Writer's Note: As you can see by the post dates, I took most of 2018 off. I focused more on my fiction writing and less on commenting about the current state of our world. However, I felt it was necessary to finally get some of these thoughts/comments/opinions out there for all to see. Here's one from late last year.
December 3, 2018 - The St Jude Marathon was held today in downtown Memphis. Anyone familiar with the marathon knows that what used to be called the Memphis Marathon (think Boston Marathon or New York City Marathon) is now totally affiliated with St Jude Children's Research Hospital. St Jude is a terrific organization with - obviously - a wonderful mission.
The affiliation with St Jude has made the marathon and the other races/walks held on the first Saturday in December an even bigger local event. It's an entire week and weekend of events for race participants, St Jude "families," and others. This year's marathon weekend was on track to be one of the biggest in terms of participation and monies raised. Unfortunately, the weather forecast - and weather earlier this week - was ominous.
The rains came and things looked bleak for marathon participants. Late Friday and into early Saturday, however, the deluge ended and Saturday ended up being a decent day.
So why the grumpy blog post? Partly because of what a "friend" posted on Facebook later that day (see below).
One of the things I've never understood about Christians and Christianity is how insensitive many Christians are the to world around them. Some folks might use the word obtuse or "clueless," but I like to think of it as insensitivity. In other words, many Christians care more about their convictions or How close they are to God rather than the realities of the real world - along with the actual suffering of others.
According to Dictionary.com, an insensitive person is defined as - deficient in human sensitivity, acuteness of feeling, or consideration; unfeeling; callous.
Think about tragedies that occur every so often, or simply everyday problems: you always hear someone say "God was with us" or "God was watching out for me." That may be true. But does that mean that God is selective in who He protects or watches out for? According to the FB post above, apparently so. God was so concerned with the successful completion of a series of foot races for a noble cause that he changed the weather. Miracles do happen!
I want to ask the person who wrote the post, along with other devout Christians, how they respond to personal tragedy and illness. Using their pious logic, I wonder why my daughter - at the age of 22 - was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Did God not care about my daughter? Did she not pray enough or not do enough good deeds? Or not totally repent her sins?
We know the true answer is that "life happens." Christians know this, too. But when the devout make statements like the one above, it makes me wonder if they truly understand their Bible, or spirituality for that matter.
The other side of this coin is that when there is a good outcome for a bad thing (for example, Emily is now cancer-free and has slowly recovered from her treatments), these same pious people proclaim that "God is good!" and "God was watching over your daughter." Once again, that may be true. But if God cares about the weather, the outcome of a football game, or what college your child gets into, then God should be able to prevent these bad things (like cancer or car accidents) from occurring in the first place.
I could continue my rant about Christian insensitivity, but I don't think it will make any difference. These are the same folks who have to comment on "God's glory" anytime you post a pretty picture of the mountains. They're annoying.
Oh, well. I'll remember about God's selectivity the next time I'm at the cancer treatment center for my scheduled check up.
Bye
December 3, 2018 - The St Jude Marathon was held today in downtown Memphis. Anyone familiar with the marathon knows that what used to be called the Memphis Marathon (think Boston Marathon or New York City Marathon) is now totally affiliated with St Jude Children's Research Hospital. St Jude is a terrific organization with - obviously - a wonderful mission.
The affiliation with St Jude has made the marathon and the other races/walks held on the first Saturday in December an even bigger local event. It's an entire week and weekend of events for race participants, St Jude "families," and others. This year's marathon weekend was on track to be one of the biggest in terms of participation and monies raised. Unfortunately, the weather forecast - and weather earlier this week - was ominous.
The rains came and things looked bleak for marathon participants. Late Friday and into early Saturday, however, the deluge ended and Saturday ended up being a decent day.
So why the grumpy blog post? Partly because of what a "friend" posted on Facebook later that day (see below).
One of the things I've never understood about Christians and Christianity is how insensitive many Christians are the to world around them. Some folks might use the word obtuse or "clueless," but I like to think of it as insensitivity. In other words, many Christians care more about their convictions or How close they are to God rather than the realities of the real world - along with the actual suffering of others.
According to Dictionary.com, an insensitive person is defined as - deficient in human sensitivity, acuteness of feeling, or consideration; unfeeling; callous.
Think about tragedies that occur every so often, or simply everyday problems: you always hear someone say "God was with us" or "God was watching out for me." That may be true. But does that mean that God is selective in who He protects or watches out for? According to the FB post above, apparently so. God was so concerned with the successful completion of a series of foot races for a noble cause that he changed the weather. Miracles do happen!
I want to ask the person who wrote the post, along with other devout Christians, how they respond to personal tragedy and illness. Using their pious logic, I wonder why my daughter - at the age of 22 - was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Did God not care about my daughter? Did she not pray enough or not do enough good deeds? Or not totally repent her sins?
We know the true answer is that "life happens." Christians know this, too. But when the devout make statements like the one above, it makes me wonder if they truly understand their Bible, or spirituality for that matter.
The other side of this coin is that when there is a good outcome for a bad thing (for example, Emily is now cancer-free and has slowly recovered from her treatments), these same pious people proclaim that "God is good!" and "God was watching over your daughter." Once again, that may be true. But if God cares about the weather, the outcome of a football game, or what college your child gets into, then God should be able to prevent these bad things (like cancer or car accidents) from occurring in the first place.
I could continue my rant about Christian insensitivity, but I don't think it will make any difference. These are the same folks who have to comment on "God's glory" anytime you post a pretty picture of the mountains. They're annoying.
Oh, well. I'll remember about God's selectivity the next time I'm at the cancer treatment center for my scheduled check up.
Bye
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