God's Indifference Towards Humanity

I’m sorry God, but I think you might actually be totally indifferent to the lives of individuals. The Christians say you’re a loving God, but that hasn’t been my experience. My life has suffered at the hands of Christians and I continue to battle harsh Christian hypocrisy. The Bible is full of inconsistencies and refusing to punish people for their evil deeds. Why should real life Christians be any different when they’re learning from an outdated manual that is socially defunct and of dubious morality?

The grandson of a church minister sexually assaulted me five times over the course of a week. Was God watching?  Another church minister was told of these assaults but didn’t act, dismissing the claim as “kids mucking around.” Did God ever urge the minister to act to protect a child? Seemingly not. There were approximately 26 years between the assaults and my mediation with the silent church minister. In all that time, God didn’t once blow a trumpet to urge that minister to act. What a curious thing especially given that same minister claimed he’d been praying for me every single day for twelve years. Then he had the audacity to say, “But God can do something really special. He can heal your hurts. He can give you grace. He can minister to you like nobody else can.”  Did God have the capability to help me out but just couldn’t get to it? Thanks for nothing, God. You’re a total prick! What sort of despicable being would watch a young girl suffer through the sexual abuse then hang out scratching his heavenly butt while she attempted suicide, binged and purged food, used drugs, abused alcohol, and was generally self-destructive for decades? No love there, Mr Deity. One thing is guaranteed: I am not going to be singing any praise and worship songs to a deity so cruel and hateful.

So how does God treat people in the Bible? I don’t expect anything especially uplifting. After all, he is the deity that allowed his own son to be crucified. Let’s start with Job in the Old Testament: Job’s wife and kids were killed, and he lost everything he owned because God and Satan were having a wager[1]. God just sat back and watched Job’s entire life fall to pieces. What’s a few deaths between heavenly beings when you want to win a bet. All because Job was such a devoted worshipper of God. Looks like God doesn’t really care too much about intervening when people are hurting regardless of the extent of their losses.

I wonder how God dealt with some people that did the wrong thing in the Bible. Wasn’t there some sort of fiasco surrounding a birthright somewhere? Oh yeah, Isaac was to announce to his first-born son, Esau, his blessing and birthright. Not an unusual custom in those days but it didn’t all go according to plan[2]. Esau’s twin brother, Jacob, decided he was going to steal the birthright for himself. Jacob dresses up to trick his elderly father that he’s really Esau and has deceitfully stolen the blessing and his brother’s birthright. Did God punish Jacob for such bad behaviour? No. Jacob was not really a stand-up guy. Yet, God ignored Jacob’s lies and deception and allowed him to become the nation of Israel. It’s almost like God doesn’t care that Jacob lied or that Esau lost. I reckon Esau sees it all quite differently and feels betrayed by his twin and by his mother who organised the deception. Jacob also tricked his twin brother again later by skulking off to do his own thing rather than keep his word on their plans. No intervention by God to correct an enormous injustice with generational impacts. Pretty important stuff for God to ignore.

King David had already impregnated a married woman, Bathsheba, so needed the husband, while on army furlough, to sleep with his wife to keep it hidden[3]. The soldier, Uriah, was so committed to serving King David’s army that he refused to be distracted by sex. King David sent this very loyal soldier to the front line, to ensure he was killed. Another stand-up guy. Did God punish him for his murder? Well, apparently, God killed that “illegitimate” baby but it’s really more of a punishment for Bathsheba, who carried the baby. King David went on to have twenty more kids so God sort of lost interest in the intervention for his murder. Uriah still died for no reason and God just let it all happen.

A Baptist minister prayed for me every single day for twelve years and God ignored him and ignored me. I’m not sure what else a person could do to get God’s attention. God doesn’t punish evil deeds. God doesn’t save innocent people. What can I deduce from God’s ongoing indifference? God didn’t care about Esau, Job, Uriah, or Bathsheba. God doesn’t care about me. God doesn’t care. Or perhaps it’s time to consider the possibility that God doesn’t exist. It’s hard to intervene in the lives of humans if you’re not in existence at all. I guess there’s always the concept of a mad scientist studying humanity; it may well be closer to the mark…

[1] Job 1:6-12

[2] Genesis 27

[3] 2 Samuel 11