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God Doesn’t Make Cars Crash I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Jerry Falwell and I agree on something: We both believe that God is, or at least should be, mad as hell right now. We just disagree on why. Falwell stated his position with chilling clarity during his infamous interview with Pat Robertson on the 700 Club, “God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve,” Falwell said, before going on to blame the terrorist attacks on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU, People for the American Way — “all of them who have tried to secularize America.” Falwell and Robertson later offered half-hearted apologies for their comments. Falwell’s ‘regret” was not so great, however, as to prevent him from using the controversy in later fund raising efforts.
I have a very different view of why God is, or at least ought to be, boiling mad right now. My guess is that he’s sick and tired of people trying to blame him for their own cruelty and stupidity. Look at it from God’s perspective: First, a group of Islamic fundamentalist maniacs murder more than 5,000 innocent people, claiming to act in God’s name. Next, two Christian fundamentalist maniacs accuse God of allowing this crime against humanity to occur because he was mad at the ACLU. Who could blame God if he’s angry? He gives us this beautiful blue and white planet and the freedom to enjoy it. How do we repay him? By accusing him of mass murder. Talk about taking the Lord’s name in vain. (A quick aside: I agree with what the Smothers Brothers once said, to the effect that since people have a sense of humor, and they are made in God’s image, God must have one as well. And if that’s true, I predict that someday when Jerry Falwell dies and goes to heaven, God will arrange at the welcome banquet to have him seated directly across the table from a lesbian-feminist-Muslim-card-carrying member of the ACLU. And she’ll get the bigger dessert.) This business of blaming God for human actions didn’t begin or end with the terrorist attacks, of course. We still hear it today about the war in Afghanistan: “The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.” “God is on our side, and if the world’s people try to set fire to Afghanistan, God will protect us and help us.” So there we have it. As with all wars, both sides in this one are claiming that God is on their side, which by implication suggests that God is participating in the killing. Again, who could blame God if this makes him mad? The last time he spoke on the subject of war, after all, it was to say, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Just how we can interpret that to mean that God is now personally guiding our cluster bombs into their targets frankly escapes me. None of this means, of course, that our cause is not a just one. It simply means, that just or otherwise, it’s our cause, not God’s. But somehow we can’t stop ourselves from bringing God into it. According to the Weekly Standard, for example, George W. Bush strongly believes that God chose him to be president so that he could lead the war against terrorism. This is actually nothing new. Shortly after the election last year, Rev. Mark Craig, a pastor in Dallas, Texas, told Bush from the pulpit: “You were chosen by God, as was Moses, to lead the people.” Bush apparently agrees (though there have been no reports of him trying to part the waters). (Another quick aside: If he really believes that God picks the president, why did Bush sell his soul to corporate special interests in order to raise campaign contributions? And why is he now supporting an “economic stimulus’ package that is nothing more than a pay back to those same corporate players?) This tendency to blame (or credit) God for the recent events reminds me of last season’s finale of NBC’s The West Wing. As the episode began, President Jed Bartlet was despondent over the death of Mrs. Landingham, his longtime personal secretary and confidante. Convinced that Landingham’s death was part of a Divine punishment against him for lying about his diagnosis of MS, he lashed out at God in an angry tirade inside the sealed-off National Cathedral. Later in the show, Bartlet was visited by an image of Landingham, who scolded him: “God doesn’t make cars crash and you know it. Stop using me as an excuse.” If she were speaking today, she would probably add that God also doesn’t send airplanes crashing into buildings. And he doesn’t organize posses to go after the people who do. He doesn’t pick presidents and he doesn’t fight wars. People do those things. And for better or worse, people must accept the responsibility for them. Is God on your side? Steven C. Day is an attorney practicing in Wichita, Kansas. Previous columns can be found here. Related Sites |
