Al Miller blames wickedness for disasters - Al Miller says nature is rebelling against Jamaica’s sins

As Hurricane Melissa churns toward Jamaica, popular pastor Rev Dr Al Miller believes the storm carries more than wind and rain - it carries a rebuke.

Miller has opined that Jamaica's violence and moral decay have provoked nature to revolt, a rebellion woven into creation itself.

"This country deserves judgment because we wicked," Miller declared. "It's not God judging, it's nature, and the devil uses nature to get to us." He lamented that too many Jamaicans "wait until catastrophe comes" to cry out to God instead of asking why it comes in the first place, a pattern that he said shows how easily the nation remembers God only when disaster strikes. Two days before the hurricane watch took effect, Miller led members of his congregation to the Palisadoes shoreline in Kingston, joining other pastors praying for the storm to turn back. Miller argued that creation operates by divine law, a system of order God established long before man. When humanity ignores those principles, the Earth answers.

"From the beginning, God set laws in nature," he told THE STAR. "When we violate them through bloodshed, corruption, and wickedness, the Earth responds. Nature represents God, so when we abuse it, it rebels."

Miller suggested that natural disasters were never designed to destroy mankind.

"Natural disasters happen from creation until now," he said. "But they were never designed for national destruction, that's evil, not the nature of God." For Miller, that rebellion is often mistaken for divine anger. He draws a clear line between God, who is good; nature, which reflects God's order; and evil, which manipulates that order for harm.

"God can't do evil," he said. "It's nature judging us on His behalf. The devil may raise the wind and stir the sea, but Jesus can still speak to the waters and say, 'Peace, be still.'"

Miller said that same spiritual disorder extends beyond the weather, as what happens in the skies, mirrors what happens in society.

"Every year we see more murder, more wickedness, more bloodshed," he said. "Over the last 50 years, instead of turning back to God, we've got worse. That's why the disasters keep coming. The judgment is already built in."

Miller singled out "the bloodshed of the innocent and the abuse of children" as the kinds of sins that, he believes, make the Earth itself revolt. While the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management has urged Jamaicans to complete their hurricane preparations and follow evacuation orders, Miller's warning calls for repentance and moral repair.

"If you can appeal to God when trouble tek yuh, you should act right so the trouble don't tek yuh," he said, adding that the danger has at least drawn Jamaicans back to prayer, if only for a moment of unity and reflection.

"When you see people crying out to God now, that's good," he said. "If this never come, them wouldn't stop and look at them actions."