As millions of Americans deal with the devastating floods brought by Hurricane Helene, and Floridians prepare for the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton, far-right activists are disputing whether the storms are an instrument of God’s wrath or a deep state weather weapon. Scientists have long warned that climate change and warming sea water temperatures will bring increasingly powerful and destructive storms, but that explanation doesn’t seem to hold much water for the “climate change is a hoax” crowd.
On Tuesday, the MAGA prayer warriors at Intercessors for America posted a question on IFA’s Facebook page: “Is there a biblical reason for the storms we are seeing?” IFA wrote that while it may or may not be the cause of the storms, “it is well worth us asking God, how have we offended you?”
IFA linked to a post by William Koenig suggesting that Helene and earlier destructive hurricanes were the results of “the God of Israel’s fury and wrath” over United Nations and U.S. pressure on Israel to cede control of “covenant land.” In the case of Helene, Koenig wrote, “The storm began as Israel’s enemies were preparing their scathing anti-Israel speeches to the United Nations General Assembly while the Biden administration was continuing to work on an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal and was exerting pressure on Israel to comply.” Koenig has previously made similar claims about midwestern flooding in 2019 and the outbreak of COVID-19—though he also claimed that COVID-19 was God’s judgment for the U.S. being “so pro-LGBT.”
Some IFA readers responded by posting prayers of repentance. But IFA’s comment section also showed that many of the prayer warriors have embraced another conspiracy theory raging through MAGA world: that the hurricanes are not natural disasters at all, but evidence of weather modification by the U.S. government.
“How can they be Biblical when they are man made,” asked one commenter?
“EVIL Governmental reasons…It’s called weather manipulation,” wrote another, who claimed that “they” will “do WHATEVER it takes to stop this election, or at least eliminate red voters…”
One commenter merged the explanations a bit, writing, “I believe this is a storm being manipulated by evil people who are being influenced by demonic spirits.”
Several commenters mentioned HAARP, which stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, which studies the ionosphere, one layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. But the conspiracy theory that HAARP is a weather modification program that can steer storms into specific targets has become so widespread that news outlets have devoted resources to debunking it.
As WIRED magazine reported, claims that shadowy government figures were manipulating the storms for political reasons—which recently got a boost from MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—tap into antisemitic conspiracy theories.
U.S. religious-right leaders have long opposed U.S. support for any Middle East peace plan that would involve “land for peace” agreements. A decade ago, Pat Robertson warned that God would “come against this nation” with natural disasters if it supported any division of “God’s land.” In 2019, New Apostolic Reformation figure Lance Wallnau was invited to the White House for a briefing on Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace plans; Wallnau responded by mobilizing his followers to send Trump a message opposing any land-for-peace deal and warning that U.S. support for such a deal would bring “a curse on our country.”
