We’ve heard it all before.
In fact, people have been spouting this crap since 1962.
“The Supreme Court kicked God out of public
schools!”
I call B.S.
In fact, I have a degree that makes me uniquely
qualified to call B.S.
Even still, this was
the basis of the reprehensible argument Brian Fischer made today on
his radio show
for American Family Radio for the school shooting in Newtown, CT.
Fischer, in what is perhaps the single worst
example of theodicy known to man, suggested that God “allowed” this tragic
event to occur because He’s a gentleman and as such, “God is not going to go
where he is not wanted.”
Before I get to
the horrible theodicy encapsulated in this statement, allow me a brief history
lesson.
In 1962, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-1 ruling on the
case Engel v. Vitale, which outlawed government-written
prayers in public schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment. To fundamentalists like
Fischer, this is when the government kicked prayer out of public schools. A year later, the Court ruled on Abington v. Schempp which outlawed the
devotional reading of the Bible in public schools. Strike two.
These two cases, taken together, are proof to fundamentalists that God
has been kicked out of public schools.
I’ve always thought that anyone who holds this opinion must
believe in a pretty wussy God. I don’t
think a temporal body like the Supreme Court could ever push an all-powerful
God out of any place He wasn’t particularly keen on leaving. Furthermore, God watches over His flock, so
where the children of God are, so shall he be.
(See John 10:28-9; Psalm 23:4)
Neither of these rulings was designed to be hostile to God; rather they
exist because this nation has always been designed, with regard to religion, to
privilege none and disparage none. Thus
creating a free and open religious environment where even idiots like Brian
Fischer are allowed to spout their particularly hateful brand of religion.
More importantly than the bad history and mis-reading of the
First Amendment and various Supreme Court decisions, Fischer is guilty of some
seriously BAD theology. There’s a word
for what Fischer was attempting (quite badly) to do; we call it “theodicy.” Theodicy is an explanation for the presence
of evil the world in light of a belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful
God. Augustine believed that evil exists
as an abuse of humanity’s free will.
From a sociological view, Peter Berger says that theodicy is necessary for
a society to create order from chaos.
Theodicy isn’t easy, especially in light of an event so
tragic. I know I don’t have any solid explanations
for why someone would open fire in a classroom full of kindergarteners. But I feel pretty comfortable in suggesting
that Brian Fischer’s explanation is total crap: God is a gentleman and,
therefore, won’t go somewhere He isn’t wanted.
I return you to my previous statement that God keeps an eye on His
children, even in the midst of evil (“Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, Thou art with me.”
Psalm 23:4).
The bad theodicy of Fischer and others (Jerry Falwell, for
example, tried to pin 9/11 on all sorts of groups he didn’t agree with politically)
has its roots in the Deuteronomic view of affliction as a just punishment for
sin (see, for example, Deuteronomy 28:15).
Psalm 1 says “the Lord
watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish
(vs. 6).” However, this is not the last
word on theodicy in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah accused God, not of cursing the wicked, but allowing them to
thrive (12:1-2). Perhaps the ultimate
Biblical example of an explanation of evil is the Book of Job. Job is described as upright and blameless, a
man who feared the Lord (1:1). Yet, he
was afflicted by God, and in the midst of his suffering, directly contradicted
the Deuteronomic explanation, saying that the Lord “destroys both the blameless
and the wicked (9:22).” As Christians, we
accept the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the ultimate answer
to the problem of evil: The resurrection story is God’s final answer, the
ultimate story of conquering evil.
The more
troubling aspect of Fischer’s explanation of the events today is how he twists
and abuses scripture to make political hay.
Brian Fischer has a definite political point of view, and his asinine
statement today is more reflective of THAT than it is of any theological
viewpoint. In fact, I would guess that
Fischer couldn’t provide any kind of scriptural basis for his position, only a
political basis. However, should Fischer
be able to provide some sort of theological underpinning for his view, I would
be 100% comfortable in saying that the God Brian Fischer purports to worship is
not the God I serve, for the simple reason that the God I follow isn’t a
jerk. He doesn’t point and laugh and sit
back and watch as 20 5-year-olds are slaughtered.
Brian Fischer and
others believe with unrestrained certainty that their interpretation of the
Word of God is absolutely correct, ignoring all of the contradictions and
troubling passages and episodes that make us uncomfortable. So desirous of a set-in-stone position, both
theologically and politically, they have shrunk God, putting Him into an
impossibly small package that looks suspiciously like themselves. This is perhaps the gravest of modern sins—turning
one’s own beliefs into an idol, then stubbornly holding tight to those
positions, even when doing so makes them sound like unrepentant idiots.
I don’t know why
this tragedy occurred today. I have no
words to comfort the families of the victims or the survivors. But I know that even as I wrestle with why something
like this could happen and I admit freely that I have difficulty reconciling
this kind of evil with an all-powerful, loving God, I know that God is with
them, with us all. He heals the broken
hearted and comforts those who mourn. I
pray that all those affected may feel a peace the passes all
understanding. God bless them.
