Oh Lord, who's to blame?

AuthorPuterbaugh, Dolores T.
PositionPerception of God to most Christians - PARTING THOUGHTS

EVERY DAY, I GIVE THANKS that I was born and raised immersed in an antique and musty theology. Dosed with a heady mix of Augustine and Aquinas, stirred with Chesterton and Ratzinger, I am spared the unbearable freedom of an Eckerd Tolle. Neither am I yoked by the perpetual responsibility to give birth to vague positive thoughts. Unfettered by newer versions of Christian theology, I am enraptured by a theology that embraces the best of the ancient philosophers, welcomes a heavy side of common sense, rips off rabbinical wisdom, and accepts that, amazingly, humans cannot understand all things.

Many modern forms of Christianity, and some tragically uninformed practitioners of the ancient forms, run about blaming God for everything. God wanted that man to get rich; He wanted that couple to be infertile; the Good Lord wanted that teenager to be killed. It is hard to assimilate this vengeful cross between Thor and a petulant five-year-old, doling out favors and arbitrary smitings, with any notion of a beneficent creator. Since many people build their concept of "God the Father" on whatever parent they had (hello, Sigmund Freud!), we might surmise that many people have not had very good fathers. Perhaps their dads seemed completely unpredictable, vengeful, and arbitrary, or perhaps they simply are parroting the "God's will" line without reflecting on it. Do they buy "free will" or "God's will?" Are they Calvinist or Hobbesian? I suspect that it has much to do with whether they are proud of an accomplishment or bitter about a failure-but that is an essay for another day.

If you believe in an omniscient God (and I do) then you believe God knows everything. However, knowing every thing and running everything are two different things. With scripture and science in agreement that the Earth and universe are not perfect but striving towards some sort of ultimate end, it is obvious we live in a flawed world. Add some imperfect creatures with free will, and you have a mess on your hands. The world can look like a vast, weaponized version of your kids' bedrooms after a long, rainy weekend. God sees everything at once as an infinite tapestry; He knows you cheated at checkers against your Uncle Ted and that someday your great-nephew Sammy will cheat and you will pretend not to know. That is not to say He will force Sammy to cheat or compel the aging, future you to chuckle and feign astonishment when you are quadruple-jumped.

Consider this from the earthly...

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