"In the midst of life, we are in death."
Why? Why? Why? Everyone cries.
I don't know why. I don't have any answers.
I have understanding, belief, faith in my own self and inner God. I understand things like Karma and retribution. I could give you a theory why a piece of bread falls butter side down, a recent survey published that "Sod's law" was responsible.
But answers, I have no answers. Nobody does, including organised religion.
When the Rev. Billy Graham spoke at the National Cathedral following the Sept. 11 attacks, he recounted how he is often asked why God permits evil in the world. He paused and said that he has never been able to find a fully satisfactory answer.
Granted, I have no doubt that the religions and orgnisations around the world do care, I certainly don't claim to be any kind of expert, thinker or picture painter/candlestick maker.
Two days after the earthquake, great institutions like Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children all mobilised relief efforts and were there in the thick of it, operating diggers, dragging trees peoples homes and trying to save lives whilst Blair sunned his spotty bare ass in the Egyptian sun and Bush crooned anecdotes around the fireplace with Miss Beazley.
Perhaps our idea of God, who is usually described as all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful, needs to be reshaped or given a makeover? Not quite in the standards of the TV show "The Swan" but perhaps we should send the Queer Eye boys round.
These are some of the reactions from people around the world, I wanted to share with you. They are from all walks of life, colour, creed, denomination, orientation or taste in cuisine:
I believe that God has everything in hands and that He permitted this disaster to happen in order to punish human beings for their sins and for not believing in His Son Jesus that will come back soon to judge us all according to our deeds. So I believe that we have to give these events the proper attention to avoid them happening again. George Tudor, Romania
I am a Christian, a Catholic for that matter, and I cannot replace my faith with anything and still remain myself. I am myself because I believe in the Christian God manifested by Jesus Christ. I am at a loss to understand the logic, reason or any justification for the Tsunami disaster being allowed to happen by any righteous Being. Can you help. I cannot abandon my Christian faith and still remain being myself, I can't. Cyprian Lunga, Russia
As a Muslim I would say that by looking in the Tora, the Bible, the Quran and other holy scriptures, mass disasters and destructions have continued to happen on nations and the tsunami is no different and a reflection is needed on society and our way of life. As god says, I send things down on you as a warning so that you may ponder and change your ways.
Hassan, UK
I would love to know why it is, that when confronted by a disaster such as this, God is not responsible. If a wonderful event occurs clearly he is to be thanked. Is it the case that the Christian God is like a child, and for that reason cannot be blamed for this? If he created all with a plan, then obviously he has caused this. Victoria Finney, UK
It doesn't matter that one religion believes it was an Act of Judgement or another believes it to be part of the never ending, always changing cirlce of life. What matters is that people just continue to HAVE faith - to believe that everything happens for a reason, whether religious or not, and if faith in a god is beyond you, simply believe in the human spirit. This last week has proved without doubt that the human spirit is a strong and hopeful creature and that by finally banding together with a common purpose can we create a world where beliefs and faith s are tolerated and used to raise our awareness. And in case anyone is wondering, I'm a Pagan.
Jane Gorton, UK
Martin Kettle wrote in The Guardian newspaper this past week,
"Certainly the giant waves generated by the quake made no attempt to differentiate between the religions of those whom it made its victims. Hindus were swept away in India, Muslims were carried off in Indonesia, Buddhists in Thailand. Visiting Christians and Jews received no special treatment either. This poses no problem for the scientific belief system. Here, it says, was a mindless natural event, which destroyed Muslim and Hindu alike. A non-scientific belief system, especially one that is based on any kind of notion of a divine order, has some explaining to do, however. What God sanctions an earthquake? What God protects against it? Why does the quake strike these places and these peoples and not others? What kind of order is it that decrees that a person who went to sleep by the edge of the ocean on Christmas night should wake up the next morning engulfed by the waves, struggling for life?"
A newspaper this Sunday asked members of all denominations what they thought of God's prevolence in all this. The basic jist of the answers were that Judaism dismisses the idea of theodicy and focuses on the righteous who suffer. Islam contends that believers must submit to whatever the will of God is. Christianity asserts that suffering is redemptive through Jesus, where Paul Chitness, a Christian gave this reply,
"In this litigious age we are always looking for someone to blame and in the absence of anyone else we look to blame God because it is a "natural" event. It's quite clear the world is riddled with inequality but I don't accept the idea that God is sitting up there mischievously tweaking the strings. In the case of the tsunami, we as Christians are challenged to live out our response. We know that Jesus is among us, living through this reality because he said whatever you do to your brothers and sisters, you do to me. By the same token, what you fail to do to them, you fail to do to Jesus. Until now at least, we have not been found wanting in our response. Christian churches have been among those at the forefront of the relief effort."
Even this week, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England seemed to be questioning his faith,
"The Asian tsunami disaster should make all Christians question the existence of God. Every single random, accidental death is something that should upset a faith bound up in comfort and ready answers. Faced with the paralysing magnitude of a disaster like this, we naturally feel more deeply outraged - and also more deeply helpless."
He adds:
"The question, 'How can you believe in a God who permits suffering on this scale?' is therefore very much around at the moment, and it would be surprising if it weren't - indeed it would be wrong if it weren't."
Bishop Alex Dias of the Stella Morris Cathedral Church, the main Catholic church in the Indian archipelago of the Andaman and Nicobar, which has 572 islands, islets and rocks, and more than 5,000 still missing and 800 people are confirmed dead believes strongly
"that the tsunami is a warning. A warning from God to reflect deeply on the way we lead our lives," as he stood among the ragtag tarpaulin tents in the 900-strong relief camp the church is running for tsunami survivors.
I can understand why he is questioning his faith at the moment, but this sacrificial idea about succumbing lives to God. If Jesus Christ is walking among us on earth, I have a few questions for him.
Huge corporate conglomorates in the insurance field hide behind religion and uses it as an excuse during litigation. The Letric Law Library's Lexicon defines an "Act of God" as:
"A natural event, not preventable by any human agency, such as flood, storms, or lightning. Forces of nature that no one has control over, and therefore cannot be held accountable. This phrase denotes those accidents which arise from physical causes, and which cannot be prevented.Where the law casts a duty on a party, the performance shall be excused, if it be rendered impossible by the act of God, but where the party by his own contract engages to do an act, it is deemed to be his own fault and folly that he did not thereby provide against contingencies, and exempt himself from responsibilities in certain events and in such case, that is, in the instance of an absolute general contract the performance is not excused by an inevitable accident or other contingency, although not foreseen by, nor within the control of, the party."
In essence, the Law indicates, points finger and indites God as duly reponsible and accountable by stating such a disaster is by God's Action alone. Is this right?
By doing this, it gives us a legal position against God and as his representatives, the church. What does the big man think of this?
What does God think about his "actions"? W
hat does God take credit for doing?
If we are going to reference the bible, I may aswell also, but unlike some, I do not need huge chunks of it to make my point, so I will be brief:
"your Father which is in heaven . . . maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (Mat. 5:45). "And again he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the east wind, which bringeth immediate destruction." (Mosiah 7:31) "And they that kill the prophets, and the saints, the depths of the earth shall swallow them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and mountains shall cover them, and whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder." (2 Nephi 26:5)'
Well, from the constant news coverage on the abundance of news networks, it seems to me that South East Asia has something of a grand smiting.
A group of foreign tourists were visiting Arizona.
Their guide, disregarding the advice of natives to the area, led them through a narrow canyon during the rainy season. A rain storm 15 miles away created a flash flood that killed the tourists. While the storm and flash flood were acts of God, it may well be that the guide and his employer probably will be held legally responsible for not exercising due care by permitting the group to tour through the canyon at that time of year.
Similarly, if a builder does a shoddy job so that during a typical storm – which of course is another "Act of God" -- the building blows down, the builder may be responsible for the damages resulting.
But what of when something on such a grand and enormous scale (160,000) on my screen at the moment) affecting a number of different countries and communites with NO PRE WARNING happens, who is held accountable?
Yes, Yes, we shouldn't seek blame. It is not time for that. It is time for grief, to pledge, for relief, for love and hope. But when the dust settles, anger and resentment will take over.
I don't need to blame, point fingers or cast aspertions. Enough of that will be done in time by others.
In 2003, In his first comedy role on film, aging Scottish madman Billy Connolly plays Steve Myers, an ex-lawyer turned drop out loafer who bums around Australia on his fishing boat. After the boat's struck by a bolt of lightning and the insurance company reveals a tiny clause about 'Acts of God' hidden in the small print, Myers decides to take his case against the Lord all the way to court.Either the Act of God clause is "some kind of giant all purpose lying mechanism" used by insurance agents to crush the little man, or it's what it says it is: an act for which God ought to be responsible.
So, Myers decides to sue the Church, summoning representatives of every major faith. As the legal twists and turns kick in, the religious leaders will only be able to win the case if they can prove one thing: that God doesn't exist.They can't (or refuse) so they counter sue the insurance companies for deformation of character.
I am sorry but if God created the world, nature and man in his image, a disaster of this scale could incite an unprecedented surge in life insurance claims against church due to the involvement of so many western tourists.
Future litigation between tourists families and the church and even between the organised religion and the insurance firms could change not only Law but modern religion forever.
But Mark? I hear you cry, you cannot sue the church! It's the church, after all.
That is true to an extent, morally. But logically, whyever not?
The Church of England is a business, a registered copyright and it provides a service like any other. What else would we do as complaint? They don't have a consumer hotline.
Of course if a case did ever come to the courts the religious right would howl like banshees and call it a disgusting invasion of rights of the church, blasphemous and unconstitutional, especially in the cases of "Acts of God" where the church would be seriously damaged. Fortunately the Church is a well funded organisation and can afford to drag on such a case in expensive litigation for many years, thereby effectively winning the case by default as the prosecution runs out of money, besides there is no precedent for suing God in the American justice system, so in the meantime, you are safe.
The Catholic Church in the United States has been ordered to pay $120 million in damages to 10 former altar boys, and the parents of another, who were sexually assaulted by a priest. A jury in Dallas decided that the diocese was guilty of gross negligence, malice, conspiracy and fraud in failing to stop the the priest abusing the boys.
The Westboro Baptist Church in good ole Topeka Kansas thanks God for the tsunamis and for 5000 dead swedes on their website www.godhatesfags.com telling us in their official press release that "God is laughing, mocking and taunting Swedes and Sweden, even as they mourn over their dead!" by quoting two particular quotes from the bible, one being;
"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision" Pastor Fred Phelps tells us in one of his unique sermons "Yes! CNN now reports that one-fourth of the estimated 20,000 Swedes vacationing In Southern Asia are now rotting in the sun or in unmarked mass graves. For which we rejoice, and to which we say Amen! Praise the Lord! CNN also reports that scarcely a family in Sweden is untouched, and that all Sweden is in deep mourning. Thank God for his vengeance, and we pray for worse and more of it upon Sweden."
I take from this that Rev. Phelps and his parishoners' families were unaffected by this month's disaster in South East Asia. I doubt very much that many of them have ever left the country let alone the State of Kansas.
Sweden jailed a pentecostal minister under an incitement law after he offended homosexuals in a sermon, which is why they are pissed at Swedes. They single out the 5,000 Americans that also perished and this kind of hatred from any section of the church saddens me.
I am afraid that the bigotry and hatred within Christianity along with misconception, confusion and doubt will always be prevolent because of the confusion and brainwashing throughout religion confounds both faith and belief with this violent old testament agression and attitude.
John Scarp, writing for The Cape Argus Newspaper, in New Zealand.
"Natural disasters like this reveal the ultimate weakness of nearly all religions and in particular those of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, which postulate the idea of an all-powerful God. If God is indeed all-powerful and has control over every aspect of this world, including the destiny of every individual, then how can one explain such a God allowing tens of thousands to perish? Many religions condemn non-believers to damnation. So, for example, fundamentalist Christians say that if one does not accept Christ then one cannot be blessed by God or enter heaven.Clearly nobody in their right minds can claim that every one of those who died, including the children and babies, were sinners who deserved to be punished. Some believers fall back on the argument that although God could have stopped the disaster, he chose not to. But this is OK since He loves everyone equally and is with everyone when they die. I wonder how much comfort that is to the mother pictured two days ago on your front page cradling the bodies of her two dead children. Anyone who believes that is an example of how God shows mercy and love to his people should be ashamed.When pressed hard enough, believers always fall back by saying that although it seems as if God is uncaring and callous, we must not question Him but must simply accept that He has his reasons which we mere mortals cannot understand. This abandonment of all reason and logic is not an explanation but simply an admission of defeat."
A disaster of this magnitude shows that, unfortunatly, God is either NOT all powerful or NOT all love as the bible describes to us.
I still believe that there is a God, be it in whatever form but despite the deluded efforts of the church community on earth and from a historians point of view, the prevelance of the bible and accompanying texts are not a viable reference point or reliable source after such an overwhelming translation over the centuries.
If the texts are the literal word of God, who are we to continue to alter, translate or amend them. It seems to me a tad presumptious of us to be correcting God's words.
A game of chinese whispers, anyone?
Titled "Good as New," the new Bible is translated by former Baptist minister John Henson for the "One"organization, to produce what the group calls a "new, fresh and adventurous" translation of the Christian scriptures.
The 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England describes it is a book of "extraordinary power," but admitted many would be startled by its content.
"Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and 'abusers of themselves with mankind'," says Ruth Gledhill, the London Times religious affairs correspondent, "the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St. Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get 'frustrated.'"
In keeping with the times, translator Henson deftly translates "demon possession" as "mental illness" and "Son of Man," the expression Jesus frequently used to describe himself, as "the Complete Person." In addition, parables are rendered as "riddles," baptize is to "dip" in water, salvation becomes "healing" or "completeness" and Heaven becomes "the world beyond time and space."
Here, according to the London Times, are a few sample passages: Mark 1:4 Authorized version: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."
New: "John, nicknamed 'The Dipper,' was 'The Voice.' He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven."
Mark 1:10-11 Authorized version: "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from the heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
New: "As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God's spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, 'That's my boy! You're doing fine!'"
Matthew 23:25 Authorized version: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"
New version: "Take a running jump, Holy Joes, humbugs!"
Matthew 26:69-70 Authorized version: "Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, 'Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest."
New: "Meanwhile Rocky was still sitting in the courtyard. A woman came up to him and said: 'Haven't I seen you with Jesus, the hero from Galilee?" Rocky shook his head and said: 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about!'"
1 Corinthians 7:1-2 KJV: "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."
New: "Some of you think the best way to cope with sex is for men and women to keep right away from each other. That is more likely to lead to sexual offences. My advice is for everyone to have a regular partner."
1 Corinthians 7:8-7 KJV: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."
New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated."
I'm glad the church is finally lightening up a little. In times like these, we all need to kick back a little. Holy Joe, Humbugs!
Please give what you can and say your prayers to your chosen deity and think about all the poor innocent people who have perished this month. Peace. xx
