SODOM & GOMORRAH: One can learn a lot by comparing Japanese reactions to the recent earthquake to western ones.
The Japanese government came out and said that the heavens were punishing them for being greedy. That was why the earthquake happened, and the general populace should take heed. It seems that the Japanese don’t mind the idea of an interventionist God, unlike Americans who roundly condemned preachers for saying that 9/11 or Katrina happened because God was displeased with our corruption.
Mind you, these are the same Japanese people who have refrained from looting, follow the commands of the government when it tells them to stay indoors for fear of radiation, and who have generally behaved contrary to westerners in similar circumstances. That isn’t to say that Japan isn’t about as corrupt as any modern country can be – their government subsists on bribes, they abuse women and children, and they have an extremely high abortion rate. Nobody is perfect, but Japan tries.
The west, however, has been unshaken by the fact that the earth can explode in such a massive, awesome way as to shorten the day and move coastlines. Their focus is on what lies within human control: nuclear power.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany announced that there would be a three month moratorium on a standing plan to extend the lifespan of seventeen nuclear plants. She also insists on closing seven nuclear facilities that were built before 1980. The European Union has followed up by drafting a plan to test the safety of nuclear power plants in the twenty-seven member states. China too, betraying their constant desire to become like the west, has stopped approving new nuclear facilities. There are similar calls being made in the United States.
California residents are buying iodine tablets, a known treatment for radiation poisoning, and students near the state’s coast are monitoring for radiation themselves. Nobody in the state seems the least bit concerned that the entire rest of the Ring of Fire has had major quakes in the past year, the scale of which would level Californiam cities. The issue at stake for them is the distant scare of a man-made problem. The focus is purely on the human, while the orderly Japanese have warned that God is displeased with selfish humans.