The poll, released March 24 by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, was conducted a week after a March 11 earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan.
Nearly six in 10 evangelicals believe God can use natural disasters to send messages — nearly twice the number of Catholics (31 percent) or mainline Protestants (34 percent). Evangelicals (53 percent) are also more than twice as likely as the one in five Catholics or mainline Protestants to believe God punishes nations for the sins of some citizens.
The poll also found that most racial and ethnic minority Christians (61 percent) believe natural disasters are God’s way of testing our faith — an idea that resonates with African Americans’ history of surviving through slavery and racial discrimination.
The poll found that a majority (56 percent) of Americans believe God is in control of the earth, but the idea of God employing nature to dispense judgment (38 percent of all Americans) or God punishing entire nations for the sins of a few (29 percent) has less support.
When Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara called Japan’s disaster divine punishment for materialism and egoism, public outcry prompted him to apologize.
“It’s interesting that most Americans believe in a personal God and that God is in control of everything that happens in the world … but then resist drawing a straight line from those beliefs to God’s direct role or judgment in natural disasters,” noted Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute.
