And another. This one even worse than Huckabee (AP via Huffington Post):
The question is going to come up, where was God? I though God cared about the little children. God protects the little children. Where was God when all this went down. Here's the bottom line, God is not going to go where he is not wanted.
Now we have spent since 1962 — we're 50 years into this now–we have spent 50 years telling God to get lost, telling God we do not want you in our schools, we don't want to pray to you in our schools, we do not want to pray to your before football games, we don't want to pray to you at graduations, we don't want anybody talking about you in a graduation speech…
In 1962 we kicked prayer out of the schools. In 1963 we kicked God's word out of ours schools. In 1980 we kicked the Ten Commandments out of our schools. We've kicked God out of our public school system. And I think God would say to us, 'Hey, I'll be glad to protect your children, but you've got to invite me back into your world first. I'm not going to go where I'm not wanted. I am a gentlemen."
I don't get this picture of God: "God is powerful, but insecure, like Barbara Streisand before James Brolin".
In Bryan Fischer's world, a "gentleman" is a petulant child who rigidly holds the observation of social niceties in higher esteem than human life.
Funny how God is just like that–I'm not going to stop that guy with the gun, because those people don't worship me. That will show them my goodness!
Yeah, sadly this happens all the time; people are a little to eager to speak for God. I'm not sure why. God doesn't need Hucakbee to defend Him or give an explanation. There is nothing wrong with stating simply "I don't know". That is the truth.
What happened in Connecticut was pure evil. And I think it's not an unfair question to ask where was God in the midst of it all. The hardest attribute of God to believe in is not His power, His knowledge, His justice, but rather His love, His goodness, His personal interest in us. As a Christian, I have a reason to believe and trust in His love because of the cross. Cheap versions of Christianity like prosperity gospel and work of faith theology crumble under the problem of evil for a good reason.
"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
CS Lewis also noted when observing this world's cruelty: "My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?… Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then my argument against God collapsed too–for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."
BN,
It would be nice if everyone had the same or similar idea of justice, or if they had the same or similar idea of how to evaluate ideas of justice, or if they had the same or similar ideas of how to evaluate ideas. They don't.