Theological thoughts

Dear Friends,
Clergy are often asked, "How can God let bad things happen to innocent people?"

Of course we are trained in how to deal with such questions. We should prepare ourselves to listen, really listen, as we ask the person what has happened in their lives to raise this question and how do they sense God present in their lives and/or absent in their lives? Folks wrestle with the big questions and they come to their ministers to talk about them. They are asking us for hope. We are the hope-bearers. Okay, well enough.

But how about this for an answer: "What an arrogant, foolish question. Look at the first two commandments and shut up." Idolatry is either the fundamental sin in the biblical texts or at least it competes for the top spot. Commandment #1: I am YHWH your God, who brought you out from slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me. #2 You shall not make an image to worship.

The people who demand their "rights" to have the Ten Commandments displayed on public property (schools, court houses, government buildings or lawns) obviously do not read them or comprehend them. They are breaking the first two commandments when they scream their demands. The Bible is very clear on the point. Many, many issues are ambiguous at best in the biblical text, but this one is consistent. God is beyond image and anybody who says, "Look, there is God" is a fool. Fundamentalist Christians are by definition blasphemous. The attitude that "I know God. He is my personal buddy. And he is so weak that he demands of me that I defend him in American courts and force others to see the image I have made of him and to afford me the right, as a member of some so-called majority, to claim for my nation my image of God." Blasphemy! Idolatry!

Pardon me, I had a bit of a tirade there. Back to my point. Why does God allow bad things to happen? Well, first, it is a rather narrow understanding of God to assume that God is or has a consciousness that allows bad things. But, beyond that, how can we know hope if we know not despair? How can we know love if we know not grief? How can we know ecstasy if we know not abandonment? Is it fair that a child is born with a deformed heart and dies in a few minutes? No. Not at all. But fair is a value of the narcissistic. Pre-schoolers want "fair." The death of that child makes the life of all healthy children that much more valuable.

Is that justification for a moral God to condemn the one child to pain and early death? Of course not. But as we see and experience pain, loss, fear, degradation, and despair, so we are capable of experiencing love, peace, happiness, and hope. And so I am thankful for the horror I have seen, for it allows me on this day to rise to a new hope. And for the record, no I do not believe that any deity causes horror in our lives. God weeps with us when our child dies in our arms. I would not worship any conception of a loving transcendence that does not.

God/dess of resurrection, thank you for the hope that rises out of despair, the life that rises out of death. Accept my gratitude for making me finite, weak, and human. What a gracious creator you are.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Mary