Earthquake in Turkey: A Prayer Request; and Getting a Grip

One of the prayer intentions at Mass this morning was for folks affected by last night's earthquake in Turkey.

I figured it couldn't hurt to pass that along, as a suggestion for prayer. No pressure, of course.

I put excerpts from the news at the end of this post.¹

An Earthquake in Turkey: What are the Odds?

Here in central Minnesota, we have blizzards, tornadoes, and the occasional flood or drought. Florida has hurricanes. For folks in Turkey, it's earthquakes:

"...Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.

"Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the north-west of the country...."
(BBC News)

An Earthquake! This Means Something, Right?

I've mentioned the tower at Siloam before. (Luke 13:1-5) (April 28, 2011, March 15, 2011, February 24, 2011)

When a building falls on someone, I don't assume that the victim must have been a terrible sinner. I assume that a building fell on someone.

Which means that if the person is still alive, the victim needs help. If the person is dead, folks still need to recover the body. That's not just sentiment. If dead bodies aren't dealt with, they a way of causing health problems for survivors.

As for what God had in mind, in connection with that earthquake? I don't know. God is omniscient.² I'm not. Not even close.

God, Disasters, and Common Sense

I'm certainly not going to claim that God killed dozens of folks because they don't live in places with nice, 'regular' names like Embarrass, Kiester, or Dinkytown. Or because their ancestors did something naughty.

I think that sort of 'wrath of a tardy God' thinking depends in part on a sort of selective amnesia. There wouldn't be many folks left, if God went around killing people whose ancestors weren't entirely proper.

Take my background, for example. About a thousand years back, half of my ancestors were involved in raiding the other half of my ancestors. Maybe you heard of the Lindisfarne incident. Then there's practicing human sacrifice.³ We don't do that sort of thing now, by the way, and haven't for some time.

And that's another topic. Topics.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Giving: From the Heart, and Other Vital Organs"
  (March 17, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Blaming the Victim, Getting a Grip
• "Japan, Good Taste, Common Sense, and a Duck"
  (March 15, 2011)
• "Haiti: Voodoo, Pat Robertson, and the Catholic Church"
  (January 16, 2010)
• "Global Warming, End Times - 'We're All Gonna Die' Over the Last 45 Years Or So"
  (October 3, 2009)
• "Earthquake in Ziarat: I Have to Care"
  (October 29, 2008)

In the news:

• "At Least 75 People Killed as Strong 7.2 Magnitude Quake Rattles Eastern Turkey"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (October 23, 2011)
• "Powerful earthquake strikes poor eastern Turkey"
  Yesim Comert, CNN (October 23, 2011)
• " 'Many killed' as Turkey hit by 7.2 magnitude quake"
  David O'Byrne, BBC News Europe (October 23, 2011)

---

¹ Excerpts from the news:

"BBC reporter David O'Byrne: 'There are people trapped under the rubble'

"A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has hit eastern Turkey, killing at least 45 people in one town alone as buildings collapsed, Turkish media say.

"The quake struck near the city of Van, where Anatolia news agency said at least 50 people were injured...."
(BBC News)

---

"...At least seven aftershocks rattled the region, one of the nation's poorest. The extent of casualties was not immediately known.

"Some 25 apartment buildings and a student dormitory collapsed in the town of Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said.

"Local rescuers took many wounded people out of the dormitory, the Red Crescent statement said, without saying exactly how many.

"A health services building also collapsed, along with part of a hospital, CNN sister network CNN Turk reported. At least two doctors were thought to be in the rubble of the health services building, the network said. The injured were being treated in the hospital's garden...."
(CNN)

---

"A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 75 people and sparking panic as it collapsed buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete.

"Desperate survivors dug Sunday into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured.

"State-run TRT television reported that 59 people were killed and 150 injured in the eastern town of Ercis, and 15 others died in the provincial center of Van. Another person died in the nearby province of Bitlis...."
(Associated Press, via FoxNews.com)

² A little background on God, the Almighty, the Omniscient, source of all Truth:

• The Book of Job
  • See Job | Introduction
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
  • 214-217
• "God the Almighty Father"
  Pope John Paul II, General Audience (September 18, 1985)

³ Before missionaries started working on us, the natives of northwestern Europe were a colorful lot. Literally, in the case of the chaps who painted themselves blue on occasion. ("Woad in Britain from the Iron Age to Present," Mike Roberts (September, 2007)) More of my take on culture, the Church, and all that:

• "Those Realistic, Ghastly Crucifixes: There's a Reason"
  (January 19, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Footnote 1