The Theological Ground Is Still Shaking

Steve Bellue of Hollywood writes:

Shame on you, Scott Harris, for your story titled, “In Stressful Times We Question God, but Turn to Mom.” It should have been titled, “In Stressful Times, Even Moms Should Turn to God.”

Even the “Christian” you alluded to, Lita, is off - base, saying people should “be good inside.” They cannot. “All have sinned,” the Bible says, and “No man is good.” That’s why all people need forgiveness. And that’s why God allows the world to be shaken up sometimes, to get the attention of people like you.

One thing about the Almighty: He sure strikes a nerve. Or, if you prefer, She does. If He/She wanted to get my attention, He/She succeeded.

If these words seem a bit irreverent for a Sunday, I would only ask that He/She forgive me. And it is in the same spirit, a faith in forgiveness, that I now return to the traditional He.

Theology isn’t easy, a point underscored by reaction to the alleged “act of God” that occurred on Jan. 17. I say alleged not only because there is some question about God’s existence, but also because some believers doubt that He is in any way responsible.

Many people call themselves believers, but their gods have different faces. In The Times’ Voices section on Feb. 7, clerics offered a variety of answers to the question: “Was the temblor God’s ‘judgment’?” Some said yes, some said no. The reaction to my Jan. 20 column suggests that God is interpreted in many ways, which may be why it’s considered impolite to discuss religion.

The column concerned a conversation between my friend, Lita, and her 7-year-old son, Leslie. In his letter, Steve Bellue cites a headline that appeared in the Metro edition. In the Valley edition, the headline was “God, Nature, and Shaken Bodies and Souls.”

“How can God let those things happen?” Leslie asked his mother. He wanted to know why God allows innocent people to suffer. “Arbitrary” is not a word in Leslie’s vocabulary. But that is what troubled him--the arbitrariness of it all.

Thousands of parents must have heard similar questions. Those conversations illustrate the struggle we all face trying to find morality in a universe that observation suggests is utterly amoral.

Lita essentially told her son that “God is tired from bad people” and wants people to change their evil ways. Innocent people suffer, she told Leslie, as a warning to everybody. This seemed to satisfy Leslie, who explained to me: “God didn’t want to do this, and He feels sorry. But He had to do it so the people will change a little bit.”

It didn’t surprise me that Lita’s words troubled some readers.

Janice Bryden of Glendale writes: I hope that Lita will reconsider and perhaps introduce her son to a benevolent God, not a frightening, punishing one. What might Leslie think would happen the next time he has a mean thought or does something he was told not to do. In his child’s mind . . . perhaps the next earthquake would be his fault. . .

Please, let’s be careful of the lessons we impart to children. Whenever we can, let’s empower them with facts to explain physical phenomena and teach morality as a separate subject. We don’t want to give God such an angry, violent face, do we?

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To which John C. Taylor of the Fairfax area adds:

What I find disturbing is that Lita is apparently trying to promote the image of a vengeful and cruel deity to her son under the guise of a Christian education. Leslie picks up on the concept right away; God kills innocent people in an attempt to make sinful ones behave. This is the kind of viewpoint that would feel comfortable with the notion that God created AIDS to punish homosexuals, libertines and drug users.

This idea of natural disasters being a sign of divine displeasure is certainly as old as faith itself. . . . To present this tenet to children as a means of encouraging moral behavior is to control them through fear.

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These are perspectives I tend to share, though I’m not worried about Leslie’s moral education. I know his parents, and however God is presented will ultimately matter less than their daily guidance and example and Leslie’s own judgment.

All of us, at some point, wrestle with the kind of question Leslie raised. God, we are told as children, created Man. But Man, we grow up to suspect, really created God. This is a journey Leslie will make in time. Would a dissertation on tectonic plates or, for that matter, the AIDS virus really satisfy a child who asks, “How can God let those things happen?” Would it satisfy an adult’s question?

In any case, Lita would be happy to know that other readers seem to agree with her perspective of the earthquake, portraying it as a kind of cosmic wake-up call.

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Delia Lucas of Montebello writes:

God, in His mercy, is trying to tell us something--get your act together, leave the darkness, choose the light, change our evil ways.

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And so on.

Of everything that Lita told Leslie, the words that stuck with me were these: “We have to really be good inside. Because whatever happens, we have to be ready.”

Here is a mother telling her boy about the fragility of life and the fickleness of fate. To be good, she explains, is to be ready.

Ready--but for what?

For many people, spirituality is built on a foundation of questions, not answers.

In the course of writing this column, I remembered a passage from an article that Dr. Clinton E. Tempereau, chief of psychiatric services at the Sherman Oaks Burn Center, wrote for The Times last November:

“She’s a 17-year-old who lost her face and hands in a car fire. Two years later, the day after her 12th reconstructive surgery, she looks up at me: ‘Doctor, do you believe in God?’ I answer: ‘For as long as I can remember, I have stood in awe of the unknowable.’ She smiles. ‘So you’re saying ‘yes.’ ‘ And she drops off to sleep.”

One night a few years back, I was asked the same question while strolling on the Seal Beach pier with a woman. The question came from a gray-haired panhandler, unsteady with drink. My answer wasn’t as eloquent as Dr. Tempereau’s.

“Sometimes,” I said.

The answer just came out. I’d never thought about God that way before.

Some people will find this answer disappointing.

But if He exists, one trusts that He appreciates honesty.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Readers may write Harris at The Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Ca . 91311.