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God is With the People of Japan

Don't Blame God, Get Busy

On Tuesday, March 15, 2011, the Rev. Dr. JoAnne Marie Terrell offered her Christian Ethics class time to reflect on Japan's natural disaster.

Several students were upset by a video circulating online. In it, a young woman claimed the quake as God's answer to her community's Lenten prayers that atheists know God's power.

Below is the class' response: God is With the People of Japan (or Don't Blame God, Get Busy)

"God is the source of true goodness.  God knows our pain through the suffering Christ and is with us in our brokenness, not apart from it. We believe God is with the people of Japan and with us all. Some are blaming God for this tragedy.  The Church cannot project onto God the limits of human understanding.  The dislocation, injury, pain, hunger, death, and uncertainty demand a response.  Our responsibility is to follow the example of Christ: to hear the cries of those in need, acknowledge their pain and anguish, and tend to their suffering.  The in-breaking of God's love happens through our words and acts of compassion."