Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 |
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Tornado hits seminary ...spares distillery ...explanation anyone? By JOHN HATCHER The worst storm disaster in Kentucky's history struck on April 3, 1974 when the state was ravaged by tornadoes as part of the famous "Super Outbreak" that spread across much of the Southeast and Midwest. A long-lived super cell thunderstorm complex spawned 148 tornadoes, producing a combined path of damage exceeding 2,400 miles and leaving more than 300 people dead. The death toll could have been much higher if warnings had not been issued. I know. I was there. Face flat on the concrete first floor of Mullins Hall at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I heard the glass breaking from the huge windows that lit the Mullins lounge. Our tornado ground its way across beautiful seminary beech woods like a freight train, high-powered vacuum, and slow-moving 18 wheeler all in one. I was so scared I forgot to pray. In a few short minutes which seemed eternally long it was over. The seminary was trashed. Stately dormers crushed. Huge trees cut into. Student cars demolished. Electricity gone. Water gone. Gas turned off. Classes called off for two weeks. Students formed search and rescue teams to go into area neighborhoods to pull aged seniors from the wreckage of their homes. I know. I was there. I stepped through the picture window of one resident only to find this little senior lady totally dazed by what hit her. April 3 is still a day remembered by scores of people, especially the seminary community. For the seminary it will be a day somewhat like what November 22 is for the nation. All in all I believe the seminary experienced something like $3 million in damages (and that's a 1973 dollar). Now for sure if something like this happened at a seminary, where men and women are taught God-talk, it only follow there would be a lot of God-talk as to what this meant. How do you interpret a tornado hitting a God place? Believe me, there were those who tried. One preaching God-talker came through and spoke in the seminary's chapel services. He raised up what he considered the past sins of the seminary, in that how the seminary had allowed liberal God-talk to go unchecked. In that how some professors were teaching a humanistic slant to the Holy Book. His simple interpretation focused the "why" on the living and teaching of the seminary community. The seminary had been judged! As I remember Job's friends, I think one of his close personal friends gave Job the same line; it was Job's fault for his misfortune. Of course, Job himself knew deep down he had done nothing to deserve his whole life being ripped apart. Another preaching God-talker came through and spoke in the seminary's chapel services. He said if the previous God-talker was right the tornado was judgment for past sins then God had to be a bad shot. God needed to take some shooting lessons. For surely he would not have fired at a seminary where young men and women prepare to tell the world about a loving God and not fired at Louisville's Churchill Downs and the Jack Daniel Distillery. I mean, get honest. How many more homes are wrecked by the racing tracks and distillery than the seminary? The Downs and the distillery were untouched April 3, 1974. The Rev.
Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of |
