Posted on 08/16/2002 9:12:53 AM PDT by Jean Chauvin
Beware the easy answers
By BILL TAMMEUS
The Kansas City Star
Some people have looked through the eyes of religious faith at the joyful story of the nine rescued coal miners near Somerset, Pa., and have drawn quick and easy conclusions.
Some have even connected the mine recovery story with the fact that the self-sacrificing heroes on one of the airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11 crashed the plane only 10 miles from that coal mine.
I don't object to seeing the world through theological lenses. Indeed, that practice usually gives me clarity. What I object to is a tendency to imagine we understand God's every thought and action, and that we can tell almost instantly when, why and how God acted.
As poor, put-upon Job finally confessed to God, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
The day the miners were rescued, for instance, one of my regular readers sent me an e-mail that began by quoting the late Malcolm Muggeridge, the eloquent British journalist, as saying that "history consists of parables whereby God communicates in terms that imagination rather than the mind, faith rather than knowledge, can grasp."
It's an intriguing concept and worth pondering. To be sure, Muggeridge's description fits the parables of Jesus.
But the author of the e-mail then proposed this: "Within the recent events near Somerset, Pa. -- first, the hijacked plane and now this miraculous deep mine rescue -- there might be, as Muggeridge suggested, a message of faith for the imagination."
Hmmmm, I thought. I wonder. But before I could process much about that, he seemed to have it all wrapped up: First, he said, there was the parable of selfless love on Sept. 11. "And now this, the parable of resurrection, three days buried..."
As I say, it can be profoundly enriching to think in theological terms about events passing before our wondering eyes. But I worry that we often find ourselves attached to easy answers that, once they are more thoroughly scrutinized, don't hold water.
Think, for example, about the rescued miners. After they had been pulled to safety, triumphant signs went up around Somerset. One of them said, simply, "Prayers Answered."
Indeed, family and friends of the miners were praying fervently for their safe return, as were people across the country. I have no doubt that these were sincere prayers by people who trusted God to listen.
But if you believe God arranged the rescue of these nine men, I think it's worth asking where God was when similar pleas by other families of other endangered miners (so far this year, 36 have died in various accidents) went unrewarded. Did God decide that those other three dozen other miners weren't worth saving? Why did the Somerset miners merit God's intervention but not the others?
Do you see how difficult theological questions become once you start to unpack what look like simple answers?
The attitude in all crises that makes the most sense to me is Job's. He argues his case, accusing God of unjustly punishing him. But then he says this (in the New International Version): "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him."
It's also worth noting that for my e-mailer's analogy to work, he counted how long the men were in the mine differently from the method used to figure how long scripture says Christ was in the tomb. Jesus was buried for parts of three days.
My correspondent suggested the miners had been "three days buried." Well, they first were trapped on a Wednesday night and not rescued until early Sunday morning. To be sure, that's a little over three days, the way we normally count things now. But if you count parts of days as whole days, which is the way Christian tradition counts in the Easter story, the miners were five days buried.
The point, however, is not that we shouldn't think about how and where God might be at work in the world. Rather, it's that we should be modest about our conclusions, cautious in proclaiming we know what God is up to in every detail of history.
As we know all too well, such arrogance can lead to action against those who disagree -- and those deeds often stain the planet with blood.
Jean
God’s Role in life Bill Tammeus (“use caution in declaring God’s work,” Burlington FreePress, August 3, 2002) hit the theological nail right on the head. It is always dangerous to suggest that God has less influence than we might like, but Tammeus’ perspective is a much more honest reflection of how God works in the world. The rescue of nine miners trapped underground for three days certainly is cause for prayers of thanksgiving and I rejoice with their families at this achievement.While we have no indication this writer is a Christian, or for that matter just what ‘god’ he worships, notice just how well this fits with Arminianism/Openness Theology. “God’s” attribute of ‘love’ (however ~we~ wish to define that) is the overriding characteristic of God’s being. Our definition of that centers our entire theological understanding –forget what the Scriptures actually say –in total! -God ~couldn’t~ do such and such because that wouldn’t fit in with our preconceived and Biblically excluded definition of God.But the rescue was possible because of the efforts of clear-thinking engineers, operators, toolmakers and support people who worked around the clock to carry out a complicated and dangerous mission. Did God decide to make this real life drama end happily and allow countless other dramas around the world to end in disaster? The God I know does not have this kind of control in our lives.
The real blessing comes when we realize that although God cannot take away our daily difficulties, God will always be there for comfort and support so we can do what we must do. That is what I want the operator lifting the miners out of their grave to never forget!
Warren Cadwallader-Staub
South Burlington, Vermont
Burlington FreePress ‘Readers’ Forum’, August 9, 2002
Jean
If God isn't responsible for the rescue, as the writer maintains, then just who are we 'thanking' and why when we 'pray'.
Jean
According to Warren Cadwallader-Staub of South Burlington, Vermont it is that "the real blessing comes when we realize that although God cannot take away our daily difficulties, God will always be there for comfort and support so we can do what we must do. That is what I want the operator lifting the miners out of their grave to never forget!"
According to Reformed Christianity it is "That I am not my own, But belong -body and soul in life and in death- to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in Heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me whole-heartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."
(Question and Answer 1 from the Heidelberg Catechism, Jan 19, 1563)
Jean
"Ye shall be as gods"
Pathetic.
But glad to see you're back. 8~)
Thanks, but a part of me wishes I were still there!
Jean
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.