Saturday, April 21, 2007

What Does God Think About the Virginia Tech Killings?

Well this is obviously going to be a hot one. It also will likely get lost in the shuffle of everyone else who wants to comment on this situation. Nonetheless, it needs to be discussed. When something so tragic happens, it falls into the category of "things that we as humans need to talk about". Yes, I just invented that category, and no I have no idea what it is a category of. So you can classify everyone as either needing to talk about it or not needing to talk about it. Most of the ones that don't need to talk about it, also probably fall into the category of people that think no-one should talk about it and we should just forget it ever happened. If you are one of the latter, why are you reading this post? I submit that most of the people that want to just leave it behind us, are the ones that really need to talk about it but the thought of doing that is just to painful.

Moving on, if it must be discussed, and thoughts and feelings must be expressed, than for my part this is tragic. How painful an event like this is. Painful to those involved. The victims obviously, their loved ones and even casual acquaintances for that matter. The gunman, whether you consider him a victim, a heartless killer or both, has both experienced and caused a great deal of pain. Painful for the outside observers. So many of us that are "affected" by this tragedy have no connection to anyone involved at all. Nonetheless, it is painful for us to see life lost in such a sudden, unexpected manner and in such large quantity. And finally, painful for all of humanity when such a tragic occurence spurs and brings out the worst in certain subsets of society. YouTube and other social media sites are instantly flooded with opinions and vulgar expressions more disturbing than the impetus that set them off.

As if it isn't hard enought to process the thoughts and feelings brought on by this tragedy there comes the accusations against the character and nature of God. Almost immediately there is an internal struggle to understand why God would allow this to happen. To add to the dilemma, opportunistic doubters see this as an ideal time to forward the case for an absent Deity. "If God were real, this could not have possibly happened" they seem to scream from every athiestic outlet. So in the midst of all this chaos, what does God think about the situation. If given the opportunity what would He say to those affected by the recent events and inevitable barage of follow up. What does He think about Seung-Hui Cho, his victims, and the loved ones hurt by his actions? What does He think about the autorities who are being blamed for this tragedy? What does He think about all the opportunistic vultures preying on this tragedy to advance their own opinions and agendas?

First of all, Bible teaches that God loves all of His creation. This extends to everyone involved. Period. In the Bible, Matthew 18:14 quotes Jesus as talking about a little child said "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." God sees all people as His children. He created each of us including Seung-Hui Cho. He gives us the opportunity to turn our hearts to Him and recognize Him as our creator and reason for existing. There is of course a consequence for not coming to this realization. This is not an appropriate venue to talk about that though. For more details about this subject, please follow the following link. What Does God Think About? The important thing is that God did not WANT this to happen. When He created Cho, He designed Him with talents and desires and a purpose that would have testified to the greatness of God's design. However, God does not force any of us to follow the path that He lays out for us. Once we stray from the plan, there is no guarantee where we will end up. Just like when I give someone directions to my house. If they follow those directions, they will get here. If they decide that some of the turns are too dificult or they could get here quicker if they take a shortcut (good luck in LA) than I can no longer guarantee that they will get here at all.

So somewhere and for some reason, Cho went off track. He left the designated route that God had planned for him. Most of us do this. In fact we all have. Going back to the Bible, Isaiah talking about Jesus long before He was born said,
"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
God did not want for this to happen, He wasn't powerless to stop it, He simply loves us so much that He is willing to allow us to make our own decisions and live with the consequences. We are also told in the Bible that God makes himself known to all of us in one way or another and we are all given the decision to make... Embrace God or Reject Him? I don't know Cho, I don't claim to know what his life was like. Anyone with a tv or internet connection can tell that he carried a lot of pain. Regardless of the fact that I know nothing more about him than the majority of the population, I am confident that God made himself known to this young man and gave him the opportunity to exchange his pain for the acceptance and love that only God can offer. Several times, Cho references Jesus as either his motivation or his tormentor (hard to tell for sure) I believe that he says "Jesus enjoys crucifying me" and that he did this to be like Jesus, "dying to inspire generations of weak and defenseless people" It is sad that the purest and most selfless act of all time (Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising back to life) could be compared to one of the most blatantly selfish acts of current events (the mass murder of innocent lives) is ironically tragic.

Is Seung-Hui Cho in hell right now? Is he suffering for the pain he caused? These are questions that cannot be answered by me. They are between him and his Creator. Jesus gave His life so that none of us would have to die separated from God. However, if we choose to reject God while we are alive, He has no choice but to give us what we have asked for... eternity separated from Him. While that may sound acceptable to anyone who would prefer not to believe in Him, it is actually a very scary thing to consider. Consider this. If God does exist, and it is His presence moving in and among those loyal to Him that keeps the attrocities like these from occuring more frequently. What would happen if that presence were gone and the only thing left governing you and the people around you was each persons selfish agenda for their life. Do you really think that business ethics has any place in a world where God is not a part of the picture? Do you really think that there would be LESS corruption and LESS hatred and anger without God? Do all of the problems in this world really even have a chance of being as a result of all these God-believers? To suppose that is insane. Doesn't it seem more likely that without people holding themselves and others up to a moral compass based on the instructions of the One that created them, there would be MORE problems? I will leave you with that thought.

In the meantime, know that God is intensely interested in your life and would like nothing more than to show you how much He loves you. He is only waiting for the opportunity to do so. Only you can create that opportunity. He will never force Himself on you.

David Shepherd

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

What Does God Think About Religion (continued)

So many people have issues with religion. Perhaps you are one of them? It is no wonder that this happens, considering what we discussed previously. It almost seems that you can't find anyone who has not had a bad experience with religion. Why is it that religions seem so contradictory so often? Almost all organizations claiming a religious purpose for existence espouse goodwill, peace, hope, nirvana, joy... while many in one way or another create a rulership of tyrannical oppressors? How does this happen? Whether it is an individual or the majority of a population following blindly behind a charismatic leader, the end result is that God's name gets dragged through the mud so that someones agenda or motives can get advanced.

If God could step in at this point and say something in His defence, what would it be. It is impossible to suppose that He supports everything that has been done in His name. But what does He thinks about the way you were hurt? Does He care? If you were in God's shoes, what would you say to you about the pain that you have suffered. It is my belief that God loves us in a way that we can never possibly understand. He loved us enough to create us, design us in a special way that never existed before us. He layed out a special plan for us that would bring about more joy and fulfillment than we could hope to lay out for ourselves. However, if God forced us to follow His plan, He would be nothing more than a tyrant that forced His plan on us. I've said it once, I will say it again, God's ways are not within our ability to understand. So why did He allow the suffering that you have experienced? Why did you have to go through the things that you have gone through? Seen the things you have seen? I don't know. I may never know. I do know this though, He loves you in a way that you have never been loved before. The things that you do now to mask your pain will not gain you anything. The things that you are pouring yourself into accomplishing will not fulfill you. Your destiny is an interesting thing. It is simultaneously a thing of your choosing and a masterful design crafted by the Creator of all things. God has something He wants to tell you. He has tried many ways, and now He is using this blog to try once again to get your attention. Will you give Him a chance?

Saturday, April 14, 2007

What Does God Think About Religion?

Please note: This post is not even close to complete. It needs quite a bit more editing (and needs to be finished) However, I really just needed to post something because if I don't I am going to explode. This is just the beginning. If you are interested in this concept let me know.

DS

I think this is a very appropriate jumping off point for this exercise. After all, if God exists and provided that he doesn't have low self-esteem, than He believes in Himself. So, if God believes in God what religion does He follow? Is He Muslim? Buddhist? Christian? Jewish? Does He subscribe to all of them much the same way that we subscribe to magazines? Is every religion wrong? Would God sit through your religious ceremonies or would He sneak out the back door to go play golf? Many religions carry with them the belief that God is in fact in attendance for their services. What point would it be to pay homage to the One that you adore if He wasn’t paying attention? Before we attempt to come to a conclusion on this matter, we should come to a consensus on the definition of religion.

For starters, I am not referring here to the “Spear of Destiny” album Religion (1997). Also, since much debate and thought has been exchanged on this subject, I will not try to duplicate these efforts here. I will quote the introduction to the subject on Wikipedia (link to “what does God think about Wikipedia”). Included in this quote are all the original links to other Wiki-articles pertaining to this vastly complex subject. Please feel free to explore the subject as thoroughly or as briefly as you would like and then return here for the conclusion on the matter. Without any further ado, here is how Wikipedia defines religion…
Religion: “A religion is a set of beliefs and practices generally held by a human community, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.
All patriarchal religions present a common quality, the "hallmark of patriarchal religious thought": the division of the world in two comprehensive domains, one sacred, the other profane. [1] Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life".
The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures. "Organized religion" generally refers to an organization of people supporting the exercise of some religion with a prescribed set of beliefs, often taking the form of a legal entity (see religion-supporting organization). Other religions believe in personal revelation and responsibility. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system,"[2] but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.”
Wikipedia later summarizes several encyclopedias definition of religion as “A general term used... to designate all concepts concerning the belief in god(s) and goddess(es) as well as other spiritual beings or transcendental ultimate concerns"[5] and "human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine”

To try to encapsulate every use of the word religion is futile. There are some things that simply aren’t worth the journey. The simple goal in this post is to answer the question, “What does God think about religion?” How does He feel about all of the actions that have been done, good or bad, in His Name? No matter how you define religion, the answer to that question cannot have a uniform answer. Is there any possible way that God could be simultaneously pleased with both sides of the medieval crusades? Both the Christians/Catholics and the Muslims claimed to fight in the name of God or Allah. So if we use “anything done in the Name of God” as our definition we cannot say that He approves or disapproves of religion. Quite literally we could spend as much time arguing about God’s thoughts toward religion as we could arguing about whether or not He exists. We could also spend a lot of time disagreeing about which particular religion has the most accurate understanding of who God is. Atheists, I don’t blame you for doubting the existence of God on this point alone. It is entirely possible to take two people from the same congregation of believers and find their opinion about what God is like to be diametrically opposed. One might consider God to be a loving and forgiving “daddy” that would never condemn even a single person to any punishment at all. Hell does not exist and everyone goes to heaven when they die. The other person preaches fire and brimstone to everyone he meets. He believes that only the perfectly righteous will make it into heaven. Recent studies have found that a great deal of our perception of what God is like is based on our relationship with our fathers. But, how can God... (to be continued)