Currents of Faith: Open and Unfolding Reflections

During the Lenten season I decided to offer an evening class on the topic, “A Deeper Exploration of God.” I announced that the content of the class would come from the questions which people brought. Following are several of those questions:

“Why do so many bad things keep happening on earth under God’s watch?

I have concern and wonder about God’s relationship to evil in the world—from people living near us to the wars in other nations.

How can we reconcile a good God with a world that has so much bad going on in it?”

The questions prompted us to begin our class discussions on evil. We looked at individual acts of lying, cheating, stealing, rape, and murder. We considered those evil institutions of slavery, war and the horrendous events of genocide in Nazi Germany, Bosnia, and Dafur. The basic question emerging was: Where was God in all of these destructive happenings? Underlying the basic question is the classical question: “If God is all powerful and God is all good, why is there evil in the world?” Here we begin our search.

I find it helpful to begin with locating what is not evil. I affirm that natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the New Year’s Eve Tsunami, the San Francisco earthquake, the volcanic eruptions of Mt. Vesuvius and more recent Mt. St. Helens are not evil. They are  costly, tragic and destructive but not evil, for they were not acts which were intended and chosen. These natural occurrences are the results of a universe and planet still in the process of creation. Tectonic plates underlying our continents shift and grind against one another. Over eons the entire land surface of our planet has transformed. The central core of the earth, liquid magma, spews forth red hot lava through the crevices of the thin places on earth’s surface.

I preached a sermon at the Kelso Presbyterian Church, my mother-in-law’s congregation, some years ago which I titled, “Where was God at 8:00 am Sunday, May 18, 1980?” I spoke of the role that I thought God played in the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. I shared that I did not see God as absent from that time and place, but fully and persuasively present. Just as God offers us possibilities in every moment, God was doing so with the massive number of molecular events combining to send a surge of red hot lava flowing down into the valley, blasting off the upper third of the mountain, thrusting a plume of smoke thousands of feet in the air, and casting ash across the state of Washington and beyond. That sixty-five persons died on that day is deeply tragic, but not evil. God provides possibilities which balance the value of the continuing creation of our planet and the preciousness of human, animal and plant life. I concluded the sermon that day affirming that a gracious God did not intend or decide to bring such destruction.

Neither natural disasters nor animal life is evil, except perhaps at the highest level of mammals. Guided by instinct a coyote stalks and kills a rabbit, a crow steals an egg from a robin’s nest, a red tailed hawk swoops down and grasps a small rodent. There is no evil intent in these killings, rather a need to nourish its body in ways that are genetically and habitually determined. God is present in these moments with both the hunter and the hunted, feeling the anguish of the victim and the satisfaction of the hunter. God values both and is offering both possibilities, which are counter to one another, capture or escape.

Accidents are a more uncertain matter. Are they evil, partly evil, or not evil? I have to say all of the above. It depends. If one were driving in Minneapolis recently on the I-35 freeway as the bridge collapsed, I would call that a mix. That the bridge is present and one is driving in a prescribed way, seems to give no evidence of evil. However, if the maintenance of that bridge was neglected or ignored over time, evil is present. The most recent theory is that pigeon dung contributed to the corrosion thus weakening the structure. When decisions are made regularly which jeopardize the lives of innocent persons, there is evil.

Dr. Sigmund Freud claimed that many human acts described as accidental are really the  product of unconscious motivation. The person acted in harmful ways to oneself or others without any awareness of why, but nevertheless acted harmfully. I am certain that in his psychoanalysis of many patients he was able to uncover these previously unconscious wishes. Generally though, if several forces collide by chance and the collision was not intended consciously or unconsciously, it is not evil.

What, then, is not evil? I am suggesting natural disasters caused by molecular forces, actions of animals prompted by genetics, and accidents occurring by chance. That leaves those actions which are willed and intended by humans who are to some degree aware of both the acts and the consequences of those acts. I must exclude those persons who for physical or psychological reasons are aware of neither intention nor consequence. In the court of law the question of whether a given defendant is capable of standing trial is thoroughly investigated.

A central concern within religious tradition is the source of evil. Where did evil arise? How did evil come about? Who brought evil into the universe? Knowing the source is a crucial step in understanding evil. The Hebrew Bible is quite clear that the source is not God. Each act of creation is described by God as good. This phrase appears repeatedly “God saw that it was good.” No mention of evil. God had no intention or will to create evil.

In Judeo-Christian thought evil originated with the first humans, Adam and Eve. Though living in paradise with all its luxurious bounty, Eve was tempted by Satan to eat the fruit forbidden by God. Alas, the woman was named the culprit, as happens so frequently in our tradition. Eve encouraged Adam to join her and he did. In doing so they gained awareness that they were naked and quickly covered their bodies. Walking through the garden, God noticed their covering and immediately knew they had disobeyed. Some call it rebellion, others disobedience, all name it the Fall of Man. They were driven from the Garden of Eden and an angel blocked their re-entry into paradise. Henceforth, they would live under new sparse and harsh conditions, expressed in the familiar phrase “…by the sweat of their brow.”

The New Testament tells the story of the evil one who tempts Jesus. Immediately following Jesus’ baptism the Spirit drives him into the wilderness. There he, like holy ones earlier, is tested. Mark intends the event to be a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil. “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” [Mk 1:12].

The setting for the drama of the temptation is the three-storied universe, the understanding of the cosmos of the first century. Heaven, earth and hell provide the stage, while Jesus, angels, wild beasts, and Satan are the actors. Satan and the wild beasts square off against Spirit, Jesus and the angels in the cosmic battle. No more is said, no details provided. The drama leaves the conclusion unclear. But there is no question that Satan is the source of evil and Jesus is clearly accompanied by the holy ones.
            
Matthew and Luke provide a much more detailed drama. In each of three acts, Satan speaks, Jesus replies. While famished, Jesus is tempted to command stones to become bread. When standing on a high pinnacle of the temple, he is tempted to throw himself down to show that God will protect him. Situated on a high mountain overlooking all the kingdoms he was offered them all if he would fall down and worship Satan. Jesus rejects all offers and after commanding that Satan leave, angels come and wait upon Jesus. The characters are similar to the cosmic battle in Mark, but the emphasis is now more upon those longings and desires which will come to plague Jesus.

In the temptation passages of Matthew and Luke, believed by scholars to have originated in the same “Q” community,  it is clear that the holy one is now and will be faced later by the counter proposals of the evil one. I find Luke’s final statement, not present in Matthew, fascinating: “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.” [Lk4:13]  For this gospel writer the testing will continue without end. The evil one, in his judgment would simply bide his time waiting for moments of weakness. Luke apparently believed that the struggle with evil is never over.

I am moved to say how ripe these temptation dramas are for sermons: three points already provided for the preacher. Then, I must confess that I was one of those who picked that fruit. I did not preach the three points but developed them into a soliloquy which I presented at the West Covina Methodist Church. It was in seeking out some assistance from Dr. James Robinson that I first learned that the dramas are a product of the early church and not historical experiences of Jesus. After all, this was twenty years before the Jesus Seminar came to that same conclusion. At first I felt disappointed, but went on with my presentation at the church, then turned to these dramas as a Master’s thesis.

I certainly did conclude from my search of scripture that no one is immune from the prompting of evil. If Jesus was tempted, then all others must be also. In a sense this brought me relief for I had been tempted on many occasions and now felt that I was not alone or unusual.

A book which has been most influential in forming Christian thinking about the source of evil is John Milton’s Paradise Lost. A 17th century English poet, he composed this epic work in 1667. He told the story of the source of evil. An angel in heaven, Satan, rebelled against God, seeking to take the place of the Divine One. Satan lost the ensuring battle and was banished from heaven, falling to earth where he would be the sovereign ruler. When God created Adam and Eve from the soil of the earth, Satan was already ruling there.

In the form of a serpent, Satan tempted Eve to eat the apple, whereupon she invited Adam to join her. While Satan rejoiced at his triumph over them, God banned them from the Garden. Now their lives would be governed by the principles of sin and death, which they could not escape and which they would pass unknowingly to all their offspring. Thus came original sin, now sexually transmitted to all generations. The beginning was  allowing themselves to be led into evil.

I do not consider John Milton’s epic to be history, just as I do not consider the dramas of Temptation to be so. They are to me rich metaphors, delightful parables, fascinating stories making an important point. It would come as no surprise that four years later Milton published Paradise Regained, Christ’s victory over Satan.
 
I have focused upon the source of evil and now will turn to the important concern of how God is related to evil. This basic question of the participants in the Lenten class deserves an answer. Actually, I must say answers, because there are several. Some propose that there is no evil, rather it is simply an illusion. Others state that there is a dualism in the universe, the forces of good and the forces of evil, both represented by a person, figure,  or agency, usually God and the Devil. The cartoonists portray this theory drawing persons with Christ on the right shoulder and the Devil on the left, each pulling them constantly in opposite directions. The phrase, “The devil made me do it,” is commonplace today, sometimes spoken in jest and other times in dead seriousness.
A third position is that there is only one power in the universe. No evil, two powers, or one power are the options I see. I hold to the proposal of one power.

A critical difference is also found not only in the number of powers but also in the nature of God’s power. Traditionally God has been granted almighty sovereign power which is expressed in a unilateral manner. God can do whatever God wills to do whenever and wherever God chooses. Nothing can stop, deter, or stand in the way of God, not spirit, human, or matter. We can now see the context of our original question: “If God is all powerful and God is all good, why is there evil in the world?”

If one grants all power to God, then the answer which must follow is that God allowed the entrance of evil into the world and allows it to continue for a higher divine purpose, one which we just do not understand during our life time. There is purpose in evil. This leads to an unquestioning approach to God. “What right do we have to second guess God? God’s ways are not our ways. We cannot think God’s thoughts. We must simply have faith. Trust in God’s mysterious will. We will know the answers someday when we are with God in heaven.”

A variation of this form of trust and faith is that in allowing evil God is providing a lesson for us. The task is a bit different in that believers are called upon to search for the lesson rather than simply accept an action as God’s unsearchable mysterious will. Great deliberation and probing thought are required of the faithful. I know that most Christian believers through the ages and many today live in one of these two modes. Much was and is required of them.

The theology which I embrace provides an answer much more satisfying to me. I accept that God is all powerful and all good, but revise what it means to be powerful. Dr. John Cobb speaking as our Albertson Lecturer in Wenatchee this past year, shared that when St. Jerome was translating the Bible into the Latin Vulgate  in the 4th century he used the title “Almighty” for God when in the original language Almighty was simply a proper name. I found his proposal to be both a delightful revelation and a serious error made by St. Jerome. This means that even in our early tradition it was not Almighty God. Yet today it is clearly the most common way of addressing and thinking about God. As I look at the prayers in the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church, the address is ubiquitous.

I have spoken earlier about God as influential and persuasive, the bringer of new possibilities to our moments. I affirm that God is all powerful as a persuader and supreme as a relater. There are none who surpass God in these qualities.

This understanding frees me from accepting evil as the mysterious will of God and from probing for the lesson God has for me in evil. God is neither a party to evil, nor complicit in evil. God steadfastly calls me and all creation toward justice, intensity, complexity, beauty and love. I am the final decider of who I become, not God. I am responsible for how I respond to God’s invitations. I create myself. God lures, calls, proposes, offers, and invites, I decide.

This new understanding feels like a two-edged sword. I am free from blind trust and faith and I am responsible for who I become. Such responsibility can weigh heavily. I cannot say, “The devil made me do it.” “I just couldn’t help myself.” “God commanded me to take that action.” Thus I can agree with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden once I exclude the temptation by the Devil. I am compelled to say that I choose to eat that apple on a regular basis. I can affirm the descriptions of the temptations of Jesus without Satan. With such profound spiritual power residing within Jesus there would be conflicting ways to express it. I agree that evil entered the world through humans. I do not need to agree with the complex story of John Milton to affirm that we humans are the cause. I resonate with a statement by William Stringfellow, “I went out to meet the enemy, and lo, it was I.”

How we create and choose evil are important concerns. Having studied sociology for a number of years I find that choosing evil is not merely an individual act but one deeply influenced by the groups to which I belong and the by the institutions in which I participate. I believe with the Apostle Paul in the “powers and principalities.” In my theology, sin does not enter my life through a genetic inheritance dating from the original sin of Adam, but through my birth into a web of relationships. Like original sin, I am in it long before I even know it. I cannot avoid it. I am both embraced and trapped in a web. I am swimming in water and am not even aware of the obvious.

When I consider the center of creativity, evil is present from two basic sources, the world intertwining, intersecting and surrounding me and my own personal past. The world is primary since as a new born infant I had little past and what I had was primarily biological. I don’t think I could have gotten into too much trouble in my mother’s uterus. I am born into a milieu which is a swirling mix of values, some which sustain and support me and others which distort and harm me. I begin by taking them up into myself, not knowing the difference. I become a reflection of that mix around me. I say what others around me say. I could live my entire life as this reflection of my society, unless I have other proposals about how to think and live. Those are continually presented to me by God, but I might never even know of that divine presence or I might essentially ignore the presence.

Most of us, through God and graceful persons and institutions of the world, do become aware of values which conflict with the world we first absorbed. Yet those values can be fended off handily. Evil often takes the form of a deep desire for personal safety, acceptance, love, esteem, and affirmation from those in my reference group and an equally deep longing for achievements and accomplishment in forms accepted by my culture. Often authenticity is sacrificed for acceptance. I recall the film, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, in which he retained his youthful, handsome and winsome qualities in daily life while the portrait hidden in his home showed the shocking deformity and ugliness brought upon him by his own harmful and destructive decisions. Pleasing others to gain acceptance can be an evil which leads to a lack of personal authenticity which then leads to many problems in both physical health and harmful behavior.

It is often dangerous to escape from an entrapping web. Witness the suffering and death of Jesus and a host of other challengers of tradition. Describing a new way and traveling a new road may well lead to one’s death. In our tradition, martyrs abound.

Institutions and facets of institutions may be evil. Some are vividly evident, others more subtle and illusive. Certain institutions stand out. Slavery is clearly one of the greatest forms of evil. Freedom is lost, physical and sexual abuse is rampant, desires are left unfulfilled, energy is drained, humans are treated as animals, hunger is ever present, families are ripped apart and disobedience is marked by mutilation or death. Some years ago we visited the slave quarters of a plantation. In excavations of the nearby garbage dump were found bones of small animals trapped and eaten by slaves to supplement their meager food rations.

Feminists have isolated and identified patriarchy, the ideology that life is ordered such that men control women and children. Women are relegated to a lower second class station in life, often unable to even leave their home unless accompanied by a man. This was a central feature in the lives of ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome. Unfortunately , it is alive and well today in many quarters of the world.

For women in our nation it is evident in lesser pay for equal work and the “glass ceiling” in many corporations. I recall a few years ago that the “messengers” at the Southern Baptist Convention passed a memorial calling for women to engage in “Gracious Submission,” to which I responded by developing a statement on “Gracious Equality.” I was taken back when I learned the etymology of the phrase “rule of thumb.” In earlier English law it was illegal for a man to beat his wife with a stick larger than his thumb.

In my professional life I decided that I would counsel only with couples who wanted to develop an equal marriage. If persons wished a relationship in which the man was the authority, there were a number of counselors available who would facilitate that effort. I felt deeply satisfied when we in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors developed a design whereby women who were Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic and could not meet our organizational requirement of ordination were allowed to use other credentials to become members of AAPC. We could not change the institutional churches from which these women came, but we could become a more egalitarian institution ourselves.

I am certain that those slaves and women who were able to escape these entrapping webs suffered heavy consequences and paid a great price. They were the courageous ones who could fly in the face of well established rules, norms, and customs to reach for a more humane existence.

Other institutions are evil or exhibit evil qualities in their operation. International child prostitution ranks high in exhibiting evil. Poverty stricken parents who are unable to care for their children sell daughters into slavery where they are forced to serve as prostitutes for wealthy men who pay to be the first to have sex with a young virgin. Corporations which employ workers for a low wage in a third world country, thereby reducing the cost of their product and increasing their profit will simply move their operations to another country if wages are lower there. No concern is expressed for the total disruption to family, community, and environment of the country they leave. The concern for corporate life is the bottom line.

The church as an institution is not exempt from evil, for it has acted in inhumane and brutal ways. The inquisition would be the prime example; persons who were heretics or suspected heretics were burned at the stake. War has been fought between Christians and  other world religions. The Crusades, rallied in 1095 CE by Pope Urban’s cry, “Deus Vult” [God wills it] sent many marching into battle to ensure a place in heaven for themselves. The patriarchy which has existed and still is present in some denominations reduces the esteem and creativity of women. I laughed when Dr. John Cobb said the main feeling he experiences when thinking about the history of the church is embarrassment.

A real problem which we all face is that whether these institutions exist across the ocean or in our backyard, we are affected. Since through God we are connected and intertwined with all other humans and creatures, wherever anyone suffers from hunger, injustice, or abuse we feel it. Whether only slightly as a tinge or dramatically as a hurricane, we feel with them. I am moved by the statement that “if anyone is in chains I am not free.”
The entrapping web is a major source of evil. Those customs which are considered right and natural snatch the little ones before they are able to reason and question for themselves. They are socialized into evil. The real question is whether those entrapped will open themselves to more humane and compassionate visions brought by God or by certain gracious strands of the world. We participate in evil by immersing ourselves unthinkingly in institutions and by remaining unaware, ignoring or self-consciously closing off divine options.

I firmly believe that God desires that we become beautiful, aware, whole, loving, compassionate persons. God continually lures us toward this mode of being. God does not invite evil, even though in some tragic situations the relevant and realistic divine invitations offered may be a far cry from God’s ultimate goals. Our past comes to each new center of creativity with mixed influence, some moments in which we were delightfully loving and others in which we showed our worst side. The world, likewise, comes with a swirl of evil and loving options.

I believe that we can be open to God’s possibilities to transform us; we can break from the mold of our individual habits and the entrapping institutional web. It usually does not happen in one fell swoop or dramatic moment, rather, many steps over much time lead to transformation. I am aware that I am affirming an early church heresy, Pelagianism, that one can actually do something to save oneself. I agree with Pelagius. The church said only Christ alone can save. I do not agree with the church. I contrast that doctrine of the church with the proposal that each of us can participate as co-creators with God in transforming ourselves and the world.

I conclude. Evil, yes! Satan, no!    

Living in Process: My 43 Years in Process Theology is an interactive eBook by Robert Brizee, Th.M., Ph.D.