The eternal question of why bad things happen to good people resurfaced this week with the comments by Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. He was widely reported as saying that rape is God's will. What he said precisely was, "Life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen.” His comment propelled many people into a philosophical highdive into the deep end of the theology pool.
John South, a jail chaplain from Arizona, said that he knew of a twelve year old who was being raped repeatedly by her father. She came to the jail pregnant. CNN reports that South said, "that the girl... opted for an abortion and her father was ultimately convicted of rape. He said he grappled often with why she was subjected to such horrendous pain and torture, mentally, physically and emotionally. 'Did it shake my faith? No,' South said. 'Did I ask God why? Of course.'”
CNN also sought comment from Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the best-selling book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner said Mourdock’s remarks were off-base: “He’s invoking the will of God where it is not appropriate." The Catholic perspective was provided by Father Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. He said he found Mourdock’s comments troubling from a Catholic perspective because “God does not want rape to happen. Someone getting pregnant through rape simply means biology continues to function. That doesn’t mean God wills it."
So where is God in all this. People like Kushner set up a false dilemma by saying either God is not good, or else He is not all-powerful, both characteristics which traditional Bible scholars hold to be true. This is a false dilemma because it imagines a world where God must operate according to Rabbi Kushner's rules. In the real world created by the God of the Bible, evil exists because sin entered when Adam and Eve chose to reject God's perfect plan. The entire Bible narrative is about God's work to redeem the fallen creation, not least of all, sinful humans.
Father Reese makes a different but no less misleading suggestion that some things happen outside of God's will. Here things get sticky, and many people jump ship theologically speaking because the truth is not pretty. The truth as orthodox Christianity has presented it for centuries is that God is sovereign over all His creation. This uncomfortable position includes the question of evil. The book of Job and the record of God's dealing with recalcitrant Israel prove this to be the case, as it must be. If God were not in control of everything, then logic dictates that He could ultimately be in control of nothing.
John South said his experience with the pregnant incest victim made him ask God why she was subjected to such horror. This is precisely where most people fall victim to humanistic thinking. There are many things about God that we cannot know. The realm of "why" is filled with those things. The things we can know about God are revealed in the Scriptures and are accessible to anyone who will sincerely look for them. But we must not look only for answers we like. It may be that God, being sovereign will choose to do things mere mortals cannot understand. He may do things, allow things we will honestly hate.
In a fallen world, 12 year olds will be raped. This is not God's fault; this is man's fault for turning from God's perfect ways. The good news is that we are not trapped in the downward spiral of evil that assaults us every waking moment. We have a Savior; we have an escape; we have the assurance that even the worst imaginable thing can be turned into good eventually by the good God who works all things together for His purposes. We must not ask God why; we must ask what: what am I to learn from this. And then we must wait patiently for the day when evil is removed from the earth and righteoussness reigns. The only legitimate why quiestion might be, "Why not today?"
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