Why does God allow bad things to happen to young children?" Cruz opined. "I don't know that I have any additional insight other than saying God is a good and loving God, and He will help us through this."He is not a theologian. He is not a grief counselor. He should have demurred on this topic, at best.
"And all I know to do is to lean on God, to lean on prayer, to lean on family, to lean on friends, and just grieve," he continued. "We have a good and benevolent God, but God allows things to happen sometimes that defy human explanation, and that's where we need love and where we need grace."
"I do think Texas has benefited [from] such a strong community of believers in Texas that you have churches that step in and do the role we should."
I was called upon to do an infant’s funeral once. Another time, I served at one funeral for teenagers who had been killed in a car accident, with their friends. The entire tiny, rural community turned out for that one (the infant’s funeral was later, in Chicago). The grief in the community was so deep the dead children’s peers stood by the open graves until sunset. They had to be asked to leave so the graves could be closed.
The mother of the baby and I were strangers to each other. She had some distant connection to my congregation, called me because she didn’t know who else to call; and asked me why her baby had died.
The people in the rural community had the same question, though they never put it to me.
If I had answered that mother the way Cruz answered that podcaster, she’d have slapped my teeth out. And I would have deserved it. People in grief don’t want answers, even if they think they do. They want support. There are no good answers, either. You don’t “solve” grief. You help people experience it, at best.
And you don’t play cartoon pastor because Daddy was a lay preacher. My grandfather was a lay preacher among the Primitive Baptists. He knew when to be there, rather than rely on words. Politicians usually don’t. But then, they aren’t grief counselors; or pastors.
The pastoral aspect of being a priest would probably have been the one thing that decided I wouldn't be brave enough to take it on, though I admit the obedience thing would probably have disqualified me before that became an issue. I have a hard time giving advice about things I know about. Even if I came up with an answer that worked for me as to why my niece and nephew died - both of them as young adults - I wouldn't have ever dared suggest that to my sisters as an answer to those questions. That kind of pain is a mystery to be worked on but never answered, not some question that you could teach in some course or to give a pat answer on a chat show. Those mysteries are never answered in this life that I can see.
ReplyDeleteCruz is a politician of the worst kind. From what I've read about his father, he was as bad in his own milieu.