"You want people to escape for a moment and focus on God, but they're going to return to the reality of what they're here for," Graig Cowart, pastor of the Pilgrim Rest Landmark Missionary Baptist Church, said ahead of his Sunday morning service.If you believe in God, then what is focusing on him going to do for you? He obviously wanted to murder all of these people with water. What is the difference in God killing 18 people in a flood and a mother holding her children's heads under water in a bathtub? If you believe that there is a God and the best excuse you can come up with for these actions is “It's all part of his plan”, then you need to reflect on your beliefs in a being that has murder as part of his plan. Maybe murderers can now use the “God” excuse when they get caught, saying was all part of God's plan. I mean, if that is what you believe in God, wouldn't you see the murderer as just a tool of God's wrath, or plan, or tantrum?
Cowart, whose church has helped shield survivors from 95-degree heat and reporters, said his service would be short and informal with a reading from the Book of Romans. He said its message about how everything comes together for God's good may help in the coming days.Why is it that when people speak of God's good, it is usually followed by some disastrous loss-of-life? It seems like God is the ultimate abusive partner, killing your entire family to show you that he is the one true whatever.
There is another option here. These people were just unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time and a natural disaster occurred. It's sad and it's random. There is no malevolent deity in the sky murdering people on a mass scale; just malevolent people killing in the name of a non-existent god.
Not long ago my former pastor (who's still very close with my family) was the driver in an awful car accident, where he was technically at fault (but not because he was drunk or anything), where the other driver died. It was a really sad thing for everybody involved.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, some people who shall go unnamed actually tried to spin this thing as "part of god's plan." Someone even suggested that the person who died was not a Christian, and thus probably not a good person anyway. The last straw for me was when I heard that the pastor, at the scene of the accident where he had just killed someone, was lamenting about the financial impact of the loss of his work truck.
Needless to say, I had to flip out and explain that sometimes, shitty things happen. This is part of the reason I don't believe in god anymore. Shitty things happen to good, mediocre, and bad people, all the time, for no reason. The only thing you can do is try to be prepared for the unknown, stay positive and help each other.
The "Part of God's Plan" thing is more about comfort to the survivors and trying to make sense of senselessness than anything else I think, unless you are a preacher trying to sell your services.
ReplyDelete95 degree heat... psh
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