One of the effects of being in and then leaving the storefront evangelical church is that I am less and less willing to suffer religious fools gladly. And God, there are a lot of them. I am talking about people who basically live in a dream world with Jesus. You know the type.
About a month ago I was attending a charity basketball game when I got into a conversation with a woman, who when she found out where I worked started in about how if people would just eat right there wouldn't be the need for all these drugs. I said that there was some truth in what she was saying, but what about rare genetic diseases and such? Diet can't prevent those. "Oh," she said, "just trust in the Lord. Don't you trust in the Lord?" No, I told her point-blank, I don't. I trust in modern medicine. You should have seen the shock and horror on her face. "But--" she began. I said, "look, there is plenty of misery out there that your God is NOT taking care of. My job is to try to alleviate that misery. As long as God is not doing what He is supposed to be doing, then I have job security. I would LOVE to see the day when I have to find another line of work because there is no longer any need to develop medicines or cures. Until then, I don't have to worry." I don't know if anyone had ever talked to her quite like that before.
Which brings me to the recent Moore, Oklahoma tornado. For some reason God seems to have it out for that town. I think if I lived there I would seriously think about packing up and moving on. But here's the thing, that these seemingly sweet Jesus-crazed ladies (and it's almost invariably ladies) don't want to talk about. Well, I am going to talk about it.
First of all we are told that God knows everything. And that God is in control. That means, Darwin and Dawkins and others to the contrary, that there are no random events. "****" does not just happen.
So, if God knows everything and in control of everything, then what happened in Moore was not chance. God knew that there would be children in a school that was not built to withstand an EF-5 tornado and yet He steered that tornado dead-on to that school. This is not a human-caused act of violence like what happened in Connecticut. You can't invoke original sin or Adam's fall here. There was no human agency involved here. If you truly believe that God is in control then he deliberately and with full knowledge aimed that funnel cloud at those children, many who were probably praying to Him as the school collapsed.
Now, I can certainly conceive of a God who is capable of doing something like that. After all the Bible says that He had no trouble drowning every man, woman and child on earth except for a handful of people. Where I have a problem is that when people say this very same God is a God of love. Perhaps it is my Asperger's showing but that's not what I consider love.
I was reading a book for teens on growing up feeling good about yourself (a book I heartily wish had been available when I was that age), and there was a section on what is NOT normal, what is NOT love, that it is NOT normal for families to do certain things to their children like keep them confined or beat them or any of the other horrendous acts of abuse that are often passed off as love. And the children take it because they don't know any better. This book says, you don't have to take it. This is not how things are supposed to be. What a contrast to the picture painted in the Bible! There we are told that actions any normal, sane human being would consider abuse if they were committed by another human are actually signs of divine love. That we should be glad of such treatment.
I just wonder, do any of these folks who are caught up in a fantasy world with Jesus, ever ask Him about things like the Moore tornado? Or do they brush these things off because after all He is coming back soon?
About a month ago I was attending a charity basketball game when I got into a conversation with a woman, who when she found out where I worked started in about how if people would just eat right there wouldn't be the need for all these drugs. I said that there was some truth in what she was saying, but what about rare genetic diseases and such? Diet can't prevent those. "Oh," she said, "just trust in the Lord. Don't you trust in the Lord?" No, I told her point-blank, I don't. I trust in modern medicine. You should have seen the shock and horror on her face. "But--" she began. I said, "look, there is plenty of misery out there that your God is NOT taking care of. My job is to try to alleviate that misery. As long as God is not doing what He is supposed to be doing, then I have job security. I would LOVE to see the day when I have to find another line of work because there is no longer any need to develop medicines or cures. Until then, I don't have to worry." I don't know if anyone had ever talked to her quite like that before.
Which brings me to the recent Moore, Oklahoma tornado. For some reason God seems to have it out for that town. I think if I lived there I would seriously think about packing up and moving on. But here's the thing, that these seemingly sweet Jesus-crazed ladies (and it's almost invariably ladies) don't want to talk about. Well, I am going to talk about it.
First of all we are told that God knows everything. And that God is in control. That means, Darwin and Dawkins and others to the contrary, that there are no random events. "****" does not just happen.
So, if God knows everything and in control of everything, then what happened in Moore was not chance. God knew that there would be children in a school that was not built to withstand an EF-5 tornado and yet He steered that tornado dead-on to that school. This is not a human-caused act of violence like what happened in Connecticut. You can't invoke original sin or Adam's fall here. There was no human agency involved here. If you truly believe that God is in control then he deliberately and with full knowledge aimed that funnel cloud at those children, many who were probably praying to Him as the school collapsed.
Now, I can certainly conceive of a God who is capable of doing something like that. After all the Bible says that He had no trouble drowning every man, woman and child on earth except for a handful of people. Where I have a problem is that when people say this very same God is a God of love. Perhaps it is my Asperger's showing but that's not what I consider love.
I was reading a book for teens on growing up feeling good about yourself (a book I heartily wish had been available when I was that age), and there was a section on what is NOT normal, what is NOT love, that it is NOT normal for families to do certain things to their children like keep them confined or beat them or any of the other horrendous acts of abuse that are often passed off as love. And the children take it because they don't know any better. This book says, you don't have to take it. This is not how things are supposed to be. What a contrast to the picture painted in the Bible! There we are told that actions any normal, sane human being would consider abuse if they were committed by another human are actually signs of divine love. That we should be glad of such treatment.
I just wonder, do any of these folks who are caught up in a fantasy world with Jesus, ever ask Him about things like the Moore tornado? Or do they brush these things off because after all He is coming back soon?
