I’ve just heard them put an Archbishop in the dock on National Radio, to answer for God letting the earthquake happen in Haiti: ‘What’s your supposed all-powerful, all-loving God got to say about Haiti?’ ‘…all that undeserved pain and suffering…’
They put the same sort of show on for every major disaster; Oh well. But where was it again? D’you mean that island where the people who started out as a spin-off from our slave trade have been held in poverty for decades by corruption and oppression, and we’ve not done much to help till now? That one? D’you mean the place that’s usefully provided us with really interesting television documentaries and news stories, spiced up by how beautiful the women are supposed to be there? That one? Oh yeah, right.
And which God was it again? D’you mean that God who they thought was the illegitimate son of a teenage peasant girl; that God who chose to start life in an animal feeding trough and just dodged being murdered as a toddler by the government and had to become a refugee—that one? D’you mean that God who the powers that be kept on trying to kill for being too revolutionary, who specialised in making friends with and helping the scum—that one? D’you mean that God who had no home and hardly any possessions and whose friends betrayed or deserted him; that God who was sentenced to death as an innocent man, ripped to shreds by whips then died by being nailed, nude, in public to a piece of wood? That one who said he had to do it all for our sake? That one? Oh yeah, right.
So, what does he have to say about the theological view on the Haiti issue? Well, I don’t know first hand—he never said. He wasn’t much of a one for theoretical debates when he was here. The whole thing beats me, really. And it beats me why he would want to get stuck in up to his eyeballs with our mess, anyway.
But I would be willing to guess what he wants his followers to do about the Haitians, now. He wants us to break our hearts and give and pray, and he’d say we should count it a privilege to help, not a duty. And he’ll want some of us to go.
That’s all.
