Atrocities and Causality

The world has witnessed in our time through the media a horrific amount of terrorist activity and acts of random and senseless violence.  These are among the ‘Signs of the Times’ of the last days of the world’s temporal existence spoken of in Holy Scripture. With these atrocities come consequent pain, suffering, mayhem and death mostly to the innocent occurring in places far from the battle-fronts and killing fields of history. Moreover, it causes great societal angst which is, of course, one of the goals of terrorism or of the lone-wolf perpetrator.

  

These terrible things, before they escalated and came to the attention of a media-infused world, used to be viewed or treated somewhat dispassionately as some unfortunate problem belonging to ‘them’ in a distant land—certainly not an immediate threat to ‘us’.  But the threat and reality is now on our sidewalks, in our neighborhoods, theaters, schools, busses—indeed in any place where people gather.  It is occurring in places where people used to resort to, to vacation at--in stadiums, in workplaces, in tall towers, in places assumed safe.  The present reality is that these places are not safe.  The world is not safe.

  

Rage and impotence has been followed-up by outrage.  People are looking for answers—and who to blame.  Sometimes the wrong people or source is blamed.

Not only are perhaps dark-skinned people, or those with beards, or those speaking a foreign language or having customs different than our own or those (now) wearing blue uniforms and having a badge quickly and prejudicially targeted as perpetrators or the enemy, but so is God. 

Which brings me to my point.

In the minds of many, especially among those under age 40, ‘religion’ (as if all religions are the same) and God himself is to blame.  Many people now repudiate all religions because some, particularly one class of religious zealot, invokes the name of God (Allah in this case) before his cowardly and heinous deed is enacted or completed.  These zealots (or deranged ones as you choose to call them) do not represent God’s true religion.  But ‘religion’ gets the blame.

Let’s check our premises—our assumptions—before we impute cause or culpability. 

I start with the premise that God does indeed exist—but His character is far different than the god-blamers envision: He is not the capricious god created by the Islamic fanatics, not a  Roman Zeus-like god, not a blood-appeased pseudo- god of the Aztecs. He does not require sacrifices (other than a broken and contrite heart for sinful behavior for the repentant petitioner). For Him, His commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” is still a commandment as is the commandment to repent. 

 

The questions could be asked by those who do not know God’s character:   ‘Does he cause these terrible things to happen?‘ or ‘If he doesn’t cause them to happen why does he allow these things to happen—especially to good people, or to the innocent?’  or, ‘Does he even care?’ They further demand, ‘Where is justice?’ ‘The good and innocent suffer more than the evil!’ ‘If God is the Creator and all-powerful, why did he create evil?  If he did, He is responsible and I want nothing to do with him!’

So goes the reasoning:  In this view, religion is to blame and so is God. And their logic might be right if they don’t really know the attributes of the one true God or his revealed and authorized religion.   A distorted view of God’s character and attributes and requirements as taught by false religions do lead to the greatest evil, the estrangement of man from his fellow man and God (and a life of Godliness).

God is indeed the loving God we would hope for, but He operates within the requirements of eternal principles in the expression of that love.  God is not indifferent.  He does indeed have body, parts and passions (to the contrary of the uninspired views of much of the Christian world); He weeps over the choices and behavior of some of His children—especially the behavior of those who cause these atrocities and pain to others. 

The principles and laws under which even God operates keeps Him from manipulating his children for better or for worse. One of the chiefest of these principles is respect for the principle of moral agency. He teaches us through his prophets and His Holy Spirit, but he allows us to make our choices—for good or for evil.  My theology teaches that we, God’s children, made some critical choices in pre-mortality that would put us into an earth-life situation that could be considered blessed or contrary-wise very challenged; but either of which if successfully navigated would give us our most positive probational outcome.  We chose knowingly our life situation—perhaps even the time of our death.  You and I learned (or are now learning) that we can only grow with stress and distress.  We had to be exposed to and learn the principle of the need for “an opposition in all things”—light and darkness, bitter and sweet, sickness and health, good and evil—and learn it in the crucible of mortality. 

Now here’s the good news.  God has told a prophet in our time, “thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment,” then this pearl-of-great price clause: “If thou art faithful and endure it well. . . know this, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”  “The Son of Man (God the Father’s son, Jesus Christ) hath descended below them all, Art thou greater than he?”

God our Heavenly Father witnessed his most beloved son suffer the justice-requiring consequences of everything countless victims have suffered in the bombings and the shootings, the stabbings, the beheadings and the burnings, the torture and slaughter in Europe and Africa, in the Middle East, the Orient and here in America and has surely wept many tears along with us. 

 

The Apostle Paul nearly 2,000 years ago noted this ever-repeating reality: “No chastening [or tragedy] seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.  Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:11.) Another comforting latter-day revelation says: “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die . . . , and it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them.”  Innocent, and unaccountable children and adults who are morally and spiritually grounded fall into this category.  Accountable people choose knowingly.  Unaccountable people and young children are covered by the grace of Christ.  That is good news indeed.

Know that for accountable people,  polar opposites—good and evil, God and the devil—must operate in order for this life experience to have any meaning. In order for accountable people to appreciate and desire the good, a contrasting evil must be allowed to operate.  The devil (Satan) didn’t make these perpetrators do their evil deeds, but these people chose to allow themselves be influenced by the blandishments of this powerful unseen being.  Satan (a fallen unembodied spirit) and his influence and opposition to all that is good is real.  Some fall for it.   We must acknowledge that otherwise nothing negative makes sense.  To be protected against this unseen power we must “put on the whole armor of God.”  

I conclude with this: “All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection if you continue faithful. . . .  By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.” (Prophet Joseph Smith, 1844) This was spoken by the Latter-day prophet killed by a mob just a few months later.