during this time away from church attendance brought about by the pandemic, i've been doing some thinking about how our beliefs about God affect our attitudes and actions. it seems to me that those who believe that God is a god with a plan for every individual, that each of us must constantly try to find "God's will" for our lives and live in accordance with what we think that plan is, in short, a god who is controlling, behave very differently from those who believe that God's only plan is that we try to love one another as God loves us.
the first approach concerning God leads to faith in a god who is a god of rules, watching each of us to make certain that our i's are dotted and our t's are crossed, a God who punishes us either in the present life or in life after death when we fail to live by the rules. this sort of god brings a big attendance register to sunday worship to place a check or an x by our names to indicate whether we are there or not, a sort of naughty and nice list. if we follow this sort of God, we feel that it is our duty to control how others live, as well. we want our elected officials to make laws that prohibit behaviors that break "God's rules." we want our legal code to tell women when they can and cannot have children, to tell doctors how to care for their transgender patients, to decide when and where we can buy alcoholic beverages, for instance. we think that those who live in poverty, who struggle to provide for themselves and their families, are in such circumstances because that's part of God's plan or because such people are not following God's plan for their lives. by the same token, the wealthy must be prospering because God has ordained it, so what right do we have to limit their wealth by requiring them to pay their fair share of the costs of society.
this sort of god controls our health. if we are sick, have a disease, or are injured in an accident, it is because God wills it. when a loved one is ailing, then we must pray that God will intervene and heal our sick or injured loved one. when someone dies, it is because God wills their death. we say that God is calling them home or needs them more than we do. congenital maladies must have been ordained by God, since God controls every birth. being born with the anatomy of one gender and the psyche of another is impossible, according to this way of thinking about God, since God wouldn't create such a person. therforefore, transgender people are as they are by their own choice, not by an accident of birth. medical and psychiatric attempts to reconcile one's anatomy and psyche are wrong-headed and contrary to God's will, say those who believe in this way.
if we believe as the writer of 1 john says that "God is love; whoever abides in love, abides in God," we live by a very different set of guidelines. the author of 1 john goes on to say, "if anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar." believing these words about God, we view others with compassion and refuse to try to control them. we seek to alleviate poverty rather than blaming those who are poor for their lack of resources. we take responsibility for the harm we and our ancestors have done by making amends. we recognize that all creation is beautiful and worthy of protection; we do not try to make the world conform to our own views or use the world's resources without thought to the damage we may be doing. we vote for leaders who share our compassionate concern for others.
we accept that bad things happen to all of us, no matter how "good" we are and that those bad things are not part of some grand scheme devised by God but rather just random life events. if God doesn't cause these harmful events to happen, then we mustn't ask God to undo them. if God could intervene to cure disease, then God could have prevented the disease in the first place. praying for healing is futile. it is better that we should give thanks for those with the skill to care for our maladies and for medical advances that make it possible to treat and sometimes cure disease. believing that "God is love," we then know that our pain causes God to suffer along with us.
may we give thought to what sort of God we worship, if we believe that there is a God. may our hearts be filled with lovingkindness and compassion, not with rules by which to judge others. may we accept all humanity with its myriad permutations and refuse to condemn that which we do not understand. may we stop seeking a divine plan for our lives and start loving and caring for one another. shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment