Rage against God
Ellie Wiesel, author, Nobel Peace winner and survivor of the Holocaust, experienced the worst of what life can throw at a human being.
The camps created by the Nazis where Wiesel was a teenaged prisoner were places of evil incarnate. Prisoners and guards operated on the basest of animal instincts. Living felt worse than dying. Millions of prisoners were murdered, often on the whim of a guard or officer.
Before the Holocaust, writes Robert Douglas, Jr., Wiesel had been “one of the most devout Jewish children. Up until the end he waited for God to intervene (in the camps) in Biblical fashion. When that intervention was not forthcoming, he began to doubt in God and in His mercy.” That began the lifelong anger at God about which Wiesel wrote in numerous books.
Many Are Angry
But Wiesel, who died last year, is not alone. Many people are angry at God, because of the death of a loved one, failure at work or school, financial distress, even the perceived failure of faith.
“…Anywhere between one third and two thirds of people we’ve surveyed in the United States admit they sometimes feel angry at God in response to some current thing they are suffering with, such as a cancer diagnosis,” psychologist Julie Exline of Case Western Reserve University says in an ABC News online report.
Exline examined the issue in psychological terms, comparing anger with God to the anger we feel toward others. Oddly, even non-believers say they’re angry at God.
“I don’t have the solution for anger at God,” said Exline, “but it’s clear that people get angry at God and at other people for the same types of reasons. They didn’t get what they wanted, and it’s the other guy’s fault.”
The death of a loved one, especially a child, is perhaps one of the most common, and heart-wrenching, of reasons for rage at God. That’s because despite our professed beliefs, we view death as the worst that can happen and we won’t forgive God if he/she takes someone close to us, or if our own death is imminent.
Such anger is understandable. Life is an enigma, even for believers. God seems to hold all the cards. We’re not privy to his/her plans or reasons. “Ours,” says the old saying, “is not to reason why but to do or die.”
To me, this anger boils down to a rejection of a God who is a “mystery” in favor of one I can understand, one who is responsive to my wants and needs on my terms. We may not put it that way, or ever even express our anger, but many of us view God in such terms.
The idea is certainly not new. The Genesis story of Adam and Eve paints an ancient picture of human beings who would like to trade God in for a different model, one that we can control. Better yet, to replace him/her with us.
The Czech theologian Tomas Halik in his book Patience with God, writes about the relationship between faith and anger at God.
“An atheistic protest against God and belief itself stands on the soil of belief in a divine order of goodness and justice,” he writes, “and it actually confirms and acknowledges that belief by that pain and protest.
“If I want to curse God, I have to believe in His existence at the very least – so that I can then reproach Him for not being a god in accordance with my own wishes and criteria, for failing to live up to my notions of how He should behave. If I then decide to reject God, all I have rejected is my own (often unwitting) religious illusion.
Courage to Trust God
“Or, remain open with patience and trust to a possible ray of light – having rejected “the god who fulfills my wishes” in order to find courage to trust God the Mystery, and seek rather to understand his wishes and fulfill them. Often it is only via many crises and much searching that one learns to live in the presence of mystery, to bear even one’s own doubts, and finally to allow God the freedom to be a real God, often radically different from the ‘god of our dreams.’”
Pope Francis recently described anger at God as a form of prayer that fosters hope.
“Faith is not just silent acceptance or a ‘certainty that secures us from doubt and perplexity,’ but it also means ‘to argue with God and show him our bitterness without ‘pious pretenses.’
…But he is a father and he understands you; go in peace. You must have this courage. This is hope.”
