On the God I serve not being an jerk….

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.