Asking the Clergy about saying 'Thank God'

Why do people say "Thank God" when saved from mishap, but never "Shame on you, God" when affliction strikes?

Msgr. Donald Beckmann, director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, and pastor of St. Ignatius Martyr Church of Long Beach:

The Bible itself seems to struggle with the dichotomy. While Genesis tells us that God looked at all creation and "saw that it was good," Paul writes to the Romans that "creation was made subject to futility . . . is groaning in labor pains even until now." Many find unsatisfactory God's response to Job that the suffering innocent man just doesn't understand the universe and should stop questioning.

As a Christian, I believe: "God does everything out of love."

God's response to evil in the world has been to send God's own Son to take upon himself the futility and sin of the world and through his cross bring us to resurrection and new life.

While I can complain to God about the reality of suffering, I do better to work with God in alleviating it.

Darcel B. Whitten-Wilamowski, coordinator of the Ministry to Catholics of African Ancestry, director and founder of the Sister Thea Bowman DRVC Gospel Choir, Rockville Centre:

It's only when we're going through difficult times that we grow as people and grow in our relationship with God. Whatever it is that is going on that hurts, first thing out of our mouths is "Oh, God . . ."

For me, personally, Sister Thea Bowman taught me that only when you're going through something difficult, as she did with her battle with cancer, that you blossom. She taught me that when you come through this difficulty, God has something better for you. What you gained from that experience is taken with you to that next level in your spiritual growth.

When you're in the thick of something and going through so much pain, it is human to ask God why he lets something happen; but God is not the one who has done these things. We make decisions ourselves that cause the pain. We do things to each other. There is no "Shame on God." The shame is on us.

Thomas Abbe, clerk, Jericho Quakers, Society of Friends:

At first, I was amused by the question. On thinking about it in-depth, "Shame on you, God" is not very far from "Why, God?" that people use a lot when grappling with a catastrophic problem.

What does it mean when people say "Why, God?" It seems sort of insulting to God to ask that question. If there was a mistake made, I don't think God was responsible. Or, if we think whatever happened was on purpose, why would we put ourselves above God to question him? People tend to seek answers and want to put blame on someone else to remove themselves from the responsibility of their situation. Quakers are very big on accepting responsibility for things. I think there are group events where groups of people are responsible. Even so, there is still an individual responsibility to all situations.

No one is free of difficulties, but there are things from the Spirit that are matched to our willpower to solve things. I think there is a spiritual structure in place there. If you see difficulties as challenges, you can rise to meet them.

John Zenkewich, pastor, Unity Church of Hempstead:

Because we intrinsically know that God only wants good for us. People know that God's purpose for us is to have good in our lives. Most of us don't think that God "did this to me." God doesn't do bad things to people. The bad things that happen often are from the mistakes we make.

There is a famous story of Jesus coming upon a blind man, and those in the town ask why the man is blind. Jesus tells them that it was not the fault of the man or of his family. Then he calls him a creature of God and heals him.

It is not that we want to place blame. We don't always have the answers. Many things can be traced back to what we or someone else did.

Some people think God is the great puppet master or the great chess player controlling the board. In the Unity Church, we don't think that way. We believe in freewill. God isn't in there trying to make things happen to us. There is a principle there that when we are aligned to good things, good things happen to us. When we are aligned with bad things, bad things happen to us.

It is just easier to focus on the bad. You forget all the good that happened all week while you remember the one bad thing. One practice we all could do is to remember each day one thing to be thankful for. Take the focus off what appears to be bad and instead place it on the good things.