God is dead

*this is cross-posted in www.ruachretreat.com, a blog between a few of us PC friends*

While preparing for teaching high school sunday school using the revered "Christian Doctrine" book by Shirley Guthrie, I stumbled across a section reminding me of our 'God is Dead' discussions. This quote is on pages 97-98 for those of you who have the book, in the section about the attributes of God. We talked about the world after God dies in the novel we read (God is dead by Ron Currie, Jr.) and how there are still small instances of hope and love in the broken world. Perhaps one could go along with Guthrie's view that perhaps God didn't die, but rather, our misled human conceptions of God died.

He states, "The church may talk about a God who is at work in our individual lives and in the world around us. But many people experience only the distance, silence, and absence of God--like Jesus himself who cried, 'My God my God, why have you forsaken me?' Why does God seem so far away, even dead, in our time? Is it because we live in a scientific and technological age that no longer needs 'God' to explain everything--or anything--that happens to us? It is because God seems to do nothing about all the misery, suffering, and injustice in the world? Perhaps these are partial explanations. But could it be that instead of blaming science or God, we ought to ask if the fault is not in ourselves? Could it be that we have some wrong ideas about who God is and that they must die if we are to know and experience the reality of God in our lives? Could it be that we ought to welcome the announcement that 'God' is dead, because only as our false conceptions of God die can we learn to know what the living and true God is really like?" (97-98)

Again I know this might be a stretch from the book, but it seems for the most part, was it not these general perceptions of God that "died" in this book? More than likely it may have been the opposite. Perhaps the "loving and preserving" picture of God died in this book, giving way for people to live like they are described in this book.

Although I keep coming back to one of the middle chapters, "Grace," when a drunk pastor is found with a sign saying, "God is alive." This must be a significant point.

I'll conclude with more from Guthrie:
"Which god is dead? All the gods that were really nothing but a projection of our own fears, wishes, insecurity, greed, or speculation. All the gods made in our own image. If talk about the death of God in our own time exposes our idols and their inadequacy, we may welcome it. The quicker we bury and forget the gods we make for ourselves, the quicker we can learn who God really is." (98)

Regardless of if this fits with the God is dead book or not, I still really liked this quote. Especially after hearing more news about Fred Phelps

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/31/funeral.protest/index.html?iref=newssearch

the video interviews they have with him are purely frightening. I think this truly speaks to a conception of God we make that must "die." The man who won the lawsuit said it best at one point when he described how the God he knows is a loving God. In the message Phelps and company are promoting, there is nothing "good" about it. It is completely a message of hate. I know there's a lot more to this story regarding freedom of speech and the fact that we're just giving him the attention he wants, but I think this is what we need to do to "kill" these bad misconceptions of God!

Ok went on a rant there.

back to planning for sunday school.

Feel free to comment!
-Mike Watson