Comments on: On Tornadoes, Piper, and Godwin’s Law

By: Online Church – Heresy or Helpful, Opportunity or Obscene? | ChurchCrunch

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:24:11 +0000

[...] is in the context of online as well as the obvious and potential dangers of engaging online at all (go read some of John Dyer’s thoughts here).If I am to be dogmatic about anything though it would probably be this: Christ came and died for [...]

By: Top 9 Posts of 2009 | Don't Eat The Fruit

Top 9 Posts of 2009 | Don't Eat The Fruit — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:48:54 +0000

[...] On the Tornado, Piper, and Godwin’s Law – My goal in this post was to show that the speed of Internet communications often leads to misunderstandings and angry words. [...]

By: Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:07:16 +0000

Was just up in Minneapolis for the Desiring God conference, and John Piper addressed this again. He said the same thing can be said for any of the many disasters that happen every day, that God can come in the wind, as it were, to remind *all* of us sinners, not just homosexuals, that we should turn from sin.

Interesting to note that there is still not a cross on the church. If I were pastor of a church that was stinging from some controversy, and I felt that I was truly right with God on the matter, I would have gone up the next day with a broomstick and some bailing wire and made a cross. Just sayin’…

By: God Punishing Us One Bad Theological Statement At A Time | Based on a True Story

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:14:00 +0000

[...] An awesome post by John Dyer on how discussions like this one get out of hand and how any internet discussion gone long enough [...]

By: John Dyer

John Dyer — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:57:12 +0000

You’re right – ‘pharisee’ is also a great conversation ender.

By: threegirldad

threegirldad — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:38:57 +0000

Actually, I think “pharisee” is closer to the Christian equivalent of Godwin’s Law. Perhaps it depends on which segment(s) of the blogosphere one inhabits. At any rate, good observations…

By: Sausage « City of God

Sausage « City of God — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:56:24 +0000

[...] Dyer hashes through the fallout from John Piper’s tornado comments. [...]

By: John Dyer

John Dyer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:20:06 +0000

Jason,
Since I used the word “scan” in the main post, I should have done a better job distinguishing between some of the thoughtful blog responses to Piper and the angry, thoughtless comments and more caustic responses.

I tried not to side with either conclusion on the matters under consideration (an issue with which I have deep personal struggles), but just to use this as an example illustrating some of the reasons why the Internet can increase and heighten the rhetoric. I hope my concluding paragraph still stands that there are some helpful discussions in the midst of the noise.

By: Jason Coker

Jason Coker — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:33:29 +0000

Andy,

I’m going to take exception with your cheap shot (uh, I mean, comment). I for one didn’t “skim” Piper’s post, I’m very familiar with his writing history and theology, and my comprehension level is quite good. Having read his post very carefully it’s quite obvious to me that Piper did in fact intend to insinuate that God was warning the ELCA because of it’s policies concerning homosexuality. One sentence at the end applying the warning to all of us doesn’t get him off the hook for the 1000 words of heavy ELCA-directed rhetoric he wrote.

Moreover, many of the blog posts (including mine) weren’t directly about his comments regarding the tornado; they were, in fact, using the situation as a touch stone for the much broader issue of how God’s sovereignty plays out among natural disasters and even apparent human evil. Whatever he actually intended to say about the ECLA, John Piper’s history is exactly to credit God for many such things.

By: John Dyer

John Dyer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:10:32 +0000

Yes, please see: http://xkcd.com/261/ =)