A GROTESQUE CARICATURE OF A GENTLE GOD

 

'In the beginning God created man, and man returned the compliment'

(Blaise Pascal)

 

I like getting letters - mostly. Even the unpleasant ones in which people call me names, even threaten, at least they recognise my existence and suggest that perhaps someone, somewhere may have been provoked to a spot of original thought. We all need to be provoked into thought at times for we do have a tendency to believe something just because we've always believed it. Sometimes I think it's better to exercise the grey matter and get it wrong than it is to be right by accident.

 

An article I wrote entitled, 'Where was God when the tsunami struck?' about the Asian tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 was published in a Christian magazine. Here's an extract;

'There aren't any quick and easy answers to the question, "Where was God when the tsunami struck?", but while we can't be sure why God allowed it to happen, we can be sure that he is grieving alongside those who grieve. We can also be sure that God is working in the hearts of millions of people all across the world as they respond to the suffering.'

I thought it was a fair comment, because to me, we can't ever hope to understand all the ways of the Almighty; history is replete with examples of things going wrong when people thought they could. And there is no doubt that God mourns with those who mourn, at the same time, moving mean people to generosity and generous people to unprecedented levels of selfless giving.

Anyway, I got this thick-ish envelope in response from 'Cyril.' It was packed with newspaper cuttings and a collection of scribblings and notes, but there was a letter too, the contents of which wrenched my gut: 'God did the job' the letter began, and then in reaction to the magazine article he went on to vent a torrent of anger and bitterness.

In summary; Buddhists are ill-treating Christians in Sumatra, and God arranged a vertical seismic shift in the earth's tectonic plates so that 350,000 people, 40% of them children, were swept mercilessly into eternity - and it serves them right.

 

Now that's an example of an individual who needs to be provoked into some serious original thought, for even the tiniest consideration of biblical truth would comprehensively dismantle any notion of such a wicked, capricious God. For example, 'The Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all generations' (Psalm 100:5). And another; 'Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail' (Lamentations 3:22).

 

I think it's down to what Blaise Pascal said; 'In the beginning God created man, and man returned the compliment.' We're good at creating a God who perfectly matches our prejudices and bigotry. The person who wrote me that letter, one can safely assume, is filled with a yearning for vengeance, perhaps born of fear, and then he projects that vengeance onto his god. For me, the most sickening part of the letter was the sentence, 'God did the job.' You can sense his pride in his warrior king who laid waste vast tracts of fertile land and thousands of tiny fragile homes in a tidal wave of white-hot fury, but leaves people like him unscathed.

 

Isn't that a horrible caricature of a creator who stoops to bind up the broken hearted, who cares for the widow and the orphan, and wipes away every tear? Having said all that, there's always the danger of missing the sad fact that we in the 'advanced West' aren't all that far behind Cyril's twisted thinking. For example, I always shudder when I see that little plaque in churches that says, 'To the glory of God and in memory of the fallen.' No doubt the same words could be inscribed in many a church across Germany, Argentina, Iraq and Japan, for God was on their side too.

 

Cyril is wrong, and I really believe that when he finally meets his Maker he'll be pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile I'll encourage him to read Psalm 103.