In my work as pastor and hospital chaplain I’m constantly asked, “How can God allow such suffering in the world?”
Faithful Christians die of cancer and heart disease; the military-industrial complex stages war-for-profit escapades in places such as Vietnam and Iraq, and thousands of U.S. service people are maimed or killed as a result; ISIS Sunni Muslims murder members of other faiths, and even other Muslims; bankers and hedge fund managers crash the economy, and while millions of Americans lose their jobs and homes as a result, the people responsible for the disaster enjoy their golden parachutes and never go to jail.
Then there are the “natural” disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, ebola and malaria — the list goes on and on.
As do the answers. Some think this misery is collective karmic punishment for what we’ve done in past lives (including hundreds of years of environmental degradation). Some think this is the result of mankind run amok in free-will atrocities (God gave Adam and Eve the choice of grace or free will, and the dummies chose free will). Some say greed and lust for power have completely overwhelmed our desire and capacity to love. Some say this is the result of power politics, organized religion and affiliations of the two.
Confusion about cause and effect in society is resulting in major conspiracy theories, which Internet media spreads willy-nilly. Was the destruction of the twin towers initiated by the CIA? Do the U.S. government and aliens have bases on the dark side of the moon? Has the government created FEMA prison camps to lock up libertarians? Did scientists create the AIDS virus? Was the Apollo 11 moon landing staged in a studio on earth? That list goes on, too.
One minute we’re accusing the government of being stupid and incompetent, the next we’re generating stories of super-controlling plans to bring about slavery and the end of democracy. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.
If God doesn’t hold us responsible for things we do when we’re crazy, then what about when a whole society, or societies, goes crazy together? To ask the question Firesign Theatre asked 43 years ago, “Are we all bozos on this bus?”
I say we are. I think we have exceeded our capacity to act rationally in our own best interests (the premise of capitalism), or to act with love in the interests of others (the premise of Christianity). We are failing to take responsibility for our actions as humans, and we are of a mind to blame God for all of it. To destroy ourselves and the world God gave us, and to blame God (for what? for giving us life and what was a paradise in the first place?) is the height of smug paranoia, and it can only lead to further destruction.
All the world’s mythologies, from Sumeria to India, from Hopi to Christian, tell stories of major destructions in the past, in which only a few survive to start the process again. One of the conspiracy theories — that several hundred military-industrial types will hide out in tunnels (already built under the Denver Airport) when they start World War III — may well be self-fulfilling.
Some of these issues about the role of God in the world will be discussed at length in a play this week at downtown Bangor’s Union Street Brick Church (at the corner of Union and Main streets). It’s titled “Freud’s Last Session” and based on an imagined discussion between C. S. Lewis, a Christian, and Sigmund Freud, an atheist, on whether faith in God is an asset or a liability. The show runs 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19 and 20 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21. Admission is free, and there will be a discussion following.
Lee Witting is pastor of the Union Street Brick Church, which has been doing theologically driven community theater since 2002. For more information, call 945-9798.