Tornado Theology Ties Up Arkansas Disaster Relief

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —  Is a tornado an act of God?

Gov. Mike Huckabee believes that his God would never inflict such evil. State lawmakers insist that God must be responsible. And tornado victims just want the bickering over a disaster relief bill to end so they can rebuild their lives.

“I’m trying to get my residence set up. . . . The state can do more,” grumbled Charles Dunn, 20, who lost his mobile home and his parents’ trailer in the March 1 storms that spun off dozens of tornadoes and killed 25 people.

Huckabee, a Republican and Baptist minister, told the bill’s sponsors that he couldn’t approve it because it referred to “acts of God.” He wanted the phrase changed to “natural disasters,” calling it “a matter of deep conscience to me to attribute in law a destructive and deadly force as being an ‘act of God.’ ”

“It’s a matter of conscience,” Huckabee said Friday. “I refuse to walk through tornado damage and to say that what destroyed it was God and what built it back was only human beings. I saw God protect a lot of people, save a lot of people. That’s an act of God too.”

Arkansas’ House, after debating God’s role in the world, decided to use both phrases side by side.