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Dealing with Difficult Questions
Life in general and our belief system in particular, is riddled with many contradictions and difficult questions. Recognising this, I find that I am disturbed by people who have all the answers, particularly when it is evident that they have not taken the trouble to try to clearly understand the questions. I am even more deeply offended when someone throws in a biblical “proof text”, believing that this should end any and all discussion around these difficult questions.
I am writing this piece in an effort to help both myself and others understand why it is that I have such a strong, gut wrenching, reaction against the above; I invite considered responses from anyone willing to make the effort to provide a thoughtfully reply. For the sake of brevity I will refer to just two occurrences in my life that I think can bring some clarity to some of the reasons behind my reaction.
In 1983, when my first born child was still just weeks old, I was locked-up in John Vorster Square, for my opposition to apartheid. I was released, not as a hero who stood up for what he believed in, but into a community in which the vast majority of my friends and relatives believed that I was a traitor; where many of my church family preached at me, decrying my impudence at challenging the Nationalist Government who, “were clearly in power at the will of God”. Those preaching at me had no shortage of “proof texts”. These texts clearly “proved” that not only was the then government in power because that was God’s will, but also that the government’s policies were fulfilling the mandate of Scripture.
Through this experience I learned that quoting a Bible text without reference to its context is not only dishonest, but a gross abuse of Scripture.
In the light of the above experience, I am today deeply offended when people who were not even born at that time, offer simplistic explanations of how God intervened to end apartheid. I know that this system of government was not ended simply because people prayed about it. (As stated above, there were many who, armed with a formidable arsenal of “proof texts” to defend their beliefs, sincerely believed that apartheid was the will of God and who were sincerely praying, believing that God would protect both the government and the apartheid state.) Apartheid was ended because people were willing to get up off their knees and do something about the injustices that were being perpetrated.
The second event that I would like to describe happened approximately two decades after the first.
On that Monday morning, when Cheryl and I heard that Amanda and Bonita Churms had been involved in a car accident and that Bonita had been severely injured, we dropped what we were doing and within an hour of hearing the news were at the hospital. We spent that entire day with our friends and as much time as we could over the next two or three weeks with them. It is difficult watching the pain of people one loves, knowing that there is nothing that one can do to ease that pain.
As a parent, and despite our close association with the Churms family during that time, I cannot begin to imagine what the agony of loosing a child must be like. I however have sufficient respect for my friends to accept their word when they tell me that there is nothing ennobling or uplifting in that type of agony; and that an experience like that is at least as likely, if not more so, to shatter ones faith rather than build faith.
I am therefore deeply disturbed, no I am angered by people who glibly state that God brings (or allows thereby being complicit in) suffering, in order to test us or to train us. I would find it easier to be an atheist than to believe in a god that would willingly cause his children such pain.
The above are only two experiences in a lifetime filled with many disappointments and unanswered prayers. Disappointment with God led to many years of anger at Him.
Today I have learned that God understands and accepts our anger. He would rather have our anger than have us simply ignoring Him. I have come to understand that there are many things that I simply do not understand and am willing to wait for him to explain these to me. I however retain a profound aversion to simplistic answers and I am convinced that when dealing with life’s difficult questions, simply throwing in a Bible text without reference to its context can be, and sadly all too often is, the most destructive form of dishonesty.
Courtenay Harebottle
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Comments
Although I am pleased that you can relate to my thoughts as expressed in the article it is not so much your agreement, as the fact that you took the time and trouble to respond, that matters. I would be just as thankful to hear, and try to understand, the thoughts and reactions of anyone who might disagree with me on this or any of the other articles that I have posted.