Originally published June 13, 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been another tragedy. The usual suspects are saying the usual things.
This is not about the ‘ban assault rifles\/more guns’ madness. This is about one of the other usual suspects, “Why did G-d allow this?” or “Where is G-d? \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The short answer is of course, G-d didn’t, we did. Or, to demonstrate that I really was paying attention during my Jesuit education, The difference between Free Will and predetermination. I am sorry, Predetermination is dumb. It is really G-d’s will that a four year old drowns in the bathtub? that a DWI kills a bride and groom an hour after they were married? That a night out dancing should end in so much blood on the dance floor that a fire hose will be needed to clean it out? That is your real position?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Believing that means the corrallariy is also true. It must have been OK that I stole that money, I wasn’t caught. I wasn’t stuck dead so we are cool, it doesn’t matter, I will still get in Heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a tragedy like this, when someone says something about “Why did G-d allow this?” I point the person to the below passage. It is from Night by Elie Wiesel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where is G-d? There on the gallows. Or in this case, under a sheet in a pool of blood and running with someone injured because a city of 250,000 doesn’t have enough ambulances for over 100 victims at ounce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThen came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing\u2026
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
“For God’s sake, where is God?”
And from within me, I heard a voice answer:
“Where He is? This is where–hanging here from this gallows\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat night, the soup tasted of corpses.\u201d
\u2015 Elie Wiesel, Night<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Originally published June 13, 2016 There has been another tragedy. The usual suspects are saying the usual things.This is not about the ‘ban assault rifles\/more guns’ madness. This is about one of the other usual suspects, “Why did G-d allow this?” or “Where is G-d? \u201c The short answer is of course, G-d didn’t, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":142,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-235","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236,"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/235\/revisions\/236"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aportman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}