I’m surprised that in all of this, I have heard very little about generational curses.

http://www.gotquestions.org/generational-curses.html

Jim, do you think that God still operates in this manner? And if so, certainly Haiti is not the only place where sins of fathers are being passed down to their children. Abortion, promiscuity, and material lust in America comes quickly to mind as another example.

Who drowned everyone but eight people on planet earth? Who turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt? Who caused flaming rocks to fall on Sodom? Who tumbled the walls of Jericho to enable his army to slaughter every man, woman and child therein? Who killed every firstborn Egyptian child? Who karate-chopped Ananias and Sapphira? Who caused Herod to be eaten by worms? (You can’t plea Old Covenant on those last two.)

In Christ, the Father’s compassion for humanity outweighs his condemnation, but that doesn’t negate the existence of the latter.

Regardless of why someone suffers, we know what Jesus would do in response and know what we need to do. Given full context, it appears that Pat knows too.

Despite the sound bite that easily fit into 140 characters, nobody quoted him on the two sentences he said directly afterward:

“They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy I’m optimistic that something good may come.”