flight crew and passengers as something went wrong with the humanly-created bird and took it in a nose-dive toward a house.
- During the flight of 3407, God was with the people in the house as they innocently were going through their nightly rituals, not realizing a large commuter plane was about to burst into flames upon entry through the home's roof.
- During the flight of 3407, God was with the first responders as they did what they had been well-trained to do: to react quickly in putting out flames, securing the area and protecting neighboring properties and searching for remaining life, if and where possible.
- During the flight of 3407, God was with the loved ones waiting 5 miles away at an airport to greet their family and friends arriving.
- God DID NOT see to it that a perfect ice storm weighted the wings of the plane, just so, as to not receive adequate lift to make it's final turn into descent.
- God DID NOT decide it would be best to just take the controls in the cockpit and force the plane into a nosedive into an occupied residence below.
- God DID NOT want this to happen.
To name some significant crashes throughout America's history:
Pan Am Flight 7
United Flight 585
ValuJet Flight 592
Allegheny Flight 853
American Eagle Flight 4184
TWA Flight 232
USAir Flight 405
USAir Flight 427
TWA Flight 514
These flights and hundreds of others (including small aircraft crashes/collisions) do not represent passengers or family members any less in favor with God than those that were able to swim away from the Hudson River crash because of God's miraculous work to see to it that it was, indeed, that way.
Unless you want to believe God deliberately saved those on the Hudson River Flight and subsequently cared less for those in Buffalo, please think things through and think about what you're forwarding! Apparently, good God-talk is losing out in our society.
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