Why worship a God who allows horrible things?

Q: "Why worship a God who allows horrible things, like a child being raped?"

our A: I have a close relative who was raped as a child.

Believe me....I am intimately familiar with all of the ways that sexual abuse damages people. I truly understand your rage.

However, it is not God's fault that people choose to take the good he has created and corrupt it. It is not his fault that fathers molest their daughters or that mothers verbally abuse their sons.

We human beings are pretty much free to do as we choose.

How should we feel about the fact that God doesn't prevent other people from doing evil to us?

How should we feel about the fact that God doesn't prevent us from doing evil to other people?

We might wish that God established a set of boundaries, beyond which people would be punished. We might suggest that God kill any man who molests a child.

Well then, how about the producers of child porn that might have helped motivate the man to molest the child? Would it be right if maybe God killed them too?

Ok, what should God do with, say, people who are verbally abusive?

Words wound deeply. If you ask a room full of counselors which causes more damage to people, in total - verbal or sexual abuse - I bet most of them will say verbal abuse takes a heavier toll. There's certainly a lot more of it being done.

It seems pretty apparent to me we get to do what we choose to do. And I don't see how we can be angry at God for letting us do that.

Hasn’t God revealed to us how to best live our lives?

Is it not true that if everyone followed the 10 Commandments, no child would ever be raped or molested?

Is it not true that if everyone followed the 10 commandments, nothing would ever be stolen, no spouse would be betrayed, no one's son or daughter would be murdered?

Rather than control us, God gives us freedom. God does not interfere with anyone's choices. Rather he assures us that all will someday answer for what they have done and that justice will be administered. Judgment will be based on the guidelines given.

The problem is, being told how to live well, is insufficient. Even God says that.

Telling a child molester that it's wrong to molest children is not news to him. God says we need something deeper. Internal guidance, yes. But even more. Internal power to want to do what is right. That is what God can provide.

Jesus said, "I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly."¹Not free-from-trouble lives. But where we can live in relationship with the God who created us and loves us. He offers to guide us and help us.

God is asking us to go through life with him. To know him. And like a friend we highly admire, to be counseled by him.