Thursday, September 23, 2010

What Is There to Say?

Is there anyone who has not been exposed to the ghastly details of the Petit Family murders in Connecticut? The trial of the first of the two accused murderers began last week, and the news is full almost daily of new details of the horrible events three years ago that led to the near-fatal beating of Dr. William Petit and the torture and murder of his wife Jennifer and daughters Hayley and Michaela. Though it has been more than three years since the murders, making sense of any of it has not come for this writer. I doubt that it ever shall. Even when we can say that God's gracious granting of free will means that we can use that freedom for good, or evil, it does nothing to lessen the horror of the terrible deaths of three women who, by all accounts, led exemplary lives and were loved by many. The question that has haunted me, and others with whom I have spoken, is this: Where was God when those women were exposed to the most terrible abuse and then set ablaze? I recall reading Night, by Eli Wiesel, where he describes the horror of being a child in a concentration camp and watching, helplessly, as the Nazis hanged a young boy as a lesson to the other prisoners. Wiesel heard someone cry out, "Where is God?" From within himself, Wiesel heard a silent voice say, "God is there, on the gallows." One can take that to mean that God was with that child in the moment of his death. One can also understand it to mean that God died on that gallows, along with that child. I want to believe the first example, that God was there and did not allow that child to be alone. The end result? The child died an agonizing death. Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela died painful deaths, one by strangulation and two by fire and smoke inhalation. Did it make a difference to those dear souls that God was there with them? I don't know. I think that there are times when all we can do is be silent and hope, and wonder and pray. If Christian faith teaches us anything, it is that the righteous die or are murdered and it is unjust. We must admit that we work from our own ideas of justice and fairness and what is right, not God's. Since God witnessed God's own child being executed for doing nothing wrong, we can assume that God knows of our existential plight. But does that change anything? Does anyone really think that what happened to the Petit family was God's will, that, somehow, a greater good will be served by what happened in Cheshire three summers ago?
I work at an institution of higher education, and a very good one. We strive everyday to arrive at certainty about some things. This matter, though, to quote Abraham Lincoln, is "beyond our poor powers to add or detract." The perpetrators are on trial for murder and may face the death penalty. And if they are sentenced to death and the orders are someday carried out, in less horrific circumstances than those of their victims, will justice have been served? Will it change anything? The loss of the Petit family member's lives is permanent, and nothing can change that. If there is peace for them in a life beyond this one, does it make what happened to them any less terrible? No, it does not. People will continue to die at the hands of individuals, and gangs and governments, and it will never be made right in this world. So, what are people of faith to do? We can only stand in silence, and hope, and wonder and pray.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Islam and the World Trade Center Site, Redux

The issue of the Islamic Center near (yes, near, it is not right across the street!) the World Trade Center site continues to percolate in the media. But now, a little known pastor from Florida has captured the word's attention by threatening to burn hundreds of copies of the Qur'an on the lawn of his church. Now he is demanding to meet with leaders and is basically telling persons in government and real estate that, if they do not accede to his wishes, he will burn the holy books. I have this nagging question that will not go away: Why is he receiving all of this media attention? Has it occurred to anyone that, had the media not jumped on this, he would not even be a blip on the radar of the word's concerns? Could we spend just a fraction of the time and ink that has been given to this man to say that the media created this firestorm, yet they portray themselves as performing a public service in covering it non-stop. I have written before on this blog that an
Islamic Center near the World Trade Center site could be a real step forward in efforts to promote inter-religious understanding. What, Muslims are off-limits in those few square blocks of downtown Manhattan? Did all of their adherents commit the atrocities of September 11, 2001? No. Matter of fact, NONE of their adherents carried out those heinous acts. Islamic extremists should not be lumped in with religious Muslims in the United States, or anywhere else, anymore than Christian extremists like Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham should be lumped together with all Christians. Remember Pat Robertson's comments, along with the late Jerry Falwell, that the events of Sept. 11, 2001 were the result of God's judgment against homosexuals and those who permit abortions? Why does a pastor of a little church in Central Florida have the right to call the shots, and receive attention from national leaders trying to appease him? We were founded as a nation that values the freedom of religion, and of its citizens to worship, or not worship. This whole business reflects a reality that things are out of balance, and that extremism in various sectors is driving the media and public sentiment. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism Buddhism..and the other major world religions advocate peace and understanding, no matter how a few ill-intentioned or ill-informed adherents may seek to have us believe otherwise. I am tempted to print up a tee-shirt with the words, "Self-avowed, Practicing Mainline Protestant." The Christian faith that I follow is a proud tradition, and must not to be left to extremists to interpret. Rev. Terry Jones and I do not belong to the same faith tradition, no matter what he would have you believe.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Lions and Tigers and Stephen Hawking. Oh My!

To no one's surprise, the news today is rife with the news of Stephen Hawking's declaration that it was gravity, not God that created the universe. In fairness to Hawking, this latest declaration was just a logical outcome of work that he had already been doing concerning the origins of the universe. Has anyone stopped to consider that Hawking makes this declaration as a physicist and not as a theologian? Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, of the UK, offers an insightful rejoinder to the whole discussion: "There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. They are different intellectual enterprises." The truth of the matter is that this latest scientific pronouncement does little to change the beliefs of people on either side, and that is as it should be. Having said that, folks who take the creation story in Genesis as literal fact will have trouble with it. They will get lots of airtime on the major TV networks, I am sure. The television networks never consult mainstream theologians and biblical scholars, because those folks will not feed the frenzy with hyperbole. Instead, they will calmly reason that we are talking about apples and oranges here. Faith has never been about proof, though one may be hard pressed to find folks who crave the limelight who agree with that statement. Faith is about living with our realities in light of a belief in a loving and creating God. The element of mystery is essential to faith, for it keeps the element of the transcendent about it. I always loved science in high school and college, and have never had a problem with science and theology co-existing. Why must we feel that one must somehow make sense of the other? Though recently I heard someone excoriate the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews' assertion that "faith is the evidence of things not seen" I still agree with the concept. Faith is evidence, not proof. Why can't we live with that?