{"id":1818,"date":"2012-04-24T07:17:18","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T12:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2012-04-24T07:17:18","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T12:17:18","slug":"god-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/24\/god-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"God Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a fabulous word from Fred Smith, reprinted from Breakfast with Fred<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I was playing golf with the head of a financial company. Out of the blue he asked me, \u201cFred, do you think God will take away my money because I\u2019m not active in church?\u201d \u201cWhat makes you think he will?\u201d I asked. \u201cMy family tells me he will.\u201d They\u2019re using religion to police him. No wonder so many have a jaundiced view of our God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This goes on all the time. I was listening to the tape of a Christian friend\u2019s funeral. The officiating minister said, \u201cJesus got lonesome in heaven and took Chuck home to be with him.\u201d What is that widow supposed to think about such a capricious God? What do his children and grandchildren think about a God who gets so lonesome He takes away someone they love? I thought to myself\u00a0if Jesus wasn\u2019t with Chuck during life, then Chuck isn\u2019t with Jesus now!\u00a0What intellectual dishonesty.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Growing up in a parsonage I had a bird\u2019s eye view of people who took out their hostilities intimidating others with the threat of God\u2019s displeasure. It took me a long time to understand a God of grace.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I was speaking at a meeting in our state capital. After the meeting, a young man with a bright, but noticeably serious, face came up to me. \u201cMr. Smith, do you have anything I can say to my wife? We have just lost our two year old son.\u201d He paused and then quietly said, \u201cDo you think I am getting paid back for my past sins?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know who put that idea in his head, but I would love to write that person a long letter about the nature of God. I would write about a God I know who doesn\u2019t carry out grudges against unsuspecting and innocent children. As I said this to him, he was relieved.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We are called to spiritual integrity. We are called to rightly represent God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a fabulous word from Fred Smith, reprinted from Breakfast with Fred. —– I was playing golf with the head of a financial company. Out of the blue he asked me, \u201cFred, do you think God will take away my money because I\u2019m not active in church?\u201d \u201cWhat makes you think he will?\u201d I asked. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1822,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/1822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}