The results of a recent poll done in America were released last week to show that evangelical Christians, more than any other group, tend to believe that natural disasters are a sign from God.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service news poll, almost six out of ten white evangelical respondents said that natural disasters were a sign from God, compared to only 31% of Catholics and 34% of mainline Protestants.
Furthermore, the PRRI/RNS poll found that 67 percent of evangelicals link these natural disasters to what the Bible describes as the “end times” compared to 58 percent of all respondents who see it as evidence of global climate change.
Daniel Cox, PRRI research director, said of the poll, “Evangelical Protestants and Republicans are much more likely to believe that natural disasters are evidence of what the Bible calls the 'end times' rather than evidence of global climate change.”
Scarily enough, the poll also found that 53% of these white evangelical respondents thought that God punished nations for the sins of its citizens.
This comes on the back of last year’s remarks from controversial televangelist Pat Robertson that Haiti’s earthquake was a curse for its voodoo history. However, none of the leading evangelical leaders in America have publicly interpreted the recent tragedy in Japan as being divine punishment.
In fact, Americans are extremely supportive of financially helping Japan, with 80% of respondents agreeing that providing financial assistance to Japan is either very important or somewhat important despite economic challenges at home.
The PRRI/RNS poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,008 U.S. adults conducted March 17-20, 2011.