Many of you are most likely aware of the fallout after the ridiculously insensitive tweet made by John Piper shortly after news of the horrible tornado left a trail of destruction in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, this has become a regular pattern for Piper and others in his camp (Driscoll and other neo-Calvinist/Reformed types). Tragedy strikes and these guys play the “God is trying to get your attention and change your sinful ways” card. Certainly God has better things to do…and more compassionate ways of convincing people to follow.

Anyway, today, Team Piper put out a blog to explain how many simply misunderstood his remarks. Poor Piper. People read his first tweet and were immediately outraged. And, rather than wait for his follow-up tweet, his “haters” immediately hit the social media realm to proclaim that Piper had reached new levels of ass-dom. Again, poor Piper.

So, Team Piper made the decision to pull down both tweets because of “unfair criticism” and a moment of clarity when they realized that maybe not everyone processes these events the same way Piper does (let’s be thankful for that!).

What strikes me is the lack of humility in the explanation. Now, maybe they have updated the blog post, but when I read it I did not find any statements of remorse for posting things in an insensitive manner (let’s be honest…if you need a second tweet to make sense of the first one, it’s probably not wise to post it…unless you’re prepared for some fallout).

Whatever happened to simply saying, “I’m sorry”? Piper can sit back and pat himself on the back and say, “I’m right! You’re wrong. This criticism is unfair.” However, there comes a time when you need to let the ego get bruised a bit. Now is the time. Simply say, “I’m sorry!”

Don’t explain how you were misunderstood. Don’t explain how the criticism is undeserved. Just say, “I should have practiced better judgment when posting something so shortly after the horrible destruction that took place. Therefore, I am sorry for any harm my comments may have done.” Man up and apologize!

For readers who are unsure of my theological views…No, I don’t think God caused this (or any) natural disaster. I guess you could narrow down my perspective to this…Shit happens. Yet, God is good…and God can work in the midst of the rubbish of life. If something awful happens to you or a family member, chances are that it has nothing to do with the sin in your life. If that were the case, we’d all be in a load of trouble.

If you were in some way offended by this post, I am deeply sorry!