Yes, the sun has risen again! (I am loving the image at left captured by KCRA’s downtown skycam this AM). The weekend is a few short hours away.  For some it will be a welcome retreat from the rat race. For others (especially in the retail and health care industries)  it will come and go without notice.  For others it will be a time to mourn, particularly all those spouses, mom, dads, children and loved ones connected to the TRAGEDY out of Fort Hood yesterday.

Uh!   What a heart breaker. Was it Jihad or mental breakdown? Apparently the perpetrator yelled “God is great!” in Arabic as he  “coolly” terminated the lives of 14 people and injured another 30. Once again, God’s name was invoked vainly by one using an instrument of death to end the existence of those whom God had painstakingly granted life. If you truly stop and consider the absurdity of that paradox for a moment, it’s likely you will be more inclined to ascribe this rampage to lunacy or some other demonic force, but certainly not to God.

Sadly many people will of course NOT stop to consider the oxymoronic nature of invoking God’s endorsement of a cardinal sin whilst in the act of committing it.  This event will invariably unleash a fresh batch of anti God slurs and complaints from the legions of atheist web sites and liberal leaning blogs and news outlets across the web. I can hear/see them now. “See?! What kind of loving God would allow this to happen??” And “See!? Religion is the problem in the world. It is responsible for every single one of man’s miseries!!”

IUnlike many who despise or look down upon non believers ; I connect with them. In fact I fully identify with their  quarrels.  Quarrels? Yes. Read their words; you’ll find many (not all, but many) of them are not attempting to prove God does not exist; they are ridiculing him, questioning him, and chastening him on the basis of some unresolved personal beef. Why do I identify? I used to have many of the same quarrels.  (I believe most people have or have had such quarrels too, they just don’t like to talk about it. After all, how many people are born with the innate ability to worship an unseen omnipotent supernatural unseen being without a single reservation?).

One predominant quarrel with God is His so-called apathy towards human suffering. Over and over I read things like “If God is so great, why do bad things happen to good people?” and “Why does God allow pedophiles to hurt children?”  Those questions, while vexing to even the most learned, demonstrate a fundamental (and I do mean fundamental) misunderstanding not just of the Bible, but of theology and metaphysical philosophy in general. That is not to say I consider myself a GK Chesterton. I do not. Far be it from me–one who never even attained a college degree–to pass academic judgment on ANYONE. My point is that the proverbial “Who-is-this-god-guy-and-why-does-he-allow-such-evil” question has been the subject of philosophical debate since long before Jesus even walked the earth, and there are copious transcripts of these debates to absorb and contemplate if one is so inclined.

A word to the wise: the lion’s (and lamb’s) share of the arguments have already been presented. The fallacious ones have been discarded. Those crafted with sound reasoning have survived. They reside in the pages of old (even ancient) books that are slowly disappearing from the bookshelves of our local libraries. For now you can find them at estate sales and other venues where relics of a lost generation sell for mere pennies on the dollar. Fortunately, you can also find many of them on Google Books (when they haven’t been redacted). I think if one can put aside one’s personal dogmas and Biblical interpretations for a moment, and truly read, contemplate and attempt to understand these great works in the fields of metaphysics and theology, and still completely dismiss the provident God, they will have made a narrow escape.

In my opinion it is the cannibalization of Sacred Scripture (the picking apart of it piece by piece, as though it were a buffet whereby one eats only the bits one is hungry for whilst discarding all the rest), be it the Bible, or the Koran, or even the Gita for that matter, that leads to so much pain and suffering in the world. Be it the murder of an abortion doctor, or the tragedy of 911, someone has taken Scripture to serve their political or personal agenda and leveraged it to commit atrocious acts the Lord God Almighty has absolutely nothing to do with.

No, God of love does not commission murder. No, the provident God does not condone murder. No, there is no disparity whatsoever between the provident God of the old testament and the provident God of the new testament. Yes, the God of love and mercy ALLOWS evil, but by no means does that logically prove in any form that he promotes, influences or otherwise endorses it.  I encourage anyone who is predisposed to blaming this incident on God (or His TRUE followers), to broaden your literary horizons and search deeper for the TRUTH. It is out there. But like anything worth attaining, it takes a bit of effort to unravel.

Prayer: Father I pray for all those souls lost to the senseless violence at Fort Hood recently. I also pray for the healing of those orphaned family members and loved ones afflicted by this tragedy. I also pray for those who will invariably blame this tragedy on you or your devoted, loving followers. I petition you to have mercy on all those who will scorn you Lord, for they know not what they do. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Love,

Mark