I ran across a cute little quote in Facebook yesterday absolving God for any responsibility for pain, suffering and injustice in the world. The bumper sticker-worthy message – “Sometimes I’d like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it but I’m afraid He would ask me the same question” – threw the onus back onto my lap and made me think.
Not to shirk my responsibility or anything, but the most powerful earthquake ever to hit Japan – which shifted the earth on its axis – seemed like a calamity better addressed by someone who’s a tad more supreme and omnipotent than I am.
Here’s the thing: I know I have the power to make the world a better place and that I create ripples yada yada yada. But it sure would be nice to get a little help from the Man Upstairs. (The Comcast guy is installing cable in my son’s bedroom as I type this so I guess I should be more specific. I’m talking about the Creator of Heaven and Earth here.) If half the people who claim in Facebook to be praying for this or that are actually doing so, the prayer lines leading to the Golden Throne must be overwhelmed.
I’m not trashing the Bearded One Who Floats on Clouds and Awards Emmys again. I’ve made my intellectual and emotional struggles with organized religion known already – no sense beating a dead...er, messiah. But it just seems like with all the pain and suffering and greed and corruption and violence and unrest in the world right now, it might be a good time for a little divine intervention. If there really is such a thing.
Sources: Associated Press, Yahoo News.
hey pat. i've been looking for an earlier post that was talking about a friend of yours who is a believer of some sort. could you point me there? (would love a search option on the blog -- or even tags for such a purpose. you're so darn prolific!) from that post, i've been thinking for sometime about your version of the divine as the bearded man. i've wondered, why is this your image? there are many faiths in the word offering various takes on the divine that are far removed from that very patriarchal, western image/ notion. thanks for any insight.
ReplyDeleteon this post, i would like to stick with that bumper sticker for a moment, though there are plenty of things out of human hands. consider the conditions in a number of the places where you pinpoint natural phenomena as sources of disaster. without a doubt, those nature-based events result in much damage. yet the poverty conditions in Haiti, for instance, that existed before the earthquake certainly play a large part in the continuing suffering of the people. in Japan, the nuclear plants made the aftermath of the earthquake-tsunami a much longer-lasting and far-reaching horror that simply the natural phenomena. and absent from your roll call is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which many of us realize was such a huge disaster largely due to our government's failure to protect New Orleans and the surrounding area. why the failure? in part, institutionalized racism and classism. in these cases, we must look at our human contribution to poverty and oppression within our society and across the globe, as well as energy practices that put all species and the environment in peril.
so beyond the bearded man, there are understandings of the divine that recognize the planet as mother earth, including indigenous traditions. the earth as a divine being, as well as other nature-based divine beings, will keep things in balance (like that poem of mine you kindly published sometime back). with the greed and harm by many, there will be reality checks to remind us of our place in the cosmos. this is not the retribution version of the divine, but rather like karma, which is also find in the bible: you reap what you sew. this is not karma on an individual scale but on a generational one. many of us must look up from our navels and take in the width of the sky, the expanse of the sea, and be humbled by the amazing gift on which we live. instead, too often we focus on our navels, one point of desire, and lose track of this web of life that connects generation to generation. with this in mind, i would point you to the thirteen grandmothers, whose work is amazing - http://www.grandmotherscouncil.org/ , as well as the documentary "For the Next Seven Generations" http://www.forthenext7generations.com/ .
our generations and the ones before us shaped the world into its current form, and our generations and the ones to come can shape it into another. the place i start is those with whom i come into contact -- two-legged, four-legged, the crawlers, the ones with roots, and so on. without compassion, kindness, generosity in these intimate contacts, we don't stand a chance on any other plane. policy without personal relationship is simply smoke and mirrors. we don't realize the power of love, especially in a society that diminishes it as a hippie thing and would rather broadcast violence than passion.
First, search box added. Thanks for the suggestion. I think you mean my post entitled, “This one’s for Joy.”
ReplyDeleteI’m not married to the patriarchal image of the white, bearded dude with flowing robes when referencing the divine. That’s just the caricature I grew up with in Catholic school in the late 1960s/early 1970s. It could be Shiva, Buddha, a pagan, a Wiccan witch, Mother Nature…whatever image my readers want to use when thinking about their “higher power” is fine with me.
I actually referenced Katrina in my first draft but took it out because I thought that topic warrants its own post(s). I’ll let you know when I post that/those…
Natural disasters as karmic balancers/equalizers? Interesting. Then pain and suffering aren’t just reactions or aftereffects, but actual tools being wielded by someone or something to bring about our destiny? And there isn’t really such a thing as free will? Or maybe there is to a point? The natural disasters themselves are the divine interventions? I wonder if my brain is big enough to ponder this at length...
Thanks for the thirteen grandmothers and seven generations links. I’ll check ‘em out.
I respect hippies and believe in the power of love. In fact, I’m more comfortable relying on those for comfort and assistance in navigating life than on the concept of some all-knowing, vindictive superman arbitrarily picking winners and losers and answering or ignoring prayers.
I added your website to my list of links I like. Thanks for everything, my friend.