The first two lines of this article read thus:
In the wake of the tsunami disaster, it's time for believers to take a more proactive role in world events. It's time to boycott God.Mac Donald is blaspheming, yes, but doing so in quite entertaining fashion.
Where is God's incentive to behave? He gets credit for the good things and no blame for the bad. Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is fond of thanking God for keeping America safe since 9/11; Ashcroft never asks why, if God has fended off terrorist strikes since 9/11, he let the hijackers on the planes on the day itself. Was God caught off guard the first time around, like the U.S. government? But he is omniscient and omnipotent.Mac Donald suggests that God has grown accustomed to adulation and thus become inattentive and even contemptuous. "So, let the human race play hard to get," she says. If we stop giving God the adulation he wants based on current conditions, Mac Donald says, he'll be forced to make things better to earn our attention and affection.
Again, blasphemous; I'm hardly a hardcore believer and I'm looking over my shoulder for lightning bolts as I type. But Mac Donald has a point: If God gets credit for the outpouring of charity in the wake of the tsunami, isn't he just as surely due a bit of flak for allowing the damned wave in the first place? Even if you don't agree with her, you've got to admit she raises a concern worth discussing in the wake of any tragedy: Why do we credit God with every good thing and ignore his role in every bad one?
2 comments:
Hi Richard
I'll be linking to this tomorrow. I think it's a very important posint, that we don't always coat god with one side of life only.
Cheers
Steve
I think the true believers do get angry with God when bad things happen. Trust me, I had some pretty nasty exchanges of blame with him last year. ;) It's being able to do both - blame & praise that make it Faith. IMHO, those who can't do both aren't as strong in their faith.
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