Commentary: Where was God when Columbia exploded?
2/3/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn A UMNS Commentary By the Rev. Dan Dick* A
woman pulled me aside and said, "You work with the Science and Theology
Task Force. I have a question for you: where was God when the space
shuttle blew up? Tell me that!"
Many different issues are
contained within this question. First, there is sadness - the emotions
elicited by stark tragedy. Second, there is fear - fear that the God of
love and compassion might be absent in time of greatest need. Third,
there is a challenge - a challenge to the false gods of science and
technology that seem no more dependable than any other substitute for
God.
Ultimately, there is just one issue: How do we make sense of a tragedy like the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia?
The
most normal human response to any tragedy is to seek answers, and the
easiest way to find an answer is to fix blame. Where can we ascribe
fault? Who is responsible? For a people of Christian faith, we cannot
accept that this is God's will.
One radio evangelist immediately
responded to say that the explosion of the space shuttle was "a warning
shot from God, telling us to remember our place." However, the only way
that this explanation makes sense is to believe that God fears us, and
that God-given knowledge that yields such incredible advances in science
and technology is somehow a threat to the Almighty. Only a little,
petty God would sacrifice the lives of those gifted women and men to
"put us in our place."
God did not do this to us, nor is science
to blame. God makes no promise to protect us from all mishap, especially
from the very law of nature God established to govern all of creation.
Neither can science provide an escape from natural law. To live is to be
at risk. Faith in God, or faith in science for that matter, is no
guarantee that hardship will no longer befall us. Life is what it is,
and our faith offers us less than total protection from harm. What is
offered, however, is much more valuable.
God will not remove
tragedy from our lives, but God will move with us through tragedy. In
the wake of a disaster like the Columbia explosion, faith in God grants
us something that science never will: spiritual companionship through
the devastation. As a parent cannot remove the sting from injury to
their children, God cannot make our pain go away. But just like an
earthly parent, God can hold us in our distress and comfort us with that
gentle presence that gives us space to heal.
Science and
technology make no such offer. The best our science can do is promise to
find ways to reduce the probability of disaster in the future. That is
worth something, but it is little comfort in the moment.
God
never promises to make our problems go away. What God promises is to be
there with us through the problems. Where was God when the space shuttle
disintegrated? God was with each and every astronaut, their families
and friends, as they experienced tragedy. God was in the anguish and
tears, the terror and confusion. God was in the questions and in the
disbelief. God was not the cause of this catastrophe, nor was science.
As
science seeks technological answers to the accident that occurred, God
seeks to heal the hearts of those most deeply scarred by this event. May
God work through all of us to spread that healing and share the spirit
of compassion that leads to faith.
# # #
*Dick is director
of congregational planning and leader development at the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn., and a member of the
Interagency Task Force on Science and Theology.
Commentaries
provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent
the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church. |
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