Suffering in the World
James 1.2-3: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. “Well, I guess I should be one joyful mother fucker!”
Did you catch that? When the shit hits the fan, consider it joy (happiness, delight, pleasure, enjoyment, and even bliss); be grateful for it. When my mother died at 24. When my best friend died on my birthday. When my wife of 20 years said, “screw you” and got a divorce. When my son was killed in a car accident at 22. All pure joy—oh the bliss, the pleasure! And notice what James goes on to say. This “pure joy” will test your faith. Uh-oh—this can’t be good, at least not for me. According to Jimmy here, I’ve completely failed this test. In his admonishment to believers everywhere, he goes on to say that if you fail to be faithful, if you fail to continue drinking the Kool Aid, you will be “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
Holy shit—and I thought god was so loving; that his love was unconditional. Does that look anything like unconditional love to you? No matter what hell you go through, keep believing, keep being faithful, don’t doubt, don’t ever get angry at god or blame him for what you’re going through. And, if you do, don’t expect god to give you a damn thing—except, possibly, more “pure joy” in the form of more suffering. After all, he wants you to love him unconditionally, even though that unconditional love is certainly not reciprocated. And it gets worse—if your hell on earth causes you to doubt, you are double-minded and unstable in all you do. According to Merriam-Webster.com, double minded means; wavering in mind, marked by hypocrisy. Hypocrisy—if you don’t consider everything you’ve gone through “pure joy”, James is saying you are a hypocrite. Think about this in light of the control aspect christianity uses to hold its prisoners (its own) hostage. “Gee—I don’t want to be considered a hypocrite by my peers and especially not by the pastor, so thank you Jesus that I was raped as a kid. My, what joy that was.”
The former paragraphs set the backdrop for the remainder of this section. In spite of all the suffering and hell we go through, never ever – EVER, is god to be blamed or faulted for anything—ever (Got that?)
Watch the news for a few minutes, read a newspaper, scroll through news sites online, and it won’t take you long to learn of more and more horrific things that are happening around the world—or in your backyard. Dictators of foreign countries ordering mass killings. People killing in the name of Allah…or whatever they choose to call their god. Suicides. Car accidents. Drive by shootings. Child sex trafficking. Kidnappings. Rape. Murder. Africa…the list is seemingly endless. Many of you need only look back in time in your own life—some decades ago, others recently, many currently. You’ve been abused physically, emotionally, sexually. You’ve been abandoned. You’ve been neglected. You’ve been…again, the list goes on and on. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this thing called life can be a shit-show. I am reminded of Meatloaf’s song, “Life Is a Lemon.” Some of the lyrics therein so accurately and poignantly say, “Life is a lemon, and I want my money back.” It goes on to ask, “What about faith? It's defective! It's tattered and it's frayed! What about your gods? They're defective! They forgot the warranty.”
I also think of George Carlin’s “Religion Is Bullshit” bit. In it, he says that he really tried to believe in god, but the more he looked around, the older he got, the more difficulty he had in believing. He said that if god created us, loves us, and keeps a close eye on things, something is fucked up. He went on to say, “If this is the best god can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being.” I agree.
Think about it; an all-powerful, all-knowing god decides to create mankind, to be in relationship with, to love, to enjoy his other creations. Everything goes well until the fruit debacle, fast forward, and now we are living in a shit-show where we suffer all kinds of unimaginable tragedies, where at times people would rather be dead than alive, where living is often a life sentence of hell on earth. And yet, god is considered good and loving. Every time I heard the song “Good good Father”, I could not sing along, and got angry, as I could not bring myself to believe anything remotely like that. And to add insult to injury, we are expected to consider it all joy.
If you had the power to create a living being, would you allow it to suffer like we do? Hell—most of us would break a car window to free a dog left in a hot car; we certainly wouldn’t let him suffer. And think about how people would feel about the jerk who left the dog in that situation in the first place; he most likely would face some sort of legal action. Not god, however. Nope—he’s a good good father, remember. He is love. And nothing that happens is his fault or his liability. I’ve heard all the bullshit regarding sin and Adam and Eve, and how it’s not god’s fault, but ours for eating the damn apple in the first place. According to chrisitanity, the god who created us and caused this hell on earth—the cause of our suffering, is also the solution.
It is unfathomable that a loving, all powerful, all knowing god, would create mankind—in his image, nonetheless, only to have it come to this. To what we now call life. I challenge you—watch the news, read a newspaper, Google starvation in Africa, Google child sex trafficking facts, study the horrific acts committed by Hitler. Try and comprehend the fact that the current number one cause of death to people under 50 in this country is drug overdose. Then sit back, push aside the typical bullshit you’ve been force fed about god and his goodness and his total exoneration of anything bad, and do a gut check. Is the hell you’ve just witnessed indicative of a good god? Imagine him saying, “But I warned them in the garden. It’s not my fault.”
If god truly is so powerful, why does he stand by and watch his creation that he supposedly loves so much suffer? I know all the bullshit that evangelical christians will spew in order to make god still be the good guy. That is the problem with so much of christianity. They believe a, b, d, and g, which, on their own, make no sense and are incongruent. Therefore, in order to make them congruent, and in an attempt to make sense out of them, they must make up c, e, f, and h. And from that “filling in the gaps” or making shit up in a feeble attempt to make christianity make sense, comes the bullshit spouted so often by christians trying desperately to make god this good good father they have stated unequivocally that he is.
· “He is using everything for our good.”
· “He is in control and knows what he is doing.”
· “His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.”
· “It is sin that is the reason for all the suffering and evil.”
· “The devil is behind all evil.”
· “He operates in the light while we live in the dark.”
· “He is/was humbling me.”
I could continue at length but will allow those to suffice. The problem with their thinking - that it is sin and the devil, is this. No matter how you “package” it or explain it, at the end of the day, according to christianity, it is god who created us as well as the devil. It is god who created the Garden of Eden, and then placed the forbidden fruit in the middle of the garden. It is god who set into motion every single thing that happened. According to theology, god knew ahead of time what would happen, and yet he still moved forward with this stellar plan. Think about that—that little child, say three years old, that has just been raped by their father. God knew that was going to happen and did nothing to prevent it. Let me ask you; would you have prevented it, given the opportunity and the means to do so? I rest my case.
Allow me to address the subject of free will. Of course, that is the evangelical’s favorite explanation for the problem of suffering. The fault lies with the person who exercised his free will to…whatever horrific thing you care to imagine; therefore, our Abba daddy is still a good good daddy. Never mind that it was his plan in the first place that set everything into motion. And of course, free will is brought up when the subject of Adam and Eve is discussed. They used their free will, and therefore, they are the ones culpable, not…you guessed it—our good good heavenly father. Their explanation purposely avoids any mention of any culpability on god’s part, instead blaming Adam and Eve, the snake, free will, the devil, and the fall. And those same people will say that if they had been there in the garden when the snake talked, they would have done the exact same thing; they would have dined on forbidden fruit as well. (I wonder what wine pairs well with forbidden fruit? Perhaps some of that wine Jesus made from water?) That very argument calls into question the subject of free will. If they are so convinced that they would have eaten the fruit, what does that say about free will? If they truly would have had free will, how do they know that they wouldn’t have done things differently? It sounds more and more like an almighty set up to me, as well as a feeble attempt to let god off the hook.
Christianity lets god off the hook for the hell his creation is going through; it states that god is not responsible for the hell we go through, even though he created us and set into motion (knowing full well what would happen) the set of events that have both led us to the shit storm we are in and have become his creation’s excuse for letting him off the hook. Think about it—if you created something, wouldn’t you be responsible for its wellbeing? Or would you set into motion a chain of events that would both fuck your creation over and release you of any culpability in the matter?
Christians come up with some of the dumbest shit (remember the alphabet analogy earlier) to let god off the hook. This comes about when there is something in the bible or the faith that really makes no sense yet is a cornerstone of their belief. In this case, the belief that they so desperately cling to is that god is good, loving, kind, and has never wronged or harmed us. In order to make a, b, d, and g congruent, and seem to make sense, they have to come up with some real bullshit, i.e., c, e, f, and h. In this case, a, b, d, and g are that god is good and is not responsible for our suffering, etc. The c, e, f, and h—the bullshit, in part, that they make up in an attempt to rectify a blatant problem with their theology is:
1. It is sin and the devil.
2. Man had a choice; he freely chose to disobey god, thereby ushering in all hell on earth.
3. God wants us to be uncomfortable in this life, so that we will long for heaven. (I can’t make this shit up; someone actually said this to me not long ago.)
4. They will use Romans 8.18, which says, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.” So, there you have it—all the hell you have gone through, are going through, all the horrific things you see happening in your backyard, your neighborhood, or on the other side of the world—it’s all okay and all worth it, because it will be so much better in heaven, that we will apparently just forgive and forget all that happened prior to this coming glory. I guess the end justifies the means. Imagine that defense in a courtroom: Yes, your honor, I kidnapped her and raped her when she was just 10, and then kept her locked up and used her for my pleasure for the next 10 years. However, you haven’t heard the entire story. This will make it all okay and will most likely make everyone see what a great guy I am—heck, my victim may even come to thank me before it’s all over. After several years of admittedly holding her against her will, I began to give her more and more things, paid for an online education for her, gave her the “best” of my “love”, was “faithful” to her, and provided her with everything she ever needed. She had the best of everything; she never needed a thing. “Being with me” afforded her opportunities she may not have had otherwise. And the real reason you should acquit me—she never would have truly been able to appreciate freedom, if I hadn’t first subjected her to captivity in the first place. While this is utterly absurd, it unfortunately parallels all too well the justifying that goes on within christianity, with their arguing that god is good, in spite of…
5. No matter what, god will use it for your good. Well, ain’t that reassuring?! Everything happens for a reason, so they say. What reason? What is it that god could not have accomplished, were it not for that little girl being raped, for that father being murdered? Of course it had to happen; after all, god is using it for the good of his creation. Holy hell—whatever that might be; whatever “good” might come from it—is it worth the rape or the murder itself? If god is truly looking out for the good of his creation, doesn’t it seem that a better way to do so would have been to prevent the murder in the first place? Yes, I killed him, but I wrote the family a letter of apology, and in doing so, discovered that I am a really good writer. I am now enrolled in Journalism classes and have several great job prospects. And all of that would never had happened if I hadn’t killed him in the first place. It seems obvious that I should be acquitted for the murder, as good has come out of; can’t you see that it happened for a reason?
It seems to me that instead of having a god who uses such horrific things “for our good”, we would be much better off if we had a god who never created a system in which they would occur in the first place. ~continues in Part Ten
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