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Gore Vidal is said to describe this issue as “the Achilles heel of Christianity – how can a God who is good allow bad things to happen in His world?” CS Lewis considered the issue sufficiently important to collect the available wisdom he could find into a small book which he called “The Problem of Pain”.
The issue is not recent, many Psalms express vexation that the greedy and sinful succeed, that the honest are cheated and that the poor are ground into the dust. It was ever thus.
More recently I have encountered other prominent theologians who have struggled to address this issue – most preferring to believe that God really does not desire it, but that it is a consequence of the power of Satan, or of Original Sin, or some other invention which they believe is justified by their interpretation of some text. (Don't think I deny sin – it just does not explain pain and suffering.)
"Why me?” The question was put to me by the wife of a colleague who had then recently undergone a radical mastectomy for breast cancer – she asked me, looking into my eyes personally and intently, as though she thought I should know.
Why indeed? I had no idea, and I still have no idea. But equally, why not? Why should she hope to be spared the cancer? Why should cancer not be a part of God's creation? Does the Bible offer believers a life of comfort and ease? Rather the opposite.
When we look at the bad things which happen to us we often may find that the consequences are actually quite mixed. The things which cause us pain are often also the harbingers of growth, of personal development and of future pleasures or achievements of which we have little regret.
What are bad things? ‘Bad’ is merely an English word – it has a commonly accepted meaning and use. What is your definition of bad? My dictionary suggests ‘Having undesirable or negative qualities’ or ‘Feeling physical discomfort or pain’. Surely it means things for which we have a strong dislike. Isn't that our answer? It is simply what we do not like.
What WE do not like; note that what God thinks about it does not matter (as if we could know). It is what we think (or more to the point, what I think) that is important here. And that is the root of our problem, that god is too small. That god is limited to our idea of what is good and bad – that god has a comfortably human notion of what is good and what is bad. Well if that is your god I guess you are welcome to your belief.
Similarly our notions of what is fair, and our expectation that God should also conform to these – how petty. How small.
When we pray for rain in a drought, or for healing of some pain, or some other opportunity or avoidance which we desire, we express this view of a god who is limited to our notions of what is good or fair and we deny ourselves access to the truth that the Creator does not fit within our understanding. Instead of wanting things the way we would like them to be, we should seek understanding of how we should live with the way things are.
For myself, God has created me little different from the others of his world – some we label criminals others as saints, but these too are our labels. The Creator sees us all equally clearly. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” While ever this continues to include me I will rejoice in all of this creation – even though some experiences I may not like.
Original: April ‘00
This page is part of “Living in the Light”
found at: http://www.geocities.com/phoban2000/
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