In response to the my recent post about the film ‘God on Trial’ I am going to post excerpts from an article I wrote called ‘What is God doing?’

This is the big question for all of us trying to stumble through life. What is it all about? If there IS a God, what is he doing? Does he not see all the pain and suffering in the world? Why does he allow the flowering of such evil in the lives of those created in his image? How about landslides and Tsunami’s and earthquakes? So many lives snuffed out casually and with no discernible heavenly distress. What is he doing?

Some members of my family, who I love, have looked at this God of ours, and come to the conclusion that religion is all smoke and mirrors, behind which lies emptiness. Evolution brought us here, they would say, and we will leave nothing behind but a DNA chain (if we are lucky) when we end. On the few occasions I have tried to talk about this a little more with them, we have rarely got beyond the spectre of starving children. No God of love could allow such a thing, ergo there is no God. I try to reply, but even to my ears, the words sound weak, and inadequate. Because I too want to ask Him, what are you doing?

The teachings of the church over millennia have had to grapple with these same problems, and some explanations have been offered. Some of these answers now seem shallow at best, and others downright repugnant. Perhaps we should not judge too harshly those who have carried the responsibility of interpreting such mysteries for others. A simple certainty can be very seductive.

I decided to try to gather together some of the main perspectives that had been handed down to me through my own tradition – a kind of review of the arguments- a view from the anthill.

Sin

Some would say that bad things happen to people for a reason, as judgement on those who have sinned and displeased God. We can justify this statement by following the story lines of the Old Testament – evidence of a punishing and wrathful God can be found. There have been those throughout the history of the church who have used this image of God to explain famine, flood and loss in battle. More recently, through high profile disasters, voices have again been raised proclaiming Gods judgement on those outside his laws. The attack on the twin towers in Manhattan was seen as just rewards on New York’s gay community. The Tsunami was proclaimed as an attack on the largely Moslem countries found around the Indian Ocean. Sure, many non-Moslems, and non-gay people died, but they were innocent victims killed by friendly fire. I am not making this up, honestly!

A powerful school of thought, which has gained dominance, particularly in evangelical and fundamentalist circles, has increasingly seen the course of history in terms of dispensations. The world as we know it is in decline- sliding towards its inevitable destruction. It has been so bad that first God decided to remove his Holy Spirit, and eventually will remove his Church, prior to the end times, when the world will be destroyed, and replaced with Planet Earth, mark 2. The end result is a world view that sees the sinful and faulty planet as a hopeless case. The sooner we all leave it, the better. The more we isolate ourselves and live as a people set apart, the better. When bad things happen, they will be an inevitable consequence of living in a world fragmenting and falling into destruction.

Other teachers who have studied the Bible describe a different version of the fall of man- going something like this. God made the world, and over all placed men (and women). He gave free will to his people, and when they turned from Him, all creation groaned. Everything became out of balance, distorted and discordant. From this process, rivers flood, volcanoes erupt and people fight, grab and lust- sin is let loose on all creation. God did not give up. Throughout history, he has tried to offer men and women redemption and the chance to participate with Him in a different way of being, but we live in a world untransformed and awaiting a final day when, according to the bible, Jesus will return. According to this view of history, our understanding of sin is still crucial to ideas of why bad things happen in the world, but it is about an unfolding process, not about individual guilt.

Powerful and biblical though this picture is, I still feel pangs of dissatisfaction. Does God sit next to some great cosmic scales of justice waiting for the sands to run out, watching us all running our little human races? Having the means to intervene and sort out this mess, but not the inclination?

This image of God troubles me greatly. This is a distortion of all that I have come to believe and hope for. I believe in a God who tempers anger with mercy, to such an extent that he sent his own Son to take on the sin of a fallen world. I believe in a gospel that proclaims the coming of a new Kingdom HERE and NOW, introducing the constant tension between our calling to work for good in our time, whilst living in hope for a future when all things will be made new.