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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
November 2001 |
Commentary:
How do we find a loving God in the midst of evil?
By Mike Macdonald
"The reason this causes us to question God's existence is that it happened to us."
UMNS - Does God exist? This is the stark question that I have read and heard several times over the past weeks. How do you reconcile a loving or just God with the tragedy of the World Trade Center attack?
As tragic as it was, Sept. 11 was hardly the most extreme case of evil triumphing. One of the rescue workers mentioned that the destruction was reminiscent of what he had seen in Turkey several months ago. Nineteen thousand people died in that calamity, which is, at most, a faint memory in America. Hundreds of thousands die routinely when cyclones strike Bangladesh.
The dishonor roll of evil in which death was a million or hundreds of thousand times greater than on Sept. 11 include the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, Cambodia and Uganda. I do not mention these others to minimize the horror of the terrorist attacks, but to put them into context.
The reason this causes us to question God's existence is that it happened to us. It is a part of human egocentricity that we always suffer other people's hurts more lightly than our own. I have known many people who never questioned God's love or existence when other people developed cancer. It was sad, but they accepted it as a part of life. But when it struck them or their loved one, they suffered a crisis of faith. I have no doubt I would experience the same kind of crisis of faith if one of my children or my wife were to be threatened by a potentially fatal disease.
It is all evil, and not just this one, horrific, ostentatious act of terrorism that should cause us to wonder about God's existence and goodness. How can we reconcile a supposedly loving God with the evil we see in this world?
One answer would be that this was punishment by a righteous God. To his regret (he has apologized), the Rev. Jerry Falwell suggested the attack was God's judgment against us. He singled out gays and the American Civil Liberties Union among other liberal groups that, he claimed, bore responsibility for the "just punishment."
While God may be displeased with some of the actions of American liberals, there is a good chance he is just as displeased with some of the actions of American conservatives.
God allows us free will, and evil will always exist, because people will always choose to use what is meant for good to be used for evil. It is a terrible price to pay for freedom. But without such freedom, love is an impossibility. As a Christian, I believe that in the Crucifixion/Resurrection, God has chosen to share in and redeem the sin and suffering caused by our misuse of this absolutely necessary freedom of choice.
That is how I reconcile the love of God with the destruction of the World Trade Center.
The Rev. Mike Macdonald is pastor of Broad Street UMC in Mooresville, N.C.
Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.
Last updated on 01/14/2004