The author T.M. Luhrmann, writes in NYT that evangelical Christians are on the rise because their relationship to God is as a Companion who can help them to go through difficult times, and not to look for explanation of why tragedy happen to them. Tragedies can be explained in many ways in this knowledge based scientific society, but evangelical believe God can help to heal these tragic wounds (F.Sheikh).
Some excerpts;
“Like many secular observers, I was interested in the fact that people like me seemed to experience reality in a fundamentally different manner. I soon came to realize that one of the most important features of these churches is that they offer a powerful way to deal with anxiety and distress, not because of what people believe but because of what they do when they pray.”
“One way to see this is that the books teaching someone how to pray read a lot like cognitive behavior therapy manuals. For instance, the Rev. Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life,” one of the best-selling books of all time, teaches you to identify your self-critical, self-demeaning thoughts, to interrupt them and recognize them as mistaken, and to replace them with different thoughts.”
“It’s just like talking to a therapist,” one woman told me, “especially in the beginning, when you’re revealing things that are deep in your heart and deep in your soul, the things that have been pushed down and denied.”
“The churches I studied resisted turning to God for an explanation of tragedy. They asked only that people turn to God for help in dealing with the pain.”
“This approach to the age-old problem of theodicy is not really available to mainstream Protestants and Catholics, who do not imagine a God so intimate, so loving, so much like a person. That may help to explain why it is evangelical Christianity that has grown so much in the last 40 years.”
It can seem puzzling that evangelical Christians sidestep the apparent contradiction of why bad things happen to good people. But for them, God is a relationship, not an explanation.
This may seem theologically simple-minded — indeed, even some evangelical Christians find it so. But there are lots of ways to explain things in this sophisticated, scientifically aware society. What churches like these offer is a way of dealing with unhappiness. Tragedy, and prayers that apparently go unanswered, can actually strengthen believers’ sense of a bond with God. That’s when they feel that they most need Him. Click link below for full article;
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/opinion/sunday/luhrmann-when-god-is-your-therapist.html?hp
I feel as if one should look to god to ask why a tragedy happened. Personally, I believe the meaning of life is learning. When tragedy occurs, seeking to learn why a particular situation happened, it’s meaning and how it may strengthen us for the future is as important as anything else.
Comments by Sohail Rizvi
God has created a “Random” universe and we all are subjected to this randomness. Herein lies absolute justice?. Even those who we think are close to him are subject to misfortune and those who we think should burn in hell have good fortune shine on them. We may complain all we want but if we understand this we will stop complaining against God and better understand our plight. (though misfortune is hard to take but it has fallen on the best and brightest
Just to make sure we are all clear that God’s (Allah swt) plan or act to create this universe was not “Random” or accidental. Our biggest misfortune comes from not understanding the purpose of our existence. We tend to measure our fortune/misfortune based on the events that takes place during our lives here in this world/universe (while we are living & breathing) and forget or ignore the life hereafter. As a Muslim, one must believe in the life hereafter. This is part of our Iman-e-Mufassal. Iman-e-Mufassal is Muslim’s pledge of seven things which are also essential believes for every Muslim: Faith in Allah swt; Faith in His angels; Faith in all of His messengers or Prophets; Faith in His revealed Books; Faith in the Last Day or the Day of Judgment; Faith in the doctrine of predestination, which lays down that everything good or bad is decided by Allah, (Also known asTakdeer) and Faith in the life after death.We should look at those who are inferior to us and console ourselves. We should look at those who are superior to us in terms of wealth and knowledge and try to catch up with them.
Man always sought justice in this world. First of all, it is necessary to know that there is no true justice in the world. Absolute justice will occur on the Day of Judgment. The world is a place of training and testing. Here, there are very complex issues that the mind cannot realize and that our feelings and brain capacities cannot understand.
However, beyond the emotions, we have a very valuable being called the “mind”. We must complete our weak aspects with it. As a matter of fact, many devices have been made and many unknown things have become known thanks to the mind. However, the number of the unknown things is not few.
Thanks to the mind, we can also examine the reasons of some imbalances in this world. For example: Let us think about a baby that has been created with a congenital limb deficiency. As some of us think, the birth of such a baby can never be called “God’s injustice”. There are great lessons for those who use their mind regarding that baby; there are signs in this painting for a person who uses his mind.
There is no injustice in the world regarding the case of births with congenital defects or those injured later. There are very significant services and profound wisdom regarding their cases. We believe that troubles and misfortunes are the price of the mistakes that believers made in this world. However, sinless and innocent people are also affected by those troubles and misfortunes and their lives and property may also be harmed. At this point, the question that comes to mind first is, “is it not possible that only the sinners be affected by them not the innocent people?”…. The following is stated in the verse of Quran:
“And fear tumult or oppression which affecteth not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong and know that Allah is strict in punishment..”(Surah Al-Anfal, 8:25)
There are certain lessons that we must take from this verse. However, the first thing that comes to mind is “why misfortunes also affect innocent people along with oppressors.” In other words, when a misfortune occurs, the baby is thrown out with the bathwater; that is, the innocent people also lose their lives and property.
The answer to it lies in the fact that this world is a place of experience and testing. That is, if misfortunes hit only the oppressors and sinners and the innocent and sinless people were protected from them, a situation opposite to the mystery of testing would occur.
“An earthquake happens and only the sinners die under the buildings that collapse; the other people are saved; a flood hits a place and the oppressors are drowned but the innocent people are saved by an unseen hand. The sinners who hear about it start to repent because they think that they will be hit by misfortunes if they do not repent.”
As a necessity of testing, when a misfortune occurs, it encompasses both the good ones and the bad ones together. Thus, the mystery of testing is not lost. If the good people were to be saved and only the bad people were to be harmed, the mystery of testing would be lost. People who have spirits like Abu Bakr and people who have spirits like Abu Jahl would be in the same level. Therefore, innocent people are sometimes exposed to oppression. However, misfortunes become atonement for their sins and increase their ranks. If those who are exposed to misfortunes are children who are not of age yet, it is expected from the mercy of Allah swt, who does not neglect to reckon even a very small good or bad deed, to give them more happiness than other children in the hereafter.
Regarding these misfortunes, great rewards of Allah Almighty’s mercy is in question for innocent people. The brief goods of those sinless and innocent people become sadaqa Jahria (spell) and are transformed into permanent goods; their lives that end make them gain a kind of martyrdom that enables them to have an eternal life. Doubtlessly, it is not something unimportant to gain a great and eternal happiness in return for a small and temporary pain in the world.
Those who oppress others will be punished in this world or in the hereafter. Therefore, justice will be carried out. Those who were oppressed will get their due from the oppressors and they will be rewarded by Allah because they were oppressed despite being innocent; they will be granted endless bounties. When those people who were oppressed despite being innocent are asked about their situations in the hereafter, they will say, “We received great rewards in return for little trouble and we saw that the oppressors were punished in return for their oppression; we are glad.”
Moreover, those people who are exposed to such oppression might receive various grants of God as a sign of His mercy. Allah swt does not oppress anyone. He never ignores to punish those who oppress others though He sometimes delays it. Just remember that “No one can have more mercy than Allah swt. No one can have more wraths (give Azab) than Allah Jalla Jalaluh.”