Response to http://jmm.org.au/articles/4810.htm

I (RC) wrote:

There are about eight classical Christian responses to the question ‘Why Suffering?’ and one is better than the other seven. See http://jmm.org.au/articles/4810.htm

BF responded:

What? You’re going to make me actually READ something? Sheesh…

“Where is God when an eight year old girl – a good, happy little girl – is abducted from her bed one night by a stranger, then slowly tortured, raped, strangled, and left in a gutter? Where is God when an earthquake kills three quarters of a million people in China? When millions of Russians are killed by Stalin? When Australian Aboriginal babies are buried alive with their heads above the ground, and the British ‘civilizers’ have a competition to see how far they can kick those heads – with the parents forced to watch?”

BF

Where is God at these times? On his throne accepting worship. Rowland, that is sick.

RC

“Suffering is inevitable.”

BF

Yes, thanks to God’s inaction.

RC

“Most suffering – not all – happens because humans are ‘free’ to do good or evil to themselves or others.”

BF

Possibly. But this is really two issues. If I do something dumb and hurt myself, OK. But why does God not protect the weak from the strong? If a policeman walking his beat came upon a mugger who was about to pounce on a little old lady, and if the policeman did not stop it, he would be considered morally retarded. No one would say, “Hey, you can’t compromise the mugger’s free will!”

RC

“Pain is ‘good’ when it alerts us to a physical, psychological or social problem that needs fixing. “

BF

If pain is good, then heaven will be bad because there will be no pain there.

RC

“However, a follower of Jesus affirms that ultimately the power of good over evil is greater than the power of evil over good.”

BF

This is really just a denial of the problem.

RC

“The religion of the Bible puts human suffering into a cosmic context…”

BF

This is another way of saying that suffering is inevitable.

RC

“God’s answer is ‘incarnational’, not philosophical. Where there’s suffering, another’s presence is always more compassionate than ‘answers’. God suffers for us and with us. That’s awesome, when you think about it.”

BF

No it’s not. This is probably the worst answer of all. What good did God’s presence do that little baby girl while she was gang-raped and probably infected with a deadly incurable virus? God being there and doing nothing makes it all the worse.

RC

“What ‘good’ is suffering, you ask? C.S. Lewis has a point when he says pain may be ‘God’s megaphone’ to rouse a deaf world: without suffering we could be careless about ultimate realities, deaf to God’s loving plea to seek him and find life. Then, many of his best saints (including Jesus) were ‘perfected through suffering’.”

BF

Some people do suffer and come out on the other end stronger. But others are warped by suffering.

RC

“So it’s not our suffering that matters most, painful as it is, but our response to it.”

BF

This is actually true, since God is apparently not going to do anything about it. That still doesn’t get him off the hook. There is something more than a little depraved about a God who uses quadriplegia to build character.

RC

Thank you BF for some very thoughtful responses. Haven’t time to comment now (I hope others will).

Re the last point: yes, that’s one of the questions I’m going to ask God.

But let me turn the whole thing around and talk about our ten-month-old granddaughter, who with her parents lives with us. She’s sick with gastro-enteritis (according to one doctor) or rotavirus (another doctor: anyone know the difference?). She trusts us, knows we love and cherish her, but she protests when a few things have to be forced on her to get nourishment into her. She’s in pain – and we hate that. And we have to inflict some pain (including the shots the doctor gives her). We hate that too. But we trust and hope and pray that the lesser pain/s will result in freedom from pain.

That’s the essence of the biblical witness about suffering (eg. Romans 8: 18 ff.). Our basic presupposition is faith/trust in a loving God. We – like our granddaughter – do not understand why he allows (and yes, sometimes *inflicts* suffering – like the plagues in Egypt etc.) but we trust him.

Does the pain seem disproportionate to any eternal benefits? Sometimes. Is the distribution of suffering unfair? Sure. But does God love his creatures? Yep: Calvary is the ultimate demonstration of that. Does that move us beyond reason into faith? Yes. Is this kind of faith irrational? No, it’s ‘suprarational’.

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Shalom!

Rowland Croucher