National Clergy Council founder and president Rev. Rob Schenck appeared to question the religious devotion of those who prayed for miners trapped in a West Virginia mine, then warned that “God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need.”

From a January 4 article by AgapePress, a news service operated by the American Family Association:

“We often turn to God only when we feel like nothing else can be done,” Schenck notes. “And, in the Bible, God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need.” But sadly, the Christian activist observes, “That has been our tradition in the United States. Whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we get to the end of our own resources, we turn to God.”

Paraphrasing Schenck, AgapePress added, “Schenck says it is ironic that a culture that tries to banish God from its existence seeks His intervention under circumstances like the tragedy that unfolded in West Virginia this week.”

The National Clergy Council is a Washington-based conservative Christian umbrella group. It describes itself as “an informal network of conservative and traditional Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant clergy, members of religious orders and societies, religious educators, journalists, and heads of para-church organizations who share a common concern about the moral integrity of our American culture.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 5 that Schenck and two allies let themselves in the room in the Capitol where the hearing on Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination is scheduled to take place and applied oil to the seats to be used by Alito and each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of a “consecration service” conducted by Schenck and his colleagues. Through the National Clergy Council's lobbying arm, Faith and Action, Schenck has advocated for the placement of Ten Commandments monuments on federal and state property.

Schenck appears to have based his criticism of those who prayed for the trapped miners on numerous accounts in news reports on the mining disaster of West Virginians praying for the safety of the trapped miners. A January 3 Associated Press report, for instance, noted that in a church near the mine, “several hundred people sang hymns as some played 'Amazing Grace,' 'Old Rugged Cross,' and 'I'll Fly Away' on the piano.”

In the end, only one of the 13 trapped miners survived. In a January 7 New York Times article, the lone survivor's wife said: “It's amazing, it's a miracle. Faith plays a big role. Without it, we wouldn't be coping. It's given us hope.”

From the January 4 AgapePress article:

It was a terrible reversal, from celebration to sorrow, for several people in the West Virginia town where a January 2 explosion had trapped 13 coal miners underground. Some were calling early reports of multiple survivors miraculous, until the terrible news came that the premature announcement of “multiple survivors” was incorrect. The president of International Coal Group, Inc., Ben Hatfield, says that initial announcement was a “miscommunication,” and in fact there is only a single survivor. The 11 other miners, along with one found earlier, are dead, and the lone survivor, 27-year-old Randal McCloy, is listed in critical condition. According to Associated Press, Hatfield told reporters the rumor of several survivors had “spread like wildfire” but said mine company officials had never confirmed it. At the onset of the mining disaster, the mining official had asked the public to pray, and President Bush stated that people nationwide were indeed interceding for the trapped workers. Bush himself invoked God's blessing on “those who are trapped below the Earth” and “those who are concerned” about them, and he praised the compassion West Virginians have shown the miners' families. Conservative Christian leader Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council said yesterday that, although millions of prayers were being offered across the nation, he was struck by the irony of the situation, which he feels demonstrates a sad truth about America. “We often turn to God only when we feel like nothing else can be done,” Schenck notes. “And, in the Bible, God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need.” But sadly, the Christian activist observes, “That has been our tradition in the United States. Whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we get to the end of our own resources, we turn to God.” Schenck says it is ironic that a culture that tries to banish God from its existence seeks His intervention under circumstances like the tragedy that unfolded in West Virginia this week. [Bill Fancher]