31. Processing Tragedy, Loss, and the Harsh Realities of a Missing God: Part 1 of My Letter of Lamentation & Confronting My Own Questions About Divine Hiddenness

PerfectWhelm with Eric Slivoskey: The Podcast That Helps Enhance Your Life

In this episode, I discuss the recent flooding in central Texas and the heartbreaking tragedy that resulted in several people losing their lives.

Many of those who perished were children, mostly young girls who were part of Camp Mystic, a cabin full of young campers and counselors who were there to have fun, learn about their faith, and draw closer to God.

Setting the stage with some details about my own religious deconstruction and my break away from organized religion over the past 6-7 years, I talk about the realities that the Christian God was divinely hidden or asleep at the wheel during this awful disaster.

I raise questions about the broken promises of God, all the unanswered prayers, and how so many Christians must engage in mental gymnastics to cover for and explain the silence and very troubling distant nature of God.

I define the term Lament and talk about the fact that there are many examples of regular people, prophets, psalmists, and even Jesus himself…who lamented and communicated their own personal heartache through their questions, doubts, sorrow, and tears.

I deal head on with many of the inconsistencies, errors, repeated contradictions, historical and scientific issues, and inconsistencies of the thousands of different translations and interpretations of the Bible. Through manipulation, control tactics, fear based doctrines like the Rapture and eternal conscious torment in hell… many denominations within the domains of high control religion have gone to great lengths to discourage people from asking questions, raising doubts, and/or expressing sorrow and grief over all the suffering and evil in the world.

This episode is raw and many people may find it offensive or too controversial. I point out that difficult conversations must happen, and it starts with being intellectually honest with ourselves about the importance of being free to lament and question God. We are doomed to repeat what we don’t repair.

Experiencing anguish and expressing anger and lament is not unfaithfulness or disobedience. Rather, it is a part of being human. Have you made room in your life or within your faith to express lament?

This flood and the subsequent deaths of these young and helpless Christian campers shows overwhelming evidence of God’s absence, and it is truly heartbreaking that Jesus/God was absent when those young girls needed him the most.

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