You expect the Washington post to be accurate about believing Christians?
Nope. They will ignore the millions of Christians sending aid to charity, that church groups are sending aid to those countries, and how scholars and saints view such terrible things, and find one semi educated asshole to quote as a "typical" response.
So what else is new?
But if you find someone with an easy answer, you will know that person has never suffered...
But faith reminds us that in the end, God will welcome us to a better world and wipe the tears from our eyes...

The idiots get the press, sane believers live quite lives helping others and yes we do try to convert our friends and relatives, but only in respect and gentleness...but thats not good media.

Scripture is clear, it rains on the just and the unjust, bad things happen to good and bad people and it doesn't all get sorted out until we leave this place, any other attempt is a feable mind trying pridefully explain the unexplainable.

My short answer to the question of God, suffering and natural disasters is that God created the laws of nature, that those laws sometimes have tragic consequences without any specific intent for harm from God, and that despite the fact that miracles do happen, God generally doens't intervene in nature.

My even shorter answer is that God hasn't revealed enough about his nature and creation for us to make much more than a few basic assumptions about God's providence. In other words, I DON'T KNOW WHY.

Truthful religions teach that Abraham died, Isaac died, Jacob died, and so did Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; not to forget Buddah and Mohammed. It also teaches that each human death (by cancer or by old age, or by a Tsunami)is God's Judgment!
That Universal Judgment against mankind is that they "must not be allowed to...live forever." (Genesis 3:22) So far no one I know has ever escaped this Divine sentence (not even God's Son)!

True, when the Universal Judgment of Death falls on 100,000 people at once we are more forcefully reminded of our destiny. But when and where death finds us is merely a detail.

God is no more or less Just or Merciful before or after a Tsunami. Those who loose trust because of a catastrophy when God permits what He has willed, could perhaps gain some comfort that God will be equally dilligent in "wiping every tear from their eyes (when) there will be no more death..." and "the sea gives up the dead that were in it."(Revelation 21:4 and 20:13.

Or as St. Paul put it, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22) That's God's Universal Judgment too!

Our ancestors gave possession of this planet to Satan. He annoys us as much as possible, but God doesn't let him go over the line.

I cited this post in my Sunday morning message. Here's the link: http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/2005/01/light-of-world.html.

Thanks to all of you for a terrific blog!

I agree. You shouldn't expect the WashPost or the NYT or LATimes to be accurate about religion.
Any religion has these idiots, of course, but they are a fringe. And the papers use them to smear the thousands of believers helping in the disaster, from Catholics burying bodies in India to Buddhist monks creamating the dead.
The book of Job tells off those who have easy answers to why men suffer. Perhaps the WaP writer should read it...