In a story in the Edmonton Journal, a professional football player credited God with his miraculous escape from a fire.
Albert Reese plans to check into a hotel tonight provided by the American Red Cross in his hometown of Saraland, Ala.
The former Edmonton Eskimos defensive tackle lost virtually all his belongings last Saturday when fire ripped through his apartment around 8 a.m. in the suburb outside Mobile.
The 35-year-old managed to grab his Grey Cup ring before jumping out a second-floor window to escape the flames and smoke.
“I’m OK,” Reese said this morning. “It was a close call for me. I was sleeping at the time, so God must have been watching over me.”
What does this drive me crazy? Because what about people who have died in fires? Was God “watching over” them? It seems to me, you can’t have it both ways.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Paulie // Jun 21, 2008 at 1:24 am
I thought this passage from Dan Savage’s weekly collumn (http://www.laweekly.com/la-vida/savage-love/lovers-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakup/19109/) was along the same vein. . .
“Homos are marrying in California as of this week (congrats to all), and should a tornado — or an earthquake or a meteor or the Incredible Hulk — flatten, say, San Francisco’s City Hall during a big gay wedding, respected leaders of the religious right will rush to cable broadcast studios to insist that the tornado/earthquake/meteor/Hulk was God’s divine judgment, His righteous wrath, the Baby Jesus’s latest temper tantrum, wocka wocka wocka.
“I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing,” said the Rev. John Hagee, John McCain’s ex-BFF, when asked about Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans just before a “massive homosexual rally,” a.k.a. an annual street party called “Southern Decadence,” was supposed to take place in the French Quarter. “I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”
And God got his way: By drowning all those little old ladies in their attics in the Ninth Ward, God prevented that massive gay rally — for one year.
So how does a douchebag like Hagee explain away the tragedy in Iowa last week? A tornado struck a Boy Scout camp, killing four and injuring scores more, and the Scouts are famously antigay and antiatheist. Well, we need only to consult the same interview with Rev. Hagee to learn the answer: While all natural phenomena represent God’s “permissible will,” says Hagee, “it is wrong to say that every natural disaster is the result of sin … No man on Earth knows the mind of God.”
See how that works? Not every natural disaster is the result of sin, you see, because sometimes natural disasters happen to us, not just to them, and when they happen to us, well, the Lord sure moves in mysterious ways, and no man on Earth knows the mind of God. But let a natural disaster strike San Francisco this week, next week, or ever again, and Rev. Hagee will be able to read the mind of God like it was a large-print edition of Highlights for Children.
2 Drew // Jun 21, 2008 at 4:38 am
I recall, I believe either in Philadelphia or NYC, a church had burned down. During a speech talking about how blessed they were that a new church was being built, how God himself was watching over the congregation, the pastor who was standing in a puddle of water was himself electricuted by the microphones and amplifiers.
Sadly ironic.
Indeed, when people talk about God looking out for them, I wonder where he was during other times of need, for other people?
And i wonder, what is God’s favorite sports team? And whose side in (pick your favorite war) is he on?
3 Kenneth Conklin // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:56 am
“so God must have been watching over me.”
Yup, his subjective view. Was God watching over him? If you subscribe (as I do) to God seeing everything, then yes. Was God paying attention to him at the moment, helping him out of the apartment? Likely yes. Why? Good question, and who knows. Why did some scouts die because of that tornado? Again, don’t know.
Perhaps we should learn to live with the reality of God giving out things that we don’t like, but need. Someone dies in a fire, because it needs to happen. People in my family gets cancer, because there’s a purpose and reason there. There’s also pain, torture, suffering, and many other things. But why should we think that God wouldn’t give pain, when He also gives us pleasures in life?
How petty we are then. (And, stupid, I might add.)
4 Alexander // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Hey…congrats on the book and the new site. You are taking some brave steps here, going public with your views on faith and religion.
I wanted to recommend reading Greg Lauries piece on “Why Does God Allow Evil” in response to your post. I posted it on my blog…basically a cut and paste job. That’s a tough one to handle myself…other than to say that I believe God isn’t so easy to understand and breakdown in humanly terms…even like what team he is rooting for!
Here ya’ go:
http://thescroogereport.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/why-does-god-allow-evil/
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