Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

The impact of the horror that started 6.2 miles below the surface of the Indian Ocean just off the coast of Sumatra, displaced a section of the ocean floor over 700 miles long and 10 miles wide, nearly 100 feet upward. An equal amount of ocean water on the order of 135 cubic miles was moved violently upward and outward. The huge tsunami waves brought devastation to coastlines 4,000 miles away.

Night radio talkers ponder Armageddon. Cal Thomas ponders "God and Suffering" on op-ed pages around the world. He says, "Human tragedy is bad enough, but listening to some theologians trying to explain it is doubly irritating. He goes on to relate that the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, wrote a Jan. 2 column for the Sunday Telegraph in which the front-page headline about the column proclaimed, "Archbishop of Canterbury admits: "This makes me doubt the existance of God." Thomas goes on to say that "the headline writer misrepresented the archbishop's view, but so convoluted was Mr. Williams' statement about the disaster ...it is understandable how the writer of the headline reached his conclusion. Theologians should offer hope and truth. The pagans serve up enough doubt."

Cal Thomas sends his readers to Job, Chapter one, in the Old Testament. Job responds to his skeptical and nagging wife, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble."

Still quoting Thomas, "...consider Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. Seeking to understand the Civil War catastrophe, Lincoln concluded, 'The Almighty has His own purposes."

This conflicted Lutheran does not believe God did it to those people. Unfortunately it is the result of plate tectonics. I think He is there to help the victims get through it, with the help of the rest of the world; people, one on one, doing the work of God in this horrendous time.