God's Will

I am always amazed at how little faith many religious people have in the power of their God.

Take the death penalty. The Christian Right is adamant in its support of the death penalty. After all, it's so Biblical...eye-for-an-eye and all that.

But if they really believed in the power of their God, they would leave the matter in His hands. Believe me, if an omnipotent God wants someone dead, then that person will die. (Look at Father John Geoghan, for instance. The State put him in prison; apparently God wanted him dead, so he died.)

Take abortion. The Christian Right, the Catholic Church, and others assure us that abortion is contrary to the will of God.

But again, they show a remarkable lack of faith in God. If God wanted that fetus to live, then it would live. Simple as that.

Here are people who profess to believe in an omnipotent God who has performed some of the most amazing miracles: Noah's Flood, the Plagues of Egypt, splitting the Red Sea, raising the dead, multiplying loaves and fishes. They profess to believe in a God who, someday soon, will bodily lift thousands into the heavens, and then start on a course of miracles that will dwarf the greatest Hollywood special-effects movies. And yet they also believe that this omnipotent God is so feeble that He needs help to kill a murderer, or to save the life of an unborn child.

Why do these people think that God needs their help? That, in fact, He can't do His job without their help? Isn't that more than a little hubristic, claiming that they can do God's job better than He can?

It is God's power and privilege, they tell us, to mete out life and death. By claiming God's power for themselves, aren't these people setting themselves up in the place of God? Don't their Ten Commandments have something to say about that? Does the word "blasphemy" ring a bell?

Of course, by the same logic, God must not be very upset with these folks. If He were, then He'd stop them doing what they're doing. Apparently, God is ignoring them.

Good idea, God.

M.