"Why do bad things happen?" asks David Waters, who is doing great things at the new Faith in Memphis website.
Actually, the question is as follows: Natural disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last week, the Haiti quake, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and so forth raise so many questions for all of us. Where is God? If God is good, and/or if God is in control, why do unspeakably terrible things happen to so many good people?
Read my response, which probably makes me a bit of a heretic, here. Seriously, church folks may not like it. Consider yourself warned.
Then I guess we're the same kind of heretic...not the first time I've had that label slung my way. I agree with your statement.
ReplyDeleteI like the puzzle pieces metaphor. Some ideas cannot be explained away so easily. It's not that God let's bad things happen to good people but rather God just let's things happen to people. It's up to us and our love for one another to determine how we react to whatever "happening" that occurs. All of God's people are powerless in the face of nature. It is the great equalizer.
ReplyDeleteT: I heard something interesting about the word heretic the other day. I looked it up to confirm and it's true. The word heretic derives from the Greek word for choice. The point being that the church had official beliefs/doctrines that had to be believed. Hence, you had no choice and a heretic is one who made a choice. In other words, if you believe in the freedom to decide for yourself, then you are a heretic.
ReplyDeleteGrant: I don't think God lets things happen, but rather that things just happen, quite apart from God. I have been asked about this part of my position several times. It's the only part that has met with resistance and I wasn't entirely clear. Look for a post soon with clarification.
ReplyDeleteBut I am certainly with you about our response being the real point. Where is God? God is with the suffering and those helping the suffering. People get so caught up with the whether God caused the disaster that they never act in response to it. You can only control the latter.