I remember in one of my Theology classes a student asked the question, “Does God bestow evil as well as good?” The professor took a long time to answer while fifty students waited. Finally, he said, “Yes, I suppose so.” He then went on to defend his position that if God was omnipotent – all powerful; and if God was well, just “Omni” – all, then yes, God must be the purveyor of good and evil. It doesn’t seem to make sense.
Another professor expounded for weeks on the nature of evil, but attributed it to the failings of us poor miserable humans who were somehow disconnected from God. I can understand that position when people treat other people with evil and malice. After all, we do know (most of us) the difference between behaving well and behaving badly toward each other. I guess that makes some sense.
Then I think about Katrina and the tsunami and Haiti and a myriad of other disasters – natural disasters we call them – that wreak havoc and chaos and death on hundreds of thousands of people. This is not people being evil to others. In fact, it is during these times that people somehow put down their mantles of prejudice and egocentrism and reach out to help everyone. No matter what race or creed or religion or anything. We help each other. What doesn’t make sense to me is why we don’t do that as a natural way of being humans every day, all the time.
But getting back to natural disasters. Some blame God saying it was to wipe out evil people or payback for some evil sin of the people. Nonsense. If we believe the Biblical scriptures that say God is Spirit, life, truth, light, love, creation….then maybe it does make sense that these events come from God. But not in the sense of punishment. All kinds of people, good, bad, indifferent, young, old, black, white, yellow, Christian, Voodoo, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, men, women, children – died in these disasters. God didn’t kill the bad guys and save the good guys. It just doesn’t make sense.
What does make sense is that our planet, our universe, all of creation, is a living, moving, dynamic work of the divine, and fair winds and sunny skies don’t always prevail. We have storms and floods and quakes and hurricanes and fires. They are part of the nature of God’s creation. We humans are simply part of the landscape like the animals and the plants that lie in the path of these disasters. That makes sense.
And still we ask, “Where is God in all this?” Somehow we humans feel some entitlement that God should protect us from such disasters. And that doesn’t make sense. What does make sense is that God is in every single human being that responds to these disasters with love and help and compassion and caring. God is in the heart and soul and mind of each person who has survived and has the courage and strength and determination to pick up and rebuild and to make the best of life on God’s fragile planet earth. Thanks be to God, that is where God is!