THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410280088
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
LAST WEEK I tackled the issue ``Should we question God?'' by using some new insights into the Book of Job as a springboard for discussion. Readers who called or wrote had obviously thought long and hard about the topic.
One reader, Thomas Roper of Virginia Beach, sent a 10-page letter, which is actually a chapter from a book he's writing. I was able to glean a small segment for today's Reader Response column:
`` `Dr. Carlyle Marney wrote to Dr. John Claypool (a Protestant minister who had lost a 10-year-old daughter to leukemia): `I fall back on the idea that God has a lot to give an account for.'
``God would not want us to forgo our questions of shock in the senselessness of so many afflictions in the world. God knows that the shutting up of our pain, and doubt, will eventually consume us. To resign oneself to `whatever happens is of God,' or to `whatever will be will be,' are not statements of faith.
``To shut off our questions, fears and perplexity would betray the intellect that God has given to each of us. To say, `We ought not to question God' would break faith with the Bible itself.''
From the Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach: ``The Book of Job teaches us that ultimately we have to accept our innate human limitations. Though God welcomes our cries of pain and frustration, reaching out to sharing with the Divine, acknowledging its mystery, allows us to live with the mystery of life itself.
``Job discovers that while his earthly friends are not willing or capable of empathetically listening to his litany of woes, God - whose ways, by definition, are not always understood by us - remains a trusted Friend in whom solace is to be found.''
Nancy Westbrook of Chesapeake called to recommend ``The First Dissident: The Book of Job in Today's Politics'' by William Safire. ``It's terrific!,'' she said.
From John David Spangler of Chincoteague: ``Reading your column (reminded me of) the comments of Archbishop Temple in his `Reading in St. John's Gospel.' Commenting on John 4:5-26, the story of our Lord's meeting with the Samaritan woman beside the well, the archbishop observes:
`` `As so often with our Lord's replies to inquirer, it does not answer the question but leads to grounds where the question does not arise at all. It is often so. There is no Christian solution of the problems presented by human self-will, but there is a Christian cure for the self-will, and if that is effective, the problem is (not solved but) abol-ished.'
``Though not dealing directly with the question of pain and suffering, Temple's remarks have helped me in bringing my questions - including those involving pain and suffering - to God, in prayer. I do not think that we must submit to God by becoming the abject sufferer or by `throwing our hands over our mouths and acknowledging that we've asked enough questions.' Rather, we should take `everything to God in prayer' (and as often as necessary) without asking for a solution, a solution which is usually formed by our own self-interest.
``There may be no solution and the same circumstances may still prevail, but the problem will be abolished, leaving behind a measure of peace.''
From Shirley R. Hanning of Norfolk: ``(We) don't question God; we learn to trust him, because we know that he is good. He has neither forbidden us to know him or to seek answers. He has said, in Isaiah 65:24: `I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear,' and in Job 22:21, Eliphaz tells Job, `Acquaint now thyself with him (God), and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.'. . .
We all go through (suffering), in one form of another, and it usually forces us, as Job, to look higher.'' MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send computer message via bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline
is Tuesday prior to publication. Must include name, city and phone
number.
by CNB