I watched this video that is going viral on Facebook today and was angry.* I am angry at the logic of it. I am tired of the Christian attitude that "Jesus will make everything magically better." For years I have sat in churches and got the indirect but often direct message that if you bring all your cares to Jesus he will make everything better. We have all heard "when God closes a door he opens a window." How is that Biblical? What if another window never opens? What do we say to those that are suffering with no answer from God? What does silence mean about God? These are questions that need to be asked.
Christians that I have run across often ascribe every good thing that happens in their life to God. New job? God. Good doctor that was able to heal you? God. Infertility treatments that worked? God. I could go on and on talking about the situations that people attribute to the goodness of God. People who prayed and prayers were magically answered. I'm going to counter here and say something radical. I don't believe in MOST of these situations it was God intervening. I think it was middle class white American privilege that helped with these situations.
*I just head an audible gasp from the crowd.*
Why would I say these things? Do I hate God? Have I turned my back on Jesus? No! In fact I have walked with Him through some of the most difficult trials of my life and have come out the other side still believing in Him. So how could I say these awful things?
I have started paying attention to the world. I see believers struggle, here in America, and elsewhere. These other believers that have strong faith. People in desperate situations that watch their children suffer, that are stuck in the middle of a war, that are black here in America - grew up in poverty - and can't seem to catch a break to get out. What do you say to the believer that is watching their child die from starvation? What do you say to the young woman that has prayed for years to be healed of a chronic illness that leaves her childless, in pain, and modern medicine can do nothing for her? What do you say to the believer caught in a war that has watched her family die in a bombing and she is alone and a refugee in a strange country? Do you honestly believe that God has something better for these people? Do you believe that that God will wave His magic healing wand and make these people's pain all disappear?
I believe Christians in America are out of touch with pain and suffering. I believe they are out of touch with who the true God really is. There is such a narrow focus on what is immediately around them that they view God only through their immediate culture. They view God through privilege - we have so much privilege here in the United States, and yet people refuse to admit it. And so the view of God follows.
Part two here.
*Yes, I know this video is most likely from Australia. I'm not an Aussie, so I can't speak to the Christian culture there. The video is just the most current viral video with this message.
