It's Thursday, July 10th, 2025.

Greetings, and welcome to Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.

I'm narrator Chris Elkins, voicing today's daily article,

authored by cultural theologian Dr. Jim Denison.

Last Friday morning, several storm cells merged and then stalled over Kerr County in central

Texas.

As a result, an entire summer's worth of rain fell in some areas, a one-in-one-year rainfall

event for the region.

The Guadalupe River, which runs alongside several summer camps,

rose from about three feet to 30 feet. A flash flood emergency was issued at 403 a.m. But the darkness

of the night made it difficult to see rising water levels. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said the area floods frequently, but officials, quote, had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what happened here, none whatsoever, in quote. Nonetheless, critics are implicating the Trump administration, Texas state officials, local officials, and the National Weather Service in the disaster.

When tragedy strikes, it's never long before people begin to look for someone to blame.

Why is this?

One positive reason is to prevent future tragedies.

If storm detection technology and early warning systems can be improved, lives might be saved when future flood strike.

Obviously, we should always strive to get better at protecting ourselves from natural disasters.

A second element is that politics are now a constant factor in nearly every dimension of American society.

Many in our post-Christian culture have

replaced consensual morality with political, quote-unquote, solutions. They advocate through

partisan tribalism. If floods strike in red states or wildfires in blue states, we can expect

partisan politicians and media to leverage them for political

purposes. A third factor is our innate desire to control the future. If we convince ourselves that

...