Remarkable Providence

Remarkable Providence

Journalists love the unusual: "Man bites dog" stories are big. So how should reporters have reacted to a Minneapolis surprise last month?

Facts: A convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in August voted to ordain as clergy noncelibate homosexuals. No severe weather warnings were in place, and no tornado had come into downtown Minneapolis for a long time—at least 90 years, according to one archivist. Nevertheless, as delegates met, a tornado damaged the roof of the Minneapolis convention center where they were meeting and knocked the cross off the host church next door.