Feodor expresses his rage at what seems to be Divine apathy in the face of massive human suffering. Despite a certain Satanic advocacy on my part, I do understand. The earthquake that struck Haiti, the loss of life, the structural, political, and other impediments to recovery create even more suffering. It makes no sense. If we have a God that does, indeed, love us as we claim, how do we account for the absence of care when a people, already suffering the slings and arrows of centuries of imperialism, racism, exploitation, neglect, and (too-often imposed) despotism now have to cope with a quarter-million dead because of a natural disaster.
Rather than hector, I pose the problem without offering any answer of my own. The dead very often cry out for answers and we, the living, find ourselves voiceless in the face of their pleas. Thoughts?
8 comments:
An exercise in the socratic method:
Q: What is stealing?
A: Stealing is taking something that doesn't belong to you.
Q: What is only thing in this world that you cannot steal?
A: Your own possession.
Q: Who is the author and owner of all life?
A: God
Q: What is murder?
A: Murder is when you essentially steal some else's life
Q: Can God commit murder through action or inaction?
A: No, God cannot steal what already belongs to Him.
Q: Is it Ok to be mad at God for how and when He chooses to take our lives.
A: No as we would not want God to get mad at us for how we choose to live the lives He has given us.
Matthew 5:45 (New International Version)
45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
"Q: Is it OK to be mad at God..."
"A: No..."
God apparently is an immature parent.
__________________
Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani
__________________
For GKS:
Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon,
The maker's rage to order words of the sea,
Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred,
And of ourselves and of our origins,
In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.
ohh well. . .
I'm not sure God is worried about living up to your standards
No, Edwin, but that isn't the point. The point is that rage at the unanswerable question of human suffering, in the midst of faith, is a sign of the human desire for God and life to make sense.
"Q: Is it Ok to be mad at God for how and when He chooses to take our lives.
A: No"
BS.
I know both GKS and Feodor know this, but Eddie apparently doesn't. In the book of Job, God in fact, counts Job as righteous even though Job rails against Him.
God is not some prissy school monitor.
Job 2 chapter 7-10
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"
10 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Never read the whole book, have you?
Why am I not surprised?
James Morrow digs into these kind of questions quite deeply in the novel "Blameless in Abaddon," which is the second book of the Godhead Trilogy. It's a modern-day parallel of Job. Several tragedies befall a small-town prosecutor, and he ends up putting God on trial at the Hague. You might not agree with Morrow's conclusions, but I think it is a worthy read for anyone with a brain.
Post a Comment