Jesus Kicked Me In The Shins
David Bernstein, over at volokh.com, makes a really good point about people's silly tendency to give god credit for anything good that happens:
Americans have a tendency to publicly attribute any success they have had--anything ranging from winning a Little League playoff game to winning the lottery--to God's intervention on their behalf. But I haven't noticed a countervailing tendency to blame God when things go wrong, an especially annoying defect in the sports world, where victories are freely attributed to Jesus's blessings. If God wanted the Marlins to win the World Series, doesn't that mean he wanted the Yankees to lose? Just once, I'd like to see the losing Super Bowl quarterback tell the media "Guess Jesus really had it in for me today."
Yeah, and there's war in Iraq only because god's a little busy making some 10-year-old second baseperson drop the ball so your kid's little league team can win. Rrrright!
Dear Mr. Bernstein,
Your comment is funny, but let's talk about something besides sports.
I've had more than a few friends with terminal illnesses who believe in god, and none of them has ever said anything like "Guess Jesus really had it in for me." However, it's not uncommon for people to interpret their hardships with disease as some kind of divine lesson that they needed to learn. As long as this doesn't spiral downwards into self-blame and reliance on voodoo medicine, I have absolutely no problem with it. People often FEEL BETTER when they can find meaning in something as distressing as HIV disease or cancer. Let them feel better!
To your health,
Lena Cuisina
Lena at January 11, 2004 12:23 PM