The Wizard of OZ And God

 

Between 2002 and 2004 Ariel Castro kidnaped and imprisoned Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus. They did not escape until May 6, 2013. They were beaten, chained, and repeatedly raped for years. They prayed daily for relief and release. Their parents prayed. Their neighbors prayed. Churches in the area prayed. Silence was the only answer.  

Where was God? If he answered those prayers, it took him a very long time, over ten years. If God exists, there are only two possible explanations for his lack of intervention. Either he was unable to help them or unwilling. Both seem like horrible possibilities and not very God-like. The Greek Philosopher Epicurus stated the problem plainly:

 "Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

 

I went into ministry because I wanted to help people. I care about people's well-being, and I continue, to this day, to work in a people helping industry. Apparently, I cared more than the omnipresent, omniscient God of Christianity.  I could not continue to have a notion of a loving God who cared for people but allowed horrible things to happen. I could no longer logically justify this notion any longer. 

Oz, The Great and Terrible 

Consider this familiar scene from The Wizard of Oz. 

The Lion thought it might be as well to frighten the Wizard, so he gave a large, loud roar, which was so fierce and dreadful that Toto jumped away from him in alarm and tipped over the screen that stood in a corner. As it fell with a crash they looked that way, and the next moment all of them were filled with wonder. For they saw, standing in just the spot the screen had hidden, a little old man, with a bald head and a wrinkled face, who seemed to be as much surprised as they were. The Tin Woodman, raising his axe, rushed toward the little man and cried out, "Who are you?" 

"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," said the little man, in a trembling voice. "But don't strike me--please don't--and I'll do anything you want me to." 

Our friends looked at him in surprise and dismay. 

"I thought Oz was a great Head," said Dorothy. 

"And I thought Oz was a lovely Lady," said the Scarecrow. 

"And I thought Oz was a terrible Beast," said the Tin Woodman. 

"And I thought Oz was a Ball of Fire," exclaimed the Lion. 

"No, you are all wrong," said the little man meekly. "I have been making believe." 

"Making believe!" cried Dorothy. "Are you not a Great Wizard?" 

"Hush, my dear," he said. "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard--and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard." 

"And aren't you?" she asked. 

"Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man." 

The four travelers of the yellow brick road stood in awe of the great Oz.  Their journey had been based on faith that this great wizard would solve their deepest existential problems. Yet through accident the veil is torn down to revel that the Oz, the Great and Terrible was just a small wrinkled man who possessed no power at all. He was “just a common man”. 

When veil of religion was torn down for me I could see clearly that there was no great God overseeing everything. People imagine God as what they want him to be.  We make God in our own image. Dorothy thought the Wizard was a “Big Head”. The Scarecrow thought the Wizard was a “Lovely lady”. The Tinman thought he was a “Terrible Beast”. And the Lion thought he was a “Ball of Fire”.  They all conceived of the Wizard as what they wanted him to be. But their visions of his greatness were dashed to pieces by the reality of his commonness.

Believers in God do the same thing. They imagine God as they want to believe him to be. To some He is Love, to others he is Justice, benevolent father, punisher, warrior, or whatever springs forth from the well of one’s own psyche.  How you view God says more about what’s going on inside you then what God is.  In reality God is just the invention of common men.

It’s an interesting sociological study that the way people view Jesus directly reflects their own culture.  White people, who have predominated Christianity, view him has a white man with blue eyes.  The African American community has a black Jesus. In Mexico paintings of him strongly resemble Spanish descent. 

I had adopted the God of white, middle class American conservative Evangelicalism.  He was a God who loved everyone and if you put your faith in Jesus you could avoid him from throwing you into Hell forever and ever, which you actually deserved. He was omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (everywhere at once), and omnipotent (all powerful). 

When I faced the reality that God could not and would not do anything about the most horrific acts of tragedy to the most innocent of people I saw behind the curtain. Oz, The Great and Terrible was just a common man. Worse, this God didn’t exist at all. 

If you want to explore these issues of suffering deeper, I would suggest you read the book by Bart D. Ehrman God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer.   Ehrman is a New Testament Scholar and addresses the question from a scholarly point of view. 

The Dilemma of Doubt

I sat at my cherry wood executive desk. My genuine leather New American Standard Bible with Hebrew and Greek references lay open. It was well worn from years of use. Pen lines underlined vital verses, and yellow, green, and orange highlights marked text with deep meaning. My Greek encyclopedia, commentaries, and other study tools littered the wide desktop. In a few hours, I would stand before a congregation of people who wanted to hear The Word of God, the Truth, and the meaning of the Scriptures. I was the one who would deliver that message.  

I felt a twinge of doubt. Just a little at first. Is this really "The Truth"? Is this the absolute final Word of what God had to say to the people of earth? Was everyone who didn't believe this going to Hell? I wanted to believe this was the true Word of God. I had believed that since my conversion. But as I have lived life and experienced other people and places, it just didn't seem that simple anymore. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe I was wrong. Part of me believed, but another part, a new part, did not think it was so cut and dry. The conflict pulled at me like a game of tug of war at a church picnic. I found myself believing two opposite things at the same time. Is this possible? It is, and it has a name. It's called Cognitive Dissonance. It is an extremely anxious feeling.  

You experience cognitive dissonance when you learn new information that conflicts with your previously held ideas, values, or beliefs. When this happens, you will do everything you can to resolve the contradiction and reduce the feeling of anxiety. Typically, we will look for ways to confirm our original ideas. Unfortunately, this leads to another psychological phenomenon called confirmation bias. 

To understand cognitive dissonance, consider this example. Let's say you like eggs and were taught that they are good for you, but one day you learn that they lead to high cholesterol.   You don't like this new information because you love eggs. You start to research all the ways that eggs are good for you. This makes you feel better, and you can keep eating eggs. Now you have avoided all the information about how eggs are bad and only looked at the information about how they are good for you. That's confirmation bias. Now let's say you continue to hear about eggs causing high cholesterol, so you began to read more recent research. You become convinced that new research into eggs is very accurate, but you still like eggs. Now every time you eat eggs, you have a guilty feeling. You know you're harming your body, but you like the damn eggs. When this feeling, the cognitive dissonance, gets too strong, you abandon eating eggs, your anxiety is lowered, and you feel better about your choice. (FYI, I’m not suggesting eggs are bad. It’s an open debate. It’s just an example).

The more widely I studied the Bible and compared it with other belief systems I began to be confronted with the idea that Christianity, as I was taught it, may not be entirely accurate. This began to produce a great deal of anxiety. I had dedicated my whole life and career to Christianity. I sought to reduce these anxious feelings about God and the Bible by studying harder and reading more works by influential authors and scholars, but I had to be fair. I had to read what the opposing views were as well. I often found those views as compelling as my traditional views. These varying views on God and the Scripture had good reasons, logic, and research.   

I could no longer maintain the belief that I was right and everyone else was wrong. I didn't abandon my faith at this point, but I did open up my mind. I no longer looked at others as wrong and myself as right. Instead, I looked at it as having different points of view. The Spiritual Journey has many roads, I told myself. I was able to justify this and reduce my cognitive dissonance with the words of Jesus himself. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." It is the God within that matters, not the facts and details about history, places, or people. This gave me an openness to all people. It allowed me to see people with compassion and understanding rather than a need to convert them. I simply needed to love people.  

This was life-changing. It worked for me for a while. But the claws of cognitive dissonance would continue to scratch at my soul.

It wasn’t just this intellectual conflict that would lead me to abandon the last 20 years of faith it would be the encounter with the realities of life, with people of other faiths, and my own internal struggles that lead me to escape the chains of faith.