Another rant about the idea of "God's will"

I received an e-mail yesterday of a kind I am often sent, the "religious" kind that makes huge assumptions about my faith because of my title as "pastor". This one assumed that I must believe that everything that happens is somehow in God's will. But I don't believe that, as I've blogged about before, and this particular e-mail gave a perfect example of why I find that idea problematic.

The e-mail was sharing stories of individuals who had survived 911 because of fluky things that had happened that day: one person's child was starting at a new school that day, another person had to stop for a band-aid, one person was just running late, etc. The e-mail went on to say that this is proof that even when annoying things happen to us or delay us we should actually be grateful because the survival stories of these few individuals prove that we are always exactly where God wants us to be at any moment in time.

As I read this I just could not fathom the limited vision that would dare to say that somehow these few people were saved because God wanted them to be, while....I mean really, you have to take it all the way if you are going to make that claim. All the way means the other side of this is that God somehow also wanted all those people who weren't side-tracked or delayed to be destroyed in 911. Take it further yet: it means that all the children who were orphaned by that event, all the families whose bread-winner died and then became destitute, all the families who lost loved ones and could not emotionally survive the devastation - that somehow God willed all of that as well. Let's take it the step beyond that. If God willed this event, then the hijackers were actually agents of God's will and we should not be going after them, we should be giving them a reward for carrying out this will of God for us. I could go on...

People who claim that "everything happens because of God's will" or "everything happens for a reason" tell themselves and others that "we just don't see the good in this because it is so far beyond us, but God willed this so it is good even though we don't see it." Is this the same God who gave us a sense of right and wrong? Who wrote the covenant of love in our hearts? Then why is it that that God causes us to see things that are "good" as horrible beyond belief?

No, this is not my God. I have no desire and frankly I am just plain incapable of worshiping the monster-god this theology describes who wills for children to be killed, kidnapped, tortured, raped, maimed: who wills for events such as 911 to take place or for that matter any of the far-more devastating events that humans have master-minded. To me this God looks so much like the "devil" (not that I believe in such a creature either) that I can't even tell them apart.

Instead, the God I celebrate, pray to, live with, is one who is crying about such events as well. This is a God who wants us to react with outrage at such injustices and such pain and calls us to step up to the plate and speak out about them, stop them. The God I know is one who is where? With those who are being killed, with those who are suffering, fighting to change the situation, fighting to bring a world to justice: this is the God I meet on the cross suffering injustice, challenging injustice, overcoming injustice. This is not a God who wants us to just lay down and accept atrocities with the phrase "it is God's will" but who instead has given up some power in order to give us free will, and who still engages us and calls us to be part of changing the world for the better. That is the only God I know. And I am grateful for it.