“Everything happens for a reason!”
Nope. Nope-ity nope-ity nope. That may be an ordering principle that brings to some people a measure of peace and comfort in times of uncertainty or suffering. But for the theology I’m constructing, the statement is indefensible in the bigger picture, in light of atrocities of war, the suffering of infants and children, daily reminders of violence too unspeakable to name.
That being said — and reminding you that the books in the Old Testament were written for people who followed Yahweh Elohim by people who followed Yahweh Elohim about the people who followed Yahweh Elohim — we see a lot of causation. “This happened because (the collective) you did this, or (the collective) you neglected to do this, and therefore I did this and/or allowed this.”
My Old Testament professor, Dr. Ron Hals, put it this way. He said the Hebrew people could either have a problem with God’s goodness or God’s power. As evidenced in the OT, they decided to let be the problem of God’s goodness and for their theological cornerstone opted for the belief in God being all-powerful. (Dr. Hals used the phrase “all-causal.”) Therefore, pretty much anything that happened was God’s doing. Rain, no rain. Children, no children. Wars, no wars. Blessing, curse. Etc. Whatever happened was God’s doing.
Questions about God’s goodness (why suffering? where did evil come from?) sat on a shelf, taken down frequently and turned over by various Psalmists and Job, sometimes prophets wondering aloud. (And apparently during the Holocaust, by three rabbis, who put God on trial, and found God guilty.1) But God being good is secondary to the necessity of God being all-powerful, because how else would there be any hope of survival for a tiny ragtag group of nomads continually set upon by more powerful enemies?
From our misreading of the intention of the material (remember that?) and therefore a misunderstanding of the theological principles, we’ve heard and often been taught that “everything happens for a reason.”
For early followers of Yahweh Elohim thousands of years ago, okay, yeah, I can see how that helped order a belief system. For us today? I’ll say for me, I reject it. Bad things happen. Good things happen. That’s all part of the human experience. Do I believe God is with us in the good as well as bad things? I do. Whatever name we give It, I trust the power of Love is unshakeable in the face of whatever life brings. Love may not change the outcome, but it means we don’t walk our paths alone.
But here’s the truth. I don’t need for God to be all-powerful. That’s not a foundational part of my theology. God as being the very essence of Love is.
(You may want to check out Kate Bowler and her NYT instant bestseller Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) as well as her podcast Everything Happens.)
God on Trial. Read this Guardian article by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the Catholic who wrote a screenplay about the rabbis who put God on trial. Boyce says the story is probably apocryphal, but Elie Wiesel claimed he was there and insisted it really did happen. (P.S. They found God guilty of abandoning God’s people. Then they went to pray.)
Thank you! I admit to feeling churlish when this bromide is applied cheerfully by anyone, with the best of intentions. Nopity nope is now my new favorite way of saying N O