When the Gods Betray You

On October 5, 2024, a tropical system in the Atlantic consolidated into Hurricane Milton. It became the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico to have originated in the Atlantic. Rapidly growing to a Category Five hurricane, Milton began to collapse on itself and, by the time it reached Florida, it was a strong Category Three hurricane and wrecked portions of Florida.

What made Milton even worse is that it came just two weeks after Hurricane Helene. Helene was the strongest storm to ever hit the Big Bend region of Florida. The Category Four storm swept into Florida, up through Georgia, and into North Carolina. The storm hammered places as far apart as Tampa, FL and Asheville, NC. Today, ten months later, North Carolina is still struggling to recover. Debris fields from Helene still exist across parts of Georgia and the Carolinas with trees piled up from collection efforts.

The 2024 election came a month after Milton. From Helene’s impact, through Milton’s, some Republican politicians, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, suggested the Biden Administration had steered both Helene and Milton into the Southeast to undermine Republican election efforts.

Now, in 2025, devastation has struck Texas. Dozens of young girls were swept away from Camp Mystic. Waters rose so fast, over seventy people are known dead and the death toll is expected to rise. Meteorologists warned of the rapidly developing system. They warned of its path. They warned it would drop a great deal of water. Both the National Weather Service and the local media raised alarms. Even so, the volume of water and the rapidity of the river rising surprised everyone. One river rose dozens of feet in just an hour.

Democrats — many more than the number of Republicans who suggested the Biden Administration steered hurricanes for political gain — along with members of the American press corps, have ghoulishly rushed to blame the Trump Administration for the deaths in Texas. Some of them have even mocked Texas for voting for the instruments of its citizens’ deaths.

They have seized on cuts to the National Weather Service, the NOAA, and other government weather services to blame Trump. Here is CNN’s National Security analyst and here is a political appointee in Houston, TX claiming Camp Mystic is just a bunch of white girls.

There is no evidence the cuts impacted Texas. In fact, by all professional accounts, the meteorological services and local media all worked together well to raise alarms. Nonetheless, the New York Times is just asking questions. Democrat politicians on the Sunday shows are speculating, suggesting blame. Contrary to statements made by George Stephanopoulos and others, the National Weather Service San Antonio/Austin had more than double its normal staff on duty in preparation for the storm. That, by the way, is from an actual meteorological expert, not from reporters trying to interpret a disaster through politics.

This is the behavior of idol worshippers. From Marjorie Taylor Greene to the reporters and Democrats on the left, their gods have betrayed them.

Normal people do not rush to assign blame to politicians. Normal people do not rush to examine the political ties to a natural disaster. Normal people pray. Normal people offer support. The ghouls seek to find political advantage.

In seeking that political advantage, as we’ve seen in the national press coverage over the last forty-eight hours, blame is prioritized over heroism. The stories are there of the camp counselor who saved as many girls as possible, the Coast Guard rescue swimmer who saved 165 people, the HEB staff who sprang into action to help the area, and countless others — some losing their lives in the process. But those who worship government, the ghouls of disaster, elevate the political process over those who went through the process of rescuing their neighbors.

Idol worshippers see the world through their world view. Those who have traded God for government, see the world through government and what it did or did not do. They see the machinations of their gods like Homer recounting the flood of Skamander raging against Achilles. Every explanation of every tragedy is about the failures or betrayals of their gods — government and those who control it.

This is unhealthy. It is a soul rotting way to think. It is also increasingly the default for people with an unhealthy attachment to politics. Progressives, on the left and right, are unmoored from God even as they quote scripture and give Christ lip service. But we know them by their fruits and only rotten fruit seek first the blame instead of the Kingdom of God.