I got a call the other day from a friend of mine who's a devout Christian, and he told me that even though he thought highly of me, he asked how could I (a reference to the marriage to my husband) bring so much anger and pain in God's heart.... It was a pointed question, and at any other time I wouldn't of answered his question in a way that would of resulted in a theological lesson. But I responded almost immediately:
"We must do a pretty good job bringing God so much unhappiness, anger, and upset. Read the whole Bible, how often does God verbally state that he was very happy with someone, or somebody pleased his heart. It seems like our singular purpose on this planet to make God as angry, sad, and resentful with us as humanly possible. In fact he is so pissed with people, he found no other way to make a good attempt at forgiving us other than having his own son sacrificed. And I can assure you having his son sacrificed isn't going to motivate him to think any more highly of us when we pray for forgiveness. Tell me, what could I possibly do to make the situation with God and mankind impove in any such way, when he's upset with people all the time? "
...It was a crass and simplistic way of looking at things but unfortaunately this was the big 100 foot flashing neon sign that made my experience as a JW totally, 100%, unsatisfactory. And even though it made me look like the devil saying it, it was, and always has been my gut feeling about God. And I still feel this way. This isn't a debate about marriage or lifetyle, this is the truth about what I have always believed about God in the Bible. He's never truly happy with people. If the Bible had any other title it would be called, "The Case Against Mankind". I mean, I'm sure there are some references to "God's heart rejoicing" or saying someone was "agreeable to his heart" but it amazes me that he would make such references considering the intricate and innovative ways he's found to destroy as many people as possible in the old testament, even those who slighlty bothered him. The Watchtower always plays out the fact that one of the reasons why it was authentic was because the Bible writers didn't step back from acknowledging their own mistakes and writing about them. I'd like to challange that by hi-lighting the fact that the whole canon of scriptures seems to be heavily biased against mankind. We motivated the flood, sin to come into mankind, the plagues of Egypt, the horrors of Revalation, and the death of his own son. Wow, I would never think God made it so easy for people to feel so close to him. Even my drunken Irish father was easier to please, and less violent!
If God of the Bible exists, he's like the angry boss that when he's not around, everyone breathes a sigh of relief when he's gone away on a trip...
Sorry if this all seems repetitive... thanks for the soapbox
- Preston (of the "sit and that corner and think about what you did" class)