"God is with us at worst moments"
"God is with us at worst moments" is a valuable reflection by Michael Gerson published in his OpEd column in the Washington Post and reprinted in today's Janesville Gazette (p. 6A). I found it very meaningful and reassuring. I encourage you to read it.
Christmas 2012 has been UNusually difficult with the wide-range of violence which has permeated the days from Friday, the 14th of December with 20 children and 6 school people and the killer’s own mother by Adam Lanza with a semi-automatic rifle. Perhaps that tragedy with the world-wide attention complemented by the presence of our President BARACK OBAMA, himself the father of 2 young girls, and the week of funerals sensitized us all to gun violence throughout our American society. What has been YOUR reflection?
President Obama was PROACTIVE as he shared the mourning and then spoke at the community memorial service in Newtown, CT on Sunday, the 16th of December. Meaningful that he asserted that he would use every power of the presidency to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
Since then the discussion exploded with continuing intensity with a focus on gun control. The discussion is reflected in every news report I’ve seen on TV, heard on radio and read in a news newspaper and magazine.
The discussion hit hard in the comments to my WE THE PEOPLE blog post on Saturday, December 15, “Morning of MOURNING.” I did express my advocacy for additional gun control by our US and WI governments, especially a prohibition on civilian ownership of automatic and semi-automatic guns.
And then on Friday, December 21, responding to Governor Dan Malloy’s call for a “DAY OF MOURNING” and Governor Scott Walker’s Proclamation for a “DAY OF MOURNING,” I posted on my WE THE PEOPLE blog information about and support of “9:30 a.m. – MOMENT OF SILENCE on this DAY OF MOURNING.”
Again the comments focused on guns in our American society.
Was YOUR Christmas 2012 impacted significantly by the violence surrounding this Christmas time?
Reading the Gazette this morning, I appreciated that the Editorial Page Editor Greg Peck chose to reprint Michael Gerson’s OpEd column from the Washington Post, “God is with us at worst moments.” I myself read the original OpEd column in the Washington Post yesterday, CHRISTMAS DAY. I think the Gazette’s title is better than the Washington Post’s title. I am able to give you the LINK to the Post’s publication and IF you do not have access to page 6A of today’s Janesville Gazette, I encourage you to read the column, “This Christmas, joy wrestles with grief.”
Gerson’s opening statement hit me between the eyes because it reflected my own thoughts, “This is a Christmas season shadowed by sorrow. We know, of course, that human beings, even small ones, sometimes die in horrible, unfair ways. But all the horror and unfairness seemed to arrive at once in Newtown, Conn., where some parents wake on Christmas Day, if they slept at all, to mourn their absent children.
I appreciated Gerson’s reference to the sermon preached at Riverside Church in New York City by the pastor, the Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin on March 5, 2004 – just 10 days after his son Alex was killed in a car accident with the incisive statement, “When parents die, they take with them a large portion of the past. But when children die, they take away the future as well. That is what makes the valley of the shadow of death seem so incredibly dark and unending. In a prideful way, it would be easier to walk the valley alone, nobly, head high, instead of — as we must — marching as the latest recruit in the world’s army of the bereaved.”
If you would like to read the whole sermon, you can access it on Public Broadcasting’s "NOW" program archives online using this link, “Eulogy for Alex.”
I encourage you to read the whole eulogy/sermon and the whole OpEd column.
I totally agree with Gerson in his declaration, “There are no easy philosophic or theological explanations for unnatural death — no greater, cosmic good that neatly justifies unfair suffering. And those who try to find God’s will in an earthquake, a cancer ward or a mass killing are engaged in a particularly cruel and arrogant exercise. Coffin would have none of it: ‘Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn’t go around this world with his fingers on triggers, his fists around knives, his hands on steering wheels. . . . The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is, “It is the will of God.” Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.’”
Gerson goes on to comment, “Death is not the expression of a just moral order but its violation. And the proper response is not explanation but friendship. ‘Immediately after such tragedy,’ said Coffin, ‘people must come to your rescue, people who only want to hold your hand, not to quote anybody or even say anything, people who simply bring food and flowers — the basics of beauty and life — people who sign letters simply, “Your brokenhearted sister.”’”
NOT EXPLANATION but FRIENDSHIP! AMEN & AMEN! ("Amen" is an expression of STRONG approval of or support for an assertion.)
Gerson meaningfully asserts, “Grief is particularly difficult at Christmas, as the best memories can be the hardest ones. But the hope of Christmas is broad enough for joy and sorrow.” He continues to share the REAL blessing of Christmas, “The point of Christmas is not a sentimental optimism about the human condition or even a teaching about the will of God. It is an assertion that God came to our rescue, and holds our hand, and becomes, at the worst moments, our brokenhearted brother. It is preposterous, unless it is true. And then it would be everything.”
I do NOT know whether Gerson’s OpEd column influenced the Washington Post’s editorial writer or visa versa, but I would alert you to the Post’s editorial, “Christmas 2012: A day of sorrow mixed with joy.”
The editorial has a stark reminder of the reality of the Bible’s report about HUMAN NATURE, “THE CHRISTMAS story is one of warmth and light, but there’s a darker chapter that isn’t so often retold. Not long after the birth of Jesus, the Roman-installed king of Israel, Herod, got word that a future king had been born in Bethlehem. Herod, insecure and ever fearful, had all the male children in Bethlehem under 2 years of age killed. But Jesus’s family, forewarned, had already fled into Egypt.
Of the four Gospels, this story of the “slaughter of the innocents” is told only in Matthew, and there isn’t much historical evidence for it other than Herod’s established record of murders and atrocities committed against those whom he saw as threats to his throne. Scholars say that if it did occur, it was not a major event: Bethlehem was a little town, as the carol says, and the number of children killed would have been accordingly small — about 20 or so. By Matthew’s account, after it was done, “what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’ ”
Contining its reflection, the editorial attests, “Religious faith has been a persistent reality in most societies since their earliest days. It has over the millennia been mocked for its various theologies, repressed by governments, exploited for political or personal gain, distorted and misled by fanatics and charlatans who kill and coerce others. Yet it remains astonishingly resilient, as does the need to perceive some order and justice and source of consolation in the world that is beyond the wisdom of judges, therapists or grief counselors. I appreciated the reflection on the reality of the situation for the people in Newtown, Conn. , “…are in one of those times when the true meaning of the Christmas holiday is felt and expressed by all people of the community, regardless of faith, wealth or social standing. It is a time for coming together and for understanding and consideration, for seeking whatever solace can be had. It is a time not only for joy to the world but also for hope that there is truth in the words found further on in the Book of Matthew: ‘Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.’”
Remember, NOT EXPLANATION but FRIENDSHIP! What is YOUR testimony/experience/comment?
Here we go…
Mr. E.
John Eyster lives in the Edgerton area. He is an adjunct professor of political science at UW-Waukesha and an advocate for democracy/civics education in Wisconsin high schools. John is a community blogger and is not a part of The Gazette staff. His opinion is not necessarily that of the The Gazette staff or management.
Dec 31, 2012 at 8:29 a.m.
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Proving that you are so opposed to the First Amendment that even you yourself shouldn't benefit from it.
Dec 31, 2012 at 8:27 a.m.
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Congratulations, billnewbie, you revealed the intellectual vapidity of your religious belief by banning yourself from commenting on it.
Dec 30, 2012 at 8:31 p.m.
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Gazettefan, you didn't need to post that steaming word pile when a simple "yes" would have sufficed.
Dec 29, 2012 at 4:24 p.m.
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billnewbie, when in your college education did you learn that an ad hominem attack in lieu of directly responding to the other person's reasoning point for point is the civil thing to do?
Or is it something about your religiosity that overrides what you should have learned in your institution of higher learning?
Give it another try:
____________, is it really necessary to explain to you that questioning the whereabouts of god is a statement of god's non existence?
And, your simile is so devoid of effectiveness that you ended it with a question that you yourself couldn't answer, which is the very reason you asked the question. Your simile is as vapid as the blog above.
As for your direct mention of free will: If we have free will because "god" didn't want us to be robots, then what's heaven like? If free will explains why bad things happen on earth, then what would it be like to have free will in heaven? And if there is no free will in heaven, then everyone there must act like a robot, right?
And what happened to the prayers from any of the parents who prayed each day for the safety of their children? If the free will explanation rules, then what happens to free will with the capriciousness of a god that responds/doesn't respond to prayer.
Your problem with all this is that belief correlates with cognitive impairment. Though I'm sure that when you're not considering belief, you're as cognitively unimpaired as the average person.
Dec 29, 2012 at 1:30 p.m.
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"Of course, stunning reasoning has left you speechless."
Wow!!! You are so very impressed with yourself, aren't you?
Dec 29, 2012 at 9:42 a.m.
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kiow......, yes, the bible can be mined to rationalized the full gamut of the human mind. That gamut includes everything horrible that the human mind is capable of. But no civilized country or no civil society can operate on an ideology that that has a written basis for horror such as the bible's.
That's why civil law and criminal law in democratic nations are organic. Laws are constantly adjusted to weed-out unfairness and brutality. This weeding-out of unfairness and brutality is mainly directed at the horrors of New Testament, Old Testament, and the Koran.
A better variation of that Exodus commandment is the one that says: Thou Shalt Not Murder -rather than kill. Either way, the problem goes back to your comment about all the stuff in the bible: Thou Shalt Not Murder, or kill can be easily put on the wayside or used to commit murder depending on the believer's emotional state of mind at any given time.
Dec 28, 2012 at 11:10 a.m.
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posted by gazettefan
"Truly your typing above is a hideous demonstration of out-of-control self-promoting arrogance -complete with links to your other blogs."
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Could not say it any better gazettefan. I see in the latest Eyster blog today, he's patting himself on the back for being a VOLUNTEER (in caps of course) to the blog community. Just some more shameless self promotion. One thing I have learned in life is that honorable volunteers never even point out their work, the PHONIES always will, and do so over and over.
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Also, I certainty don't have theological knowledge like you (it's really not a subject I comment much on, or have much in depth knowledge to), but one can probably find any bible passage to justify one thing or another (as you did with the numbers passage). However; IMO, the bible seemed to be pretty clear in Exodus that the 10 commandments were directly sent from God, and one of those commandments was: "though shall not kill".
Dec 27, 2012 at 4:46 p.m.
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Of course, stunning reasoning has left you speechless.
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ThirdEye, is it really necessary to explain to you that questioning the whereabouts of god is a statement of god's non existence?
And, your simile is so devoid of effectiveness that you ended it with a question that you yourself couldn't answer, which is the very reason you asked the question. Your simile is as vapid as the blog above.
As for your direct mention of free will: If we have free will because "god" didn't want us to be robots, then what's heaven like? If free will explains why bad things happen on earth, then what would it be like to have free will in heaven? And if there is no free will in heaven, then everyone there must act like a robot, right?
And what happened to the prayers from any of the parents who prayed each day for the safety of their children? If the free will explanation rules, then what happens to free will with the capriciousness of a god that responds/doesn't respond to prayer.
Your problem with all this is that belief correlates with cognitive impairment. Though I'm sure that when you're not considering belief, you're as cognitively unimpaired as the average person.
Dec 27, 2012 at 4:32 p.m.
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GF@2:30pm. No.
Dec 27, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.
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ThirdEye, and no responses from you?
Dec 27, 2012 at 1 p.m.
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God is with us ALWAYS.My prayer is for ALL of America this day. We are quickly approaching the Fiscal Cliff and our representatives from the House of Representatives WENT home! This is an important time for them to be in Washington...not pander to Tea Party agenda. Shame on you who hold the office and are turning your backs on America's sons and daughters! Maybe we should hold your wages hostage ?
Dec 27, 2012 at 10:45 a.m.
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If something is true,
you do not have to believe in it.
It simply is.
If something is true,
you do not have to be obsessed with forcing others to agree.
It simply is.
With or without you.
Dec 27, 2012 at 10:36 a.m.
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GF@7:00am. Yes.
Dec 27, 2012 at 9:02 a.m.
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"God is with us at worst moments"
I totally agree with this statement, and truly believe it.
Dec 27, 2012 at 7:56 a.m.
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God's a gentlemen, we asked him to leave our public schools, thus he allwed the slaughter of the children, that's what Huckabee was getting at right?
Or did the all loving god just not protect them, thus keeping the blood off of his hands?
But it all happens according to the detailed plan of that all knowing being, which is also all powerful. Wait maybe it just makes sense that there is no god at all?
Dec 27, 2012 at 7 a.m.
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By the way, ThirdEye, have you read all the comments?
Dec 27, 2012 at 6:49 a.m.
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Isn't wahoo... referring to Eyster's blog?
Dec 26, 2012 at 10:13 p.m.
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wahoo_35: Did you read any of the preceding posts?
Dec 26, 2012 at 9:38 p.m.
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fordfan, what would happen if you wrote something right out of your head?
Dec 26, 2012 at 7:37 p.m.
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Where was your god when 20 children needed him the most? The sooner everyone realizes that there is no god the better off we all will be.
Dec 26, 2012 at 7:13 p.m.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearls_Befo...
Dec 26, 2012 at 7:01 p.m.
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Another blog/article mentioning the name "Adam Lanza"... and no mention of the victims. I dont think there is a higher pedestal right now that you can put Adam's name on. Thanks to the media hes as well known in this country as god. Is that the message you want to send to other crazies out there? "Be famous..go on a killing spree!".
Dec 26, 2012 at 6:51 p.m.
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I get it now, since there are so many verses in the bible we just pick one out that can somehow be made to relate to the situation at hand the way we want. No wonder why people are brainwashed by it, as long as you have an imagination, its got an answer for everything.
Dec 26, 2012 at 5:34 p.m.
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Lar80, if you want to mention how "god" feels about abortion, here's this:
“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women that hath known man by lying with him.” Numbers 31:17
Read your bible.
Dec 26, 2012 at 5:22 p.m.
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ThirdEye, is it really necessary to explain to you that questioning the whereabouts of god is a statement of god's non existence?
And, your simile is so devoid of effectiveness that you ended it with a question that you yourself couldn't answer, which is the very reason you asked the question. Your simile is as vapid as the blog above.
As for your direct mention of free will: If we have free will because "god" didn't want us to be robots, then what's heaven like? If free will explains why bad things happen on earth, then what would it be like to have free will in heaven? And if there is no free will in heaven, then everyone there must act like a robot, right?
And what happened to the prayers from any of the parents who prayed each day for the safety of their children? If the free will explanation rules, then what happens to free will with the capriciousness of a god that responds/doesn't respond to prayer.
Your problem with all this is that belief correlates with cognitive impairment. Though I'm sure that when you're not considering belief, you're as cognitively unimpaired as the average person.
Dec 26, 2012 at 5:09 p.m.
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Yes president Obama shed a tear for the lives of those 20 beautiful children.
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The same president Obama and those who support him condone the dismemberment of THOUSANDS of CHILDREN EVERY DAY at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.
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The same people who rail for justice and demand removal of guns, will savagely support the cruel death by abortion of more children in America than are killed in all the murders and wars in the world combined every year.
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If you want to bring God into this conversation take a look at Jeremiah 32:35 Leviticus 18:21 to see what God thinks about killing children
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To those of you who are publishing your hatred and disbelief of God in order to get a response for those who love him... Grow up.
Dec 26, 2012 at 4:18 p.m.
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I find it ironic that the 2 posters that claim that they do not believe in God, gazettefan and Sigma40, then ask; where was God in the Shady Hook incident?
I would suggest that they study the theological concept of free will.
Here is a crude analogy. Many of you remember the old electric football game where you lined up the players and then hit a switch which vibrated the field. The players would go according to how you lined them up. Some would stray off path, but the play continued until the quarterback was touched by an opposing player. Suppose you stopped the board in mid play and made adjustments to assure a certain outcome and further suppose you did this on each play. What would you have accomplished?
Dec 26, 2012 at 1:58 p.m.
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Eyster, did it actually allude you that you cruelly insulted the parents of murdered children who do not seek solace in the kind of speaking-in-tongues that you typed above? Did it even occur to you? Truly your typing above is a hideous demonstration of out-of-control self-promoting arrogance -complete with links to your other blogs.
People who are suffering don't need to be told how to suffer by you and your ilk.
Dec 26, 2012 at 12:38 p.m.
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What if all the parents of the 20 kids had sinned and this was gods way of punishing them? They just happened to be all in the right spot at the right time? Obviously if god didnt want it to happen it wouldnt have... so the kids or their parents were being rightfully punished for their sins. We must not questions the lords work.
Dec 26, 2012 at 12:37 p.m.
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This reminds me of Job's would be 'friends' and how we cannot fathom why a loving God allows evil to act.
I cannot imagine the extent of grief a parent has when a child dies, but many have to every day from causes ranging from tornados to violence to negligence.
The feeling that you are not the first or alone in your grief would be some consolation. As the pastor says; to be a brother or sister who brings flowers, food and a shoulder to lean on is the responsibility of the rest of us.
Dec 26, 2012 at 12:32 p.m.
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And where was he when the firefighters were ambushed and shot? Late again? Punctuality seems to be pretty important in his line of work....he should be fired.
Dec 26, 2012 at 10:56 a.m.
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"God is with us at the worst moments"?
Ok, so when god was with the children who were murdered during the truly worst moments, what was he doing? Just watching like a goof?
Or is it Eyster's claim that the aftermath of grief is actually worst than the horror the murdered children experienced?
Were the moments referred to in the headline the ones right after the murders? Which of course would mean that god always likes to be a fraction of a second late.
Dec 26, 2012 at 10:31 a.m.
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I get gumpy whenever Eyesore rambles on about nothing...and the non-educated/"self-smarted" intellectuals try to argue in his defense.
Dec 26, 2012 at 10:22 a.m.
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hongkongexpat - You're correct. Anybody who bashes something that has no evidence for existing is putting our city in a negative light. What we need is to explain to some people, like John Eyster that believing in nonsense can cause people to do horrible things that they might not do alone. The saying "God is with us" has no more truth in it than saying "pink lagoons form eggs". Both are nonsensical since neither statement has any supporting evidence to back it up.
Yet, people elect lawmakers to codify their nonsense into law, and that's where I begin to get very grumpy.
I get grumpy when Christians say the Sandy Hook shooting was CAUSED by not letting God in schools.
I get grumpy when Christians want to teach creationism in classrooms.
I get grumpy when Christians deny basic human rights, such as sexual orientation.
I get grumpy when Christians vandalize atheist banners.
I get grumpy when Christians want to put their statues on public land.
Dec 26, 2012 at 9:39 a.m.
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Mike -
You know this will bring out the worst type of God hating comments. Why do you do this? Is your purpose to further put the Janesville residents in a negative light?
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