In the “Voices” section of the December 6, 2013, issue of Time Magazine, where the magazine asked what people were thankful for, Pastor Rick Warren stated that it had been the worst year of his life because his son committed suicide. He asked: “How am I supposed to be thankful?” He then described what he was thankful for on this Thanksgiving: “Even in heartache and grief there are still good things that I can be thankful for. I’m thankful that God sees all I go through. He cares. He grieves with me. I’m thankful that God can bring good even out of the bad in my life, when I give him the pieces. It’s his specialty. God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections, and then benefit the whole world. God never wastes a hurt if we give it to him.”
I find such a statement astonishing. Perhaps "cosmically stupid" would be better words. Leaving aside the basic ontological questions about this statement, I have to ask, how does Warren know that God “cares”? How does he know that God “Grieves with” us? How could he possibly know that God “Loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections” and that God has a “specialty”? Come on Rick, give me a break! Am I supposed to imagine God sitting there caring about us, grieving with us, and especially, enjoying himself turning crucifixions into resurrections? Is God just a big dumb uncle in the skies?
Perhaps it should not surprise me that Rick Warren did not let the suicide of his son lead him to question the existence of God. After all, Warren ’s books, sermons, and television appearances have brought him great fame and fortune. Any expressed doubts about the existence of God would undermine the very foundations of his life. If he were to write a new book entitled “I Don’t Believe in God Anymore,” he would probably tumble headlong flaming from the ethereal sky in hideous ruin and destruction down to the bottomless pit of infamy.
No, that is much too much to ask of one who sits so close to the throne of God that he knows that God cares about us, grieves with us, and enjoys turning crucifixions into resurrections. I’m sure Warren knows that even though God allowed thousands of people die in the horrendous Philippine typhoon, and hundreds of thousands to die in the giant 2004 tsunami, and millions of people to die of other typhoons, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, wars, suicides, acts of terror, and diseases, he will find a way to make it up to us for all the misery, tragedy, horror, destruction, and death we have to suffer.
To those of us not so proximate to the inner feelings of God, it would appear that either God does not care a whit for us, or that God does not exist. After all, if one were to say that all this evil is caused by the Devil, one has to ask, who made the Devil? Isn’t God more powerful than the Devil? Can’t he just stop the Devil from doing all of the bad stuff he does? Or is God just some powerless guy who can turn crucifixions into resurrections but can’s stop tsunamis?
If God can’t stop our children from committing suicide, what comfort is it that we know he cares for us and grieves with us? Is that really something to give thanks for? I doubt very much that such knowledge would be something for me to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.