I sometimes wonder about the questions that appear in Billy Graham’s column. Billy is old and the image of him pulling a random letter out of a mailbag to answer makes me snicker. I suspect that many, if not all, of the letters to him are created by his staff knowing, in advance, that Billy has comments on record they can use to write a response for him. The only signatures on a published letters are the initials of the supposed readers. I do not doubt that Billy gets lots of mail; I do doubt that he reads it or responds to it.
However, I do believe that the responses are in line with what Billy has written and preached over the years. To that end, I am comfortable criticizing and commenting on those responses. Billy is old and in the vernacular, he will be meeting his maker in the not too distant future. At that point, I will not be surprised to be reading, “Billy’s mailbox,” with responses based on Billy’s preaching. Perhaps, Franklin Graham will take over?
In many cases, the letter is generally an open invitation to restate what Billy considers to be an important aspect of Christian belief. “Read the Bible,” occurs often, as does, “Give your life over to Jesus,” and “God knows what is best for us.”
I would have thought that Billy’s writers might shy away from questions with a central theme that is difficult for Christian leaders to answer. The biggest problem for Christianity is the problem of pain and suffering. Christians are supposed to believe that the God that created the universe is a God of love. After all, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” (John 3:16) The God of the Christians is a God of infinite love for the people of the world.
The problem arises when we consider the reality of the world. If we look around, we see things that are beautiful, like sunsets, and it might be easy to say, “That beauty is an example of God loving us.”
While we are looking around, we also see much pain and suffering. The God that supposedly gave us the sunset to view also gave us Onchocerciasis, a parasitic worm that can destroy the vision of those infected, often before they are 10, and they will never have a chance to admire the handiwork of God in that sunset.
Every living thing is going to die – most animals die in pain and agony – eaten alive by something else. This is the problem of pain and suffering. How can a God with infinite love for the world allow so much pain and suffering to occur? Worse, many religious leaders say events like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are caused by God – the God of love is causing the pain and suffering.
Billy Graham responds to a question about pain and suffering in the February 12, 2012 Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Billy’s reader says, “I can understand how God might send hard times to people who aren't religious so they'll turn to Him, but why would He send hard times to people who are already close to Him? Religious people seem to suffer just as much as non-religious people, don't they?” You can read all of Billy’s answer here.
Some religious leaders say pain and suffering is the price of sin. They also say that Jesus died to take away the sin. If Jesus took away the sin, why do some people still have to pay the price of sin? And, as Billy’s readers suggests, why are some people who seem to live a righteous life paying the price?
Billy, like Jesus, waffles on the issue. Billy quotes Jesus in Matthew 5:45 talking about rain falling on both good and bad people. Of course, that was before Jesus died for the sins of EVERYONE, right? So, once Jesus died, all that pain and suffering should cease, right? Apparently, there is something faulty in that logic. Jesus died for our sins, but there is still pain and suffering, therefore, pain and suffering is not the price we pay for sin. The next time a tsunami wipes out tens of thousands of people and Pat Robinson says it is God’s message about the price of sin, write Pat and ask him to explain.
Billy then says that the followers of Jesus may have to experience more suffering than those who are not followers because of persecution. Persecution of Christians exists in some areas of the world. Christians who go to those areas to convince the people living there that they have been wrong about religion for the past 1400 years or 2500 years should expect a bit of resistance to that message.
Billy fails to address the real issue of pain and suffering, sometimes called the problem of evil, and waves his hands in the air, saying, “We don't always know why God allows hard times to come to us…” And now we are at the nub, the reason that religion fails. Billy and the other preachers say religion is the answer and believers will have the peace of knowing the truth. But religion cannot answer the question of why a loving God either permits or causes so much evil to exist, why God allows so much pain and suffering.
Billy also fails to state the classic answer to the question: God must allow pain and suffering because He gave humans free will. This does not explain why animals suffer or why there was a couple of billion years of suffering before humans appeared and exercised their free will.
Religious leaders say that God cannot create a world with free will without allowing pain and suffering. They put limits on God by saying this and God is supposed to be limitless. Moreover, God did create a place with free will and with no suffering. Heaven is a place of peace and free of suffering. Angels live in heaven and angels have free will. Thus God could have created this world, if not free of suffering, at least with much less suffering.
You can’t have it both ways, preachers. Please think about it for a moment before you give your final answer to the question of evil.
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What I am reading: “Muses, Madmen, and Prophets – rethinking the history, science, and meaning of auditory hallucination” by Daniel B. Smith. Published by the Penguin Group, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59420-110-3. From the publisher: “Auditory hallucination is one of the most awe-inspiring, terrifying, and ill-understood tricks of which the human psyche is capable. In the age of modern medical science, we have relegated this experience to nothing more than a biological glitch. Yet as Daniel B. Smith puts forth in Muses, Madmen, and Prophets, some of the greatest thinkers, leaders, and prophets in history heard, listened to, and had dialogues with voices inside their heads. In a fascinating quest for understanding, Smith examines the history of this powerful phenomenon, and delivers a ringing defense of the validity of unusual human experiences.”
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