Either God is in control, or He sits in heaven, just wishing there was something He could do about evil.
Some people feel justified in using their own imaginations -- or, better yet, their superior human intellect -- to make Him into something they can feel comfortable with, something "reasonable." After all, 'God is love,' and we all know what love is. So, God must be [insert favorite adjective here]. That's the kind of thinking that leads people to believe something about how "God would never subject good people to eternity in hell, and I'm not a bad person -- I haven't ever maimed or even hurt anyone too badly, let alone murdered or raped anyone -- so, since I'm not so bad, I'm sure a loving God would forgive me and take me to heaven..."
Why, just a week or so ago, I read one FReeper's rant about how her God wouldn't do such-and-such; her God "is a loving God." A loving God would never cause [insert worst tragedy here]!
I can only wonder what such people do with the God who turned Satan's attention to Job ("Have you [Satan] considered My servant Job?" Satan quickly turned Job's life into what most would consider a 'living hell'). How about God who commanded the Israelites to destroy entire cities and all the inhabitants (including women and children)? Or, the God who flooded the entire world and wiped out all of humanity, save for eight people. Oh, of course; that's the God of the Old Testament! Well, guess what... God has not changed. Read the Revelation sometime if you want to see the real destruction yet to come at the hand of the Almighty.