Where was God During the Tragedy?
A panel of six spiritual leaders, including Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler and Catholic priest Michael Manning, answered questions regarding the role of God during the deadly earthquake-tsunami, on CNN’s Larry King Live
“How do we find God after losing so much in a historic tragedy? How much is our faith and a higher power tested by the tsunami killing more than 150,000 people in a matter of moments?”
Such were the questions addressed by a panel of six spiritual leaders on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on January 7, 2004. The religious and spiritual leaders, one of whom was the Southern Baptist leader R. Albert Mohler Jr., each expressed their views about God in a different manner: some viewed God as a loving Father under whom everything is made and changed, others viewed God as a “Cosmic force” that drove the tsunami, and still others viewed him as playing absolutely no role in the tragedy.
Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, began the comments by explaining the Christian concept of a sovereign God of love.
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“Well, this God who has created this incredible universe has disclosed himself in his written word, the Bible. He tells us that he loves us, he reveals himself as all powerful,” he said.
Mohler explained that through sin, there are “natural laws” that operate, similar to gravity.
“It's clear that in this incredible universe that is affected by sin, there are these natural laws that operate. Gravity can save us and gravity can kill us. And unfortunately, we must now weep with those who weep because they're in South Asia,” said Mohler. “This enormous wave was caused by the moving of tectonic plates. There's not one atom or molecule that is outside of God's control. God is love. He loves his creatures. But these laws operate.”
In contrast, another panelist, Jewish rabbi Michael Lerner, argued that the conception of God as the sovereign controller above is outdated and invalid.
“And for many liberal and progressive people in the Jewish world and for many of us in the interfaith organization…we don't see God anymore as a big guy in heaven who's throwing down punishments and judgments,” said Lerner, the editor of the Tikkun Magazine in San Francisco.
“So, I think that the older conception of God as a big guy up in heaven shaping and controlling everything has to be replaced,” said Lerner.
According to Lerner, the new and “evolving” concept of God is that of a “force of healing and transformation in the universe - The force that moves the universe towards greater love, towards greater kindness, towards greater caring.”
New Age author and spiritist Deepak Chopra said he agrees with Lerner’s identification of God as one who “changes as we evolve.”
“I think the idea of sin and punishment is very, very primitive. And we have to ask ourselves right now, are we going to choose between sin and compassion? Compassion is the way to go right now,” said Chopra, who took part via telephone from India.
Chopra, who noted that no animal died from the tsunami, added that humans must “transcend to a level of consciousness” similar to that of animals because we are all “part of nature.”
Buddhist monk Henepola Gunaratana said he does not believe God had any part in the tsunami. Rather, he said the event was part of a “universal force” and “eternal law” that determines the way of nature.
“This [suffering] is part of nature, that things come into existence and are going out of existence in one way or another,” he said. “And this is one of those ways that things went out of existence.”
Mohler pointed out the differences in these schools of thought, saying “Christians don’t believe that God is some cosmic principle.”
“Mr. King, as you look at this program today, you have two very different understandings of God. Christians don't believe that God is some cosmic principle. We believe that he is the triune personal God who has revealed himself in his word, he has told us who he is, and he has told us how we can come to have peace with him,” said Mohler.
Therefore, said Mohler, in the aftermath of the tragedy, Christians respond to the need by doing good things in the name of the Lord.
“We are to do good things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means we have to tell people we're doing this because God has sent his son who died on Calvary's cross and was raised by the power of God as the only way of bringing life out of death. And thus we take the good news of Christianity as we do these acts in Christ's name,” said Mohler.
He further explained that while people of all religions are coming together with the same broken heart of concern for the people of South Asia, Christians act in Christ’s name and have a deeper concern for what lies after death.
“For the Christian, that concern is not only for this life, but even more urgently, for the life that is to come. That's what drives us in our concern,” said Mohler.
Meanwhile, Michael Manning, a Catholic priest and host of the internationally syndicated program The Word and the World, explained that in the aftermath of the tragedy, Catholics can only hold onto the faith in the resurrection of Christ.
“My only understanding is in Jesus Christ, who is God. He came into the Earth. He came as a battler. He came as a battler against sickness. He came in and battled against Satan. He came in and battled even against the control of nature when we see him calming the sea, or when we see him walking on the sea,” said Manning. “There was a force that he was driving at. But, but he was overcome. He was overcome. He was killed. And he died. He experienced the anguish that the people are experiencing now. The anguish that I have when I have a funeral of a little 3-year-old girl that dies of cancer. It's all there. But, and this is the faith of a Christian, we believe that from that death, he came to life. And that becomes then a foundation.
“But with that faith in that life I can start to move with hope and victory and life,” said Manning.
Upon being questioned whether the tsunami was a punishment thrown down by God, Mohler said there is no biblical permission for saying the sins of the victims caused the tsunami.
“There are certainly no biblical permission for saying that we know that the specific sins of these specific victims caused this tsunami,” said Mohler. “We do know according to the account in the Bible in Genesis Chapter 3, that it was sin originally in the fall that caused all these cataclysmic events, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes to enter the world picture. We do know that God is sovereign over all of this. But we need to be very careful. I'm speaking as a Christian, to my fellow Christians. We need to be very careful not to speak where the scripture does not tell us we have any particular insight to know why God has allowed this to happen in this particular place to these particular people.”
Muslim scholar Maher Hathout agreed that the tsunami was not a punishment thrown down by God.
“The Koran says, "if God takes people to task for wrongdoing, there would be no living creature on the face of the earth." So it's not punishment. It is an accident,” said Hathout.
Whatever the reason for the tsunami, Mohler explained that what is important is the response in the aftermath.
“The Christian response to this is to affirm that we know the character of God. And we know that God is even now working through his people in the midst of this. And we have a Christian responsibility. That's why so many people are going to south Asia and giving in order to help the people who are there,” said Mohler.
“We must now do what is right in the aftermath of this and a part of this is assuring people that God does love them, even, and especially in the midst of, this incredible suffering.”
To view the full transcript, visit: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/07/lkl.01.html
