The Ego of God

As my regular readers know, I often listen to radio broadcasts of those with whom I disagree, searching for ranty blogging fodder. The other night, while monitoring a Focus on the Family broadcast, they had a couple on the show who had recently lost one of their young children.

The mother went on about she railed against God for taking her child, wondering why a loving God would allow such a thing because she couldn't see a loving God being indifferent to her suffering. She couldn't what purpose, what good could come from the death of a child.

She then went on to say that she eventually realized that her child's death did serve a purpose, as it served to "glorify God". I'm not quite sure what she meant by this; perhaps by how she and her husband as Christians handled their grief served as an example to others and how others in their faith community responded.to their tragedy. I don't know, as she didn't make it all that clear.

I nearly choked when I heard her serenely assert that God allowed her child to die in order that He/She/It could be glorified. I don't know about her, but I couldn't worship a God whose ego was so big that it required the occasional sacrifice of little children for the purpose of being "glorified". Just how shaky is the Big Guy's self-esteem, anyway?

Maybe the idea of an attention whore deity allowing a child to die for the purposes of "glorification" comforted this woman, but I find the idea completely appalling and offensive.

There is no happy reason for the death of a child, but I'd rather live with that uncertainty than to think my child died to stroke the ego of God. If I were a religious person, such a thing would destroy my faith rather than make it stronger.

Thoughts?