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Where was G-d in Virginia Tech? |
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 Why does G-d allow unimaginable iniquity?
In the aftermath of the bloody carnage on campus unparalleled in American history, politicians may turn this into a plebiscite about gun control. Far more pertinent is the problem of G-d control: How could a benevolent deity have looked on passively and permitted an act that horrified all of us who heard about it?
As a friend of mine put it so powerfully, "If G-d really runs the world, what happened at Virginia Tech proves He ought to be sued for malpractice!"
Harsh words indeed.
But what is our response to acts so heinous we cannot conceive of any Higher Power permitting them to happen? Why was G-d in hiding? Where was His hand when a Professor who survived the holocaust demonstrated heroism by choosing death as a means of saving his students? Could not G-d too find a way to intervene to save at least some of the 32 victims?
As we watched the events of that horrifying Monday unfold I was sure no one could be unmindful of the remarkable synchronicity. The day had special meaning for us in yet another powerful way. This of course was Yom Hashoah, the commemoration of the Holocaust and its six million victims. Then and now, for the genocidal Nazis and for the suicidal student, it is the silence of G-d in the face of evil that most perplexes us.
Why does G-d allow unimaginable iniquity?
The theological problem demands an answer. And as hard as it is to accept we must ultimately grasp that G-d's seeming indifference is in fact an expression of His greatest gift to mankind.
Let me explain.
G-d created us in His image. What does that mean? He intended us to be like Him -- masters of our own fate, deciders of our destiny. G-d gave us the ability to choose between doing good or evil.
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