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Shaken but not forsaken
Q: Many have criticized Pat Robertson's suggestion that the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was the work of the devil or a form of divine punishment. But if one believes God is good and intervenes in the world, why does God allow innocents to suffer? What is the best scriptural text or explanation of that problem you've ever read?
Jesus felt abandoned by God on the cross, crying out these words from Psalm 22 as he hung there in agony. Jesus was innocent of the crime for which the Romans were cruelly torturing him to death. Where is God when the innocent suffer, and there is no help? Even Jesus, pushed to the point of death, asked this question.
David Blumenthal's book, Facing the Abusing God: A Theology of Protest, is a commentary on the Psalms that doesn't hide from the theodicy question, but faces it straight on. The Psalms follow the psychology of human suffering in the face of God's silence: pain, lament, anger and the flicker of hope born of honest connection with a God whose power is not making magical miracles, but in accompaniment.
The Psalms, and particularly Psalm 22, can accompany us as we wrestle with this deep problem of faith. The stupid, facile and blame-shifting theologies of the Pat Robertsons of the world stay on the surface of this question; these are the Christians who are too frightened by the challenges of suffering to faith to face up to them. They worship the power of God, and not the God as revealed in the one whose very flesh felt the powerlessness of undeserved suffering. They would prefer to blame the victim rather than face the truth of their theological consequences.
For many years, I have done Bible studies with women who have been battered by their husbands. The Psalms speak directly to the turmoil of the faith experience of those who have suffered intimate partner violence. These women feel abandoned by God; they call and God does not answer.
"Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day but you do not answer, by night and am not silent."
Women who have been repeatedly battered, like the Haitians who have been battered by colonial repression, vicious dictators, poverty and hurricanes, cry out to God, and God can feel silenced to them. They suffer and no one comes. Surely, they reason, this is the will of a just God, isn't it? And so they conclude they deserve their suffering.
The Psalms don't let us or God off the hook that easily, however. There is this challenge: 'Hey, God. You showed up in the past and rescued our ancestors! Where are you now when I really need you?' "In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed." But guess what? I'm suffering and you're nowhere to be found.
The Psalmist doesn't sugar coat the situation--he's drowning in agony, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me."
And it's God's fault. "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." YOU, that is, you God, "lay me in the dust of death." You, God, not my enemies are really to blame for this.
There it comes, the truth of anger, of protest. Anger at the injustice of it all, anger at human desperation and God's silence, human agony and a God who apparently showed up in the Exodus and then is not heard from again. You, you God are to blame.
And finally, beyond anger, hope. But hope as yet unrealized. "The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him--may your hearts live forever!" But that's all in the future.
The Psalms accompany human pain, and reveal a God who does not cause human suffering but is there in the midst of it. God is also in the community that has the courage to argue with God, and to wrestle with the question,"Why?"
By
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
|
January 19, 2010; 7:40 PM ET
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Posted by: EarthCraft | January 23, 2010 8:56 AM
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Maybe it is time to stop crying for your self, and time to start crying for someone else. You might find the love you thought you had and the one you thought you lost (not in an other, but in yourself).
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | January 22, 2010 2:15 PM
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The Art of Solo Diving,
Robert Von Maier
127-
Posted by: EarthCraft | January 21, 2010 10:11 AM
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Sorry all, Mom wants answers,
" This is my mission", "let's go"
"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me."
Pulmonary Barotrauma, DCS?
Perhaps 100+
40 degree water, 2:15 a.m.+/-
small price to pay for past sins.
There wasn't anyone else with the experience.The knowledge on the gear was the suicide part.
My stength is dried up? No, I lost the passion and the love and, I came home after the last and looked at my son who was still sleeping. Before I had left,I was praying that he would hear his alarm and make the bus.
I cried for the one I lost, and the one I never found.
Posted by: EarthCraft | January 21, 2010 9:27 AM
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I agree with Christians' & Muslims' basic commandments:
1. One should exploit others suffering to spread one's own religion.
2. Charity should be done with an ulterior motive to gain power.
3. One should identify weakness in another country and culture. Then, instead of letting them correct problems, one should exploit.
4. Divide and conquer.
5. Always pretend to do charity. This provides the perfect cover for the true agenda.
6. Always remember that my god is better than the other's god. Use this belief to justify and rationalize acts of deception & destruction.
7. Religion is about winning and expanding, not about spiritual development.
8. Might is right.
9. If the whole world can be converted to Islam or Christianity, we will win. Then we will destroy the other inferior religion.
10. Peace on Earth and goodwill to mankind - NOT.
Posted by: clearthinking1 | January 21, 2010 12:16 AM
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The tragedy of Haiti unfolded before our eyes and presumably before an allegedly all powerful and loving god.
If he's powerful enough to prevent it, then he can't be all loving. If he's all loving but fails to prevent it then he's not all powerful. In either case he, whatever your theological acrobatics decide he is, is neither of the above.
This isn't rocket science and your obfuscatory waffle about psalmists no better equipped to answer the question than you is frankly insulting.
Posted by: fresnoBob | January 20, 2010 6:19 PM
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If we are made in God's image then surely God has the same scars/injuries that are inflicted on us.
I'm sorry, I don't understand the difference between Holi-stic matters and counseling.
Why have you forsaken me? would that be the correct answer?
Please explain.
Posted by: EarthCraft | January 20, 2010 3:53 PM
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Navin,
RDF,position,responsibility.
Failed Child,
Failed community,failed brother's, failed Family,
the targeting of family after was not acceptable, by indivduals,
of course , I have nothing to lose , do I brother?