Where does the love of God go?

A day or two after the news of the devastating earthquake in Turkey back on Feb. 6, I posted on Facebook that the then estimated death toll of the natural disaster had surpassed 21,000 people – human beings – and that that unfathomable number was already larger by thousands than the population of our cozy little town of Lexington (19,094 in 2019).

That number was almost inconceivable to me. In just a few seconds, tens of thousands of people had perished. Living, breathing, thinking entities in one moment doing common, everyday, routine human things, then gone the next.

In my own head, I thought the death toll perhaps would reach into the 30,000 range. But no, as of today, it's estimated that an astounding 47,000 people have died. I suppose, in the end, it could reach 50,000 or 60,000. Maybe higher.

Incredibly, three weeks later, a few survivors are still being pulled from the weight and debris of fallen buildings.

Then, the other day, I received a text from one of my friends, writing that the climbing death toll "Wouldn't seem to qualify as an act of God."

That one hit me square, and got me to thinking as I am sometimes wont to do.

Although that particular phrase is mostly used for insurance purposes, I think I know what he meant: if God is a loving God, how could He allow a natural disaster like this to happen? If we are His creation, why destroy us? Would destroying us be suggesting He made a mistake in our creation? So then He's not omniscient if he made a mistake? Do people die in natural disasters because they are bad people and this is their punishment? If that's true, then how can He be a loving God, as most of us are taught, and not a wrathful one? Is He both?

Side note: if 50,000 people are killed in a natural disaster, does that mean any survivors were blessed by the grace of God? Is God that selective? What's his criteria for us surviving disasters?

I'm no theologian. I'm simply thinking out loud here.

There are a plethora of natural disasters that plague us: hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, fires that cost lives. What about wars? Just a few hundred miles across the Black Sea from Turkey is Ukraine, fighting for its very life in an unjust and illegal war started by Russia. Thousands have died there, and no doubt more will. Where is God?

I read somewhere that natural disasters (and thus evil) are the work of the devil. So why is there a devil? If God is omnipotent, why can't He eliminate the devil? Or was that another mistake?

Or are natural disasters – or wars, or disease, or plane or car crashes, or Jan. 6 or Adolf Hitler – God's own free will, where after creation He set the whole thing into motion and then sat back to see how it all plays out?

Since we die anyway, what does all of this mean? That natural disasters get us to death sooner?

I'm not sure I can find many answers in the Bible. The Bible is said to be the word of God, but wasn't the Bible written by humans who may or may not have misinterpreted the word? Isn't most of the Bible allegorical history, designed to teach and set guidelines to help us make society work? And isn't the Bible mostly a Christian tool that we use to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? What about other religions? What about Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, or even Deism and others? Is anybody right? Is anybody wrong?

Where does the love of God go?

 

Super anxiety, part II

Well, here we are, less than 10 hours before kickoff to Super Bowl LVII (that's 57 in case your Roman numerals are a little rusty), and I'm already a mess.

That's because I have something of a vested interest in this game today as the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs for the Lombardi Trophy.

 I was born an hour north of Philadelphia 72 years ago today – in Allentown, to be precise – and I've been a sports fan of anything Philly since I was a pre-teenager. I've been an Eagles fan for almost 60 years and I guess a Phillies fan for longer than that. I often have genetically induced cravings for cheese steaks, hoagies, Tastykakes and A-Treat sodas. I just can't help it.

So I'm pulling for the Eagles today, although you already knew that.

But being a fan from Philly also means you bring a little extra baggage to the game. You hope for the best while expecting the worst. It's in our DNA.

That's where I am today.

This is only the fourth Super Bowl appearance in 57 years for the Eagles. Many of us Eaglers are still living off 2018 when the Eagles unveiled the cherished and perfectly executed Philly Special to defeat Tom Brady – the best quarterback of all time – and the New England Patriots 41-33.

Now we're facing the Chiefs, and I like to think that the two best teams in the NFL are going against each other.

There are some interesting story lines for this game, which no doubt will be explored in depth during all the pre-game hoopla today. For one, it's the first time the opposing quarterbacks – Patrick Mahones of KC and Jalen Hurts of Philly – happen to be men of color. It's kind of hard for me to believe it's taken 57 years for that to happen, but, hey, ain't this America?

It's also the first time two brothers – tight end Travis Kelce of KC and center Jason Kelce of Philly – will face each other. The neat thing here is that both siblings already own Super Bowl rings.

And, of course, KC head coach Andy Reid once coached the Eagles himself, taking them to the Super Bowl in 2005, where they lost to Brady and the Patriots 24-21. (This feels like some kind of a Brady loop). From what I can gather, there's a ton of respect from Eagles fans toward Reid, who is still held in high regard along the Schuylkill River.

So what is my take on the game?

It's a tough call. Both teams can be explosive offensively and both teams are tight defensively, with maybe a slight edge to the Eagles and their league-leading 70 regular-season sacks.  It's at quarterback where the game will be decided, and KC might have the edge here. Mahones already has Super Bowl experience, as well as a ring. Hurts, for as good as he's been this year, needs to show he's ready for prime time when it counts. We'll see.

My pick, of course, will be the Eagles. 28-25.

Now where's that cheese steak?

GOP glossary

There's an old adage or axiom or old wives tale floating around out there that says we get the government that we deserve. Even if that's true, I'm not sure that we deserve the Republican Caucus of the newly-installed 118th Congress, which features a slew of election deniers, incompetents, hypocrites, crazies and idiots. Most of them have single-handedly lowered the collective IQ of the House of Representatives.

Here's my abbreviated list (or glossary, if you will) of the absurdists in government:

Lauren Boebert, 3rd District of Colorado: The other day, while pointing out that the United States owns 46 percent of the world's firearms, this election denier told Congress that she thinks we need to own even more. In a country that sees mass shootings almost every day, where is her logic? She serves on the Natural Resources and Oversight committees in Congress. She also owns a bar called Shooters in a place called Rifle, CO. Enough said.

Matt Gaetz, 1st District of Florida: An election denier, he is currently under investigation for sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old female. Admittedly, the case has stalled for witness credibility issues, but Gaetz, with a 9 percent approval rating, is close enough to the case to draw interest. Anyway, Gaetz serves on the Armed Services (he's never served in the military) and Judiciary (he is a lawyer) committees. Perfect.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, 14th District of Georgia: Perhaps the nuttiest of them all, this election denier claimed Jewish space lasers caused the rash of fires in California last summer. She claims 9-11 was an inside job. She stalks survivors of the Parkland school shooting. She asked for the common man in the street to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon, 10 miles in the sky. My favorite, though, is when she compared the Biden administration to the Gazpacho police. She meant the Nazi's Gestapo, of course, not cold soup. Maybe she was referring to the soup Nazi, who knows? She serves on the Homeland Security and Oversight committees. God help us.

Paul Gosar, 4th District of Arizona: A dentist by profession, and an election denier by choice, he once posted a cartoon of himself shooting Democratic colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden. He is so right-wing extreme even his siblings have called for his removal from office. He serves on the Natural Resources and Oversight committees. Indeed.

Jim Jordan, 4th District of Ohio: Flamboyant, often without a sport coat to show how hard working he is, Jordan recently took his position as chairman of the Judiciary committee. This is rich: he is currently issuing subpoenas to the Department of Justice to investigate anything the Democrats have done while ignoring subpoenas served to him by the Jan. 6 Committee for his alleged involvement and support of the insurrection riot. And don't even ask him about his days as an assistant wrestling coach at The Ohio State during those sex scandal allegations. He didn't know a thing about it. What a joke. He is promoting government by retribution, and not for the people.

George Santos, 3rd District of New York: This guy, a pathological liar, at least voluntarily gave up his committee posts. Which means all he does now is walk the halls of Congress happily telling the media more lies. Sheesh.

There are others Republicans of concern: Kevin McCarthy, the wishy-washy House speaker who made impossible promises to get his speakership on the 15th ballot; Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff; Scott Perry, a Representative from Pennsylvania who is so deep into Jan. 6 that he asked Trump for a presidential pardon; Florida governor Ron Desantis, who is such a racist it borders on the criminal. You could go on and on: Donald Trump, Rudy Guiliani, and two-thirds of the Supreme Court who have lost most of their credibility among Americans, especially after reversing Roe v. Wade.

I don't think this is what James Madison had in mind for us 234 years ago.