Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a news conference the confirmed toll so far in Pakistan [from the recent earthquake] was 23,000 dead and 51,000 injured, while India has confirmed slightly over 1,200 deaths.

I find it intensely difficult to square this sort of thing with the idea that we Christians hold that God is omnipotent and cares about the people of our world. If this sort of tragedy were perpetrated by the hand of man, we would surely consider the planner one of history’s worst villians. But when it’s an act of God, how do we process it? It would seem our understanding of God or of goodness must give way in the face of that.

It’s enough to drive one to drink or deism. Mulling…