Where is God in the COVID pandemic.

Where is God in the pandemic?

As a practicing Christian I often get asked by people who do not go to church “ Where is God in this pandemic?” This is a very difficult question to answer. In my fantasy novel I tried to answer this question. Edward Eastland is confronted by a member of the Covenent the mysterious group of magicians. He states that his God has given them power and makes people bow down and obey the Covenenters. Edward stood up to his power when he tried to make him bow down and answered.

Stubbornly, Edward replied. “ My Maker is all powerful. He has given us all gifts in plenty. It is not in the nature of my Maker to bestow power but to give us guidance on how to live our lives and how to use the power we have for the benefit of all. If you believe in interference of a host of gods into the lives of men, we are no longer free agents to live our lives within the law or not. We have then become puppets. You have through your religion reduced mankind to mere playthings of the gods, a hollow vessel to be manipulated for the pleasure of the gods.”

 If we have free will God does not make us do anything. He has showed us all the way to behave by loving our neighbours. To my mind this has shown itself in the way people have helped others without the expectation of reward. If one good thing has come out of the pandemic it is the neighbourly spirit it has built up.

 

Racism in the church.

 We Christians have to own up to forms of racism in churches. It is not overt and many Christians would deny it happens. When we have new members there is a sense of welcoming but in some Christians there is an undercurrent of nervousness about people who are different. One of the problems might be the compartmentation of churches. Different denominations are reluctant to mix with other denominations. There is often a reluctance to admit that different ways of conducting services is right. They stick ridgidly to their way of doing things.

In my novel An Ordinary Life this question arises. Tom Houseman as a delegate from his church attends the Council of Churches committee. He meets the pastor of a mainly black church and they become friends. The black church is vandalised and Tom tries to get his church members to help clean his friends church. It is a Sunday and most of his church members refuse to help claiming it is a time of worship and anyway the black church is not their business. He wonders what would have been the reaction if the church had been predominantly white.

An Ordinary Life by Edmund Gubbins published through Amazon and available as a paperback from Amazon and as a download ebook from Kindle.