Tsunami was 'divine visitation upon Sabbath pleasure seekers'

• Outrage as Rev MacLeod claims Indian Ocean tsunami was divine retribution

• Claim tsunami, which fell on a Sunday, punishment for breaking Sabbath

• Churches distance themselves from remarks; tsunami survivors angered

Key quote

"That so many of our fellow creatures should have perished in so short a time, and in so awful a fashion, was a divine visitation that ought to make men tremble the world over" - Reverend John MacLeod

Story in full A FREE Presbyterian minister has caused outrage by claiming that the Asian tsunami was a "divine visitation" on "pleasure seekers" breaking the Sabbath.

Writing in the Free Presbyterian Magazine, the Rev John MacLeod compared the disaster to the biblical flood "on the world of the ungodly" in the time of Noah.

In the article, Mr MacLeod wrote: "Possibly ... no event since Noah’s flood has caused such loss of life by drowning as the recent Asian tsunami.

"That so many of our fellow creatures should have perished in so short a time, and in so awful a fashion, was a divine visitation that ought to make men tremble the world over."

More than 160,000 people - mostly ordinary Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Indians and Thais - have been confirmed as victims of the disaster on Sunday 26 December.

Mr MacLeod said: "To rule out the hand of God in this ... is to forget that He is in sovereign control of all events. If the sparrow falling to the ground is an event noted, and ordered, by Him, how much is this the case when the souls of so many thousands are parted from their bodies?"

He went on to say that some of the places most affected by the tsunami "attracted pleasure seekers from all over the world".

"It has to be noted that the wave arrived on the Lord’s Day, the day that God has set apart to be observed the world over by a holy resting from all employments and recreations that are lawful on other days," he said.

"We cannot but fear that it found multitudes unprepared for the eternity into which they were ushered so suddenly."

Mr MacLeod told The Scotsman he stood by the article but said he had concluded by saying such acts of God did not necessarily claim the worst sinners. "None of us has reason to be complacent, including myself," he said.

He said people should "of course" give to the tsunami appeals but refused to say if he had made a donation.

Other churches disagreed with his views. The Catholic Church said: "The view that the tsunami was some kind of divine retribution is utterly alien to the Catholic world view. Our belief is in a God of love, who suffers with us, not an avenging deity."

A Church of Scotland spokesman said the tsunami was "a natural disaster" and dismissed Mr MacLeod’s comments about the observance of the Sabbath.

Keith Charters, of the National Secular Society, said: "It would be a strange and vengeful God who acted in such a way."

Last night a tsunami survivor said Mr Mcleod should be ashamed of himself.

Alasdair Stewart, 51, was scuba diving off Phi Phi island in Thailand with an instructor when the wave crashed against rocks above him and swept the optician from Dollar, Clackmannanshire, and his terrified female guide over 30m underwater in seconds.

While Mr Stewart battled to save his instructor, his wife, Gill, 50, ran for her life to the roof of the couple’s beach-side hotel as the wave crashed against it.

The couple were only reunited after several agonising days helping the relief effort while each presumed the other had been killed.

Mr Stewart, who runs his own optician’s practice in Stirling said: "I feel Mr Macleod’s comments should be treated with total contempt. He has no idea what we went through.

"The man is a disgrace and should be ashamed of himself."