Exactly, Traveler. If god saved JB from her childhood traumas, it must have been god who chose to put her there and who kept her there for so long, right? If JB had not survived, what would that say about god? And then when god had decided that JB had suffered the exact right amount, he rescued her. That's what I call love. Not.
God is good and loving and powerful--yet allows lots of people to suffer so much that they are on the verge of suicide or even kill themselves. And then gets the credit for saving the ones who manage to survive their suffering. How can god have it both ways?
It seems to me that you really have to be kind of crazy to believe that. I would rather see the world as it really is, with a few people doing bad things to each other and lots of people being strong enough to overcome and survive. Well, guess what? The evidence supports my view.
That idea that people can't accomplish great things without a supernatural power is what bugs me so much about other black people being so god-obsessed:
"God never gives us more than we can handle." Until he does. And then we become addicts, go mad or kill ourselves.
"I am so blessed!" Even though my dad is an alcoholic living on the streets, my mother has diabetes and no health care, I am on welfare with three kids, my baby daddy beats me, my sister is on drugs and my brother is in prison.
If that is blessed, god, please curse me instead."We could never have survived slavery or defeated Jim Crow or won our civil rights if it had not been for god." Meanwhile babies died from neglect, children were sold from their parents, women were raped by masters, people were maimed, lynched and beaten to death.
If god had the power to solve our problems all along, why did he wait hundreds of years to help? And who put us in slavery, etc. in the first place? Someone more powerful than god? Or did god change his mind on the slavery bit?
