Pray for Ted Turner
Sometimes after dinner, as I enjoy a glass of wine with my husband, taking in the evening news as our little son attempts to scale the television set and adjust the antenna plays at our feet, I see a news item that prompts me to speculate how I would address a problem or deal with a nettlesome celebrity, were I running the proverbial joint. (This usually involves me being a dictator of some kind and handing down a sentence of time in the stocks, public flogging, deportation, etc..) And a sure way to get me thinking along these lines is a news story on the lastest theological reflections of Mr. Ted "Christianity is a religion for losers" Turner.
But I was very moved by Rod Dreher's column this morning on Ted Turner and faith. (Thanks to Father Tucker for the link.) Although the column mostly dwells on the young Turner's loss of faith as stemming from despair over his sister's fatal illness, Dreher also notes Turner's father's "emotional abuse."
That reference to abuse really caught my attention. I almost become frightened when I reflect on how strongly our relationships with our parents can affect our ability to have a relationship with God. It's not just parents modelling good habits of virtue and piety, though of course that's important. It's the basic psychic groundwork of little children knowing they can really count on their parents -- associating the words "mother" and especially "father" with warmth and love instead of ambivalence or even fear. Saint Therese of Liseux had a terrific relationship with her parents, and I wonder if that didn't give her the ability to express so beautifully the idea of spiritual childhood and trust in God the Father. So many little children grow up begging for bread and getting rocks instead (maybe expensive stones , but still just stones) -- are they going to even know that bread is out there, and that they're not fools for wanting it? Will they trust the One who offers it?
As far as "how can a good God permit suffering and evil", that is a serious question that I freely admit I can't answer. But it's also one that, when I was younger and flirting with atheism, I never really asked. I had the impression that if God existed, He certainly didn't owe me anything.
Rod Dreher closes his article with a saying I want to tape to the fridge, a saying attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria:
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."
