Mental Photoshop: How Christians Insert God into Disaster Situations.

Let’s continue our look at how Christians react to disaster situations. God’s failure to intervene when his followers (and even many non-religious) are begging him to presents a problem to the believer: How do they manage to account for an absent God, while avoiding cognitive dissonance? The religious mind has come up with an ingenious solution:

Take what humans do to help those in need, and attribute those actions to God.

In effect, they are mentally Photoshopping God into a situation where he never was.


In cinematic terms they are doing what Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis did by digitally inserting Tom Hanks into historical news footage:



We see this Christian mind-game all the time in Facebook statuses:

“After a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, I am cancer-free! Praise God for his healing power!!”

“The heart transplant was successful. Thank you for all of your prayers. I am living proof that Jesus still does miracles!”

Apparently, not only is God a slacker, but he is a glory-hog who loves taking the credit for other people’s hard work. The theology that Christians are the ‘Body of Christ’ – his hands and feet on the Earth is a thinly-disguised admission that God does nothing in our world – people are the only ones who make a difference. As James A. Lindsay says succinctly in his book title, “God Doesn’t; We Do”.

For a current example of this religious self-deception at work, consider this response to the Moore, Oklahoma tornado, from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I have highlighted instances in yellow:

A Prayer in the wake of the May 20 tornado in Moore-Oklahoma City

O God of love, whose Spirit in creation moved over the face of chaos, bringing life: hear our prayers, as we bear witness this day to the awful power of wind, whose might raged over your people in Moore, Oklahoma, changing lives and landscapes in an instant.  Even now, as first responders still labor to seek those who are lost and succor those who are bereaved and bereft, even as stories of terror and hurt are still unfolding, 

WE TOUCH YOUR HAND OF MERCY 

In teachers who sheltered with their bodies the children entrusted to their care, as you, O God, like a mother hen spread her wings over her people Israel: 

WE SEE YOUR FACE, AND FEEL YOUR TENDER EMBRACE. 

In neighbors who rallied to one another’s need, in houses of worship which opened their doors to give shelter, in volunteers who set their personal needs aside to assist those in grave danger and those awaiting a hand of compassion 

WE FEEL THE HEART OF YOUR COMPASSION. 

In the courageous resolve of first responders, who listen for cries in the dark, dig through the rubble, tenderly bind up wounds and comfort the bereaved, 

WE EXPERIENCE THE STEADFASTNESS OF YOUR LOVE. 

We are grateful for the signs of your presence in responders, neighbors, strangers and families of faith, who come together as one common body to save, support, and salve the wounds of those who suffer. 

FOR ALL THESE VISIBLE SIGNS OF YOUR INVISIBLE GRACE, WE BLESS YOUR NAM
 

Our Rock and Redeemer, who from the bonds of death rose to resurrection life for the sake of Love, be a strong presence among those who, having survived this chaos, now face grief, uncertainty and weary days: 

BE IN US AND THROUGH OUR PRAYERS AND ACTIONS A SOURCE OF HOLY COMFORT AND A CHANNEL OF HEALING GRACE. 

MAY THE PEACE OF GOD MOVE THROUGH US, THE REST OF GOD ABIDE WITH THOSE WHO HAVE ENDURED TERRORS AND SORROW, AND, IN THE SEASON OF REBUILDING, MAY THE LIFE OF GOD BRING OUT OF FORMLESS CHAOS, A NEW CREATION. AMEN.  

---the Rev. Dr. Laurie A. Kraus, Coordinator, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Here are some questions for commenters: How do you respond to this sort of thing? Do you confront or call out this bogus assigning of credit to a god when you encounter it? If so, how have Christians responded to you?


Written by J. M. Green


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