Marty Sweeney / 6th June 2006
The below mentioned article struck me in another way. I've often wondered about people who lose their faith because of a tragedy. People always have serious questions about God and the meaning of suffering when they are confronted with an awful event such as Hurricane Katrina. There is nothing unusual or even wrong with that kind of questioning. It becomes dangerous when such a person persists in what is an explicitly selfish line of thinking.
The woman in the article said that she lost her faith in God because of the devastation caused by Katrina. Being a resident of New Orleans at that time, she witnessed all of it personally. But, in our age of information, we've all had ample enough information about any tragedy to question God and potentially lose our faith. Why wouldn't seeing the devastation from the Tsunami cause her to lose her faith? Why wouldn't reading about Auschwitz in her history classes cause her to lose her faith? It seems that her loss of faith isn't so much about trusting a God that could let this happen as it is about trusting a God who could let this happen to her.
I've dealt with similar issues when people suffering an unexpected loss of a loved one. I had one such person begin to question God's fairness in allowing ‘bad people to live but good people to die young.’ This is a natural response to such an event; but the questioning continued to the point where this person was seriously considering giving up believing in a fair and just God. So, in a loving way, I had to point out to that she had to witness many similarly unfair happenings in her life—through friends, news, history, etc. Why was it this event that caused her to think this way? It was because the unfairness hit closer to home than it ever had before.
Both types of situations provide genuine opportunity to bring people back to the person of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who provided a cure for selfishness and a demonstration of absolute selflessness.
Marty Sweeney / 5th June 2006
When I check my e-mail, there are always links to news articles on the side of the page. One such link caught my attention—“She's lost her faith—he's mad”.
The article was one of those write-in question therapy columns. A young lady living in New Orleans lost her faith after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. She is dating a young man who is troubled by the fact that she doesn't share his faith in the Lord. So, she sought help from this ‘expert’ on love and relationships.
Some of the advice given wasn't bad. However, I couldn't help noticing one of the recommendations:
Look out for number one: It may not be a very Christian concept, but right now you need to do whatever it takes to feel hopeful about life in general. Don't invest time or emotion in people who don't make you feel good. This doesn't mean the only people you can hang out with should constantly feed your ego, but you should be getting something (confidence, security, benevolence) from the interaction.
Of course, this advice doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is how open the ‘expert’ was in pointing out that her advice wasn't Christian. It is rare that someone will openly admit something like that.
However, what troubled me the most was how much I fail to live up to my own judgment. It was so easy for me to spot that sentence: “Don't invest time or emotion in people who don't make you feel good”. I was so quick to realize how this is the antithesis of Christian love. Christian love is about giving and sacrificing for the sake of another, just as Christ did for us, no matter what is given in return. Yet, as I thought about my circle of friends and acquaintances, I realized that I do not act differently than the advice I was so quick to condemn.
Luke 6:32, 35 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them ... But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
Emma Thornett / 4th June 2006
/ All around the world...
From a Briefing reader:
I was watching the ABC news the other night, and saw a segment on Pope Benedict's visit to Auschwitz, Germany. I was very disappointed to hear Pope Benedict query God's silence while victims were tortured and massive numbers of people were killed in Auschwitz and other German death camps in WWII.
The one bit that made it to air, that thousands of Australians would have watched, showed the Pope askig a rhetorical question: “Where was God in those days?” The Pope should have followed that up with words from the Bible, clearly stating that God has never left us or ignored our pain and that we will all face judgement.
Good point, although it's worth remembering the editing that goes on with these things. There's every possibility Pope Benedict provided an answer to his own question, and the ABC edited it out. “Where was God in those days?” coming from the Pope makes a fantastic sound bite for the secular media.
I guess we'll never know if it was edited, but as our reader points out, we do always know where God is.
