6 things not to say about God during a global pandemic

When crisis or serious life disruption occurs we’re often tempted, if not compelled, to find ways to make sense of our experience. For those in religious traditions like mine, we’re also looking for ways to use God to help us feel comforted, put at ease, and reassured.

I have great sympathy for this. It’s a survival strategy, a coping mechanism, and entirely understandable (and you find the same thing happens in the sacred texts of the Christian tradition). As a theologian, however, I find myself thinking through the implications of what it is we’re tempted to say and to consider the downstream damage that these momentary pacifiers can do to ourselves and others. So while I sympathise with the intention and don’t intend this as a personal critique against anyone in particular, I do want to push back against some of commonly held views about God and the outbreak of Covid-19.

So, here’s my list of six things not to say about God during a global pandemic:

1.This wasn’t a surprise to God

Core to many traditional ideas about God is that God knows everything that will happen in the future. This means that God is not surprised by Covid-19, fully anticipated its arrival and is not unduly worried about it. Thus, we can be secure in the fact that although we might feel uncertain and unsure, God is not, giving us a sense of stability and reassurance. 

So what’s the problem? There’s two things at least that are important to consider here:

• If God is not surprised by things in the future, then God is unable to be genuinely surprised by any interactions with creation and creatures. But surprise is central to genuine relationship. If there is anything to be said about meaningful relationship with anyone, including the divine, a fully and precisely laid out future can not be a part of the story.

• The portrayals of God in the Christian scriptures do not seem to promote a view of a God who knows the future and is never surprised. In the stories of scripture God experiences regret, surprise, shock, disappointment, betrayal, and apparently even answers prayer (thereby changing the present and future).

If this is the case, then what is the suggestion? Well perhaps we could say the future is genuinely open and unknown. God works within and throughout the universe to bring about an ultimate purpose of wholeness, love and reconciliation. But this does not imply that God knows every detail about what will happen. 

2. God is in control

Related to the idea that God knows every aspect of the future, is the idea that God is in control i.e. this is all just a part of God’s master plan, God is using this to accomplish certain purposes etc.

For many people this feels deeply reassuring. Sure, things might not be going well, things might even be awful, but it is all a part of God’s larger mysterious plan and we need to go through this to see the plan unfold for the greater good.

But this is problematic too. If this is all part of God’s plan, if God is in control of Covid-19, then God is a monster. Is it really reassuring to say that we don’t have to worry because God is just working out a master plan that involves hundreds of thousands of people dying and millions of people suffering?

What kind of plan is that? And if that’s the plan, then what kind of God is that?

Instead, what if we were able to open up to the idea that God is not always in control, and things don’t happen according to some supreme divine will? If we can’t accept this, then we end up with God as the author of our pain and to me that’s heresy.

3. This is part of God’s judgement against sin

One of the other favourites that we religious folk tend to employ, is that God is doing this to teach people a lesson or as judgement for some kind of sin. Usually it is our least favourite group of people that are to blame. Or maybe it’s that we’ve “turned away from God” and so the blessing has lifted.

This was a common way of understanding the divine in the ancient world too. If we experience suffering and pain it must be because we’ve sinned or displeased God in some way. Conversely, if things are going well then we’re blessed and God is pleased with us.

But this is an oppressive and anxiety-inducing way of understanding life. If every time we experience something good we see it as favour, and every time we experience pain we see it as judgement, then we’re bound into a system that harms ourselves and harms others. When the suffering is “over there” for “those people”, it can feel good to be in the right camp, but when the suffering hits closer to home, then we’re suddenly confronted with all of the ways in which God must be hovering over our shoulder with a look of deep disappointment (not to mention how abusive it is to tell the suffering that their pain is due to their sin). And of course if this is the case, then even when things are going well we’re deeply concerned with making sure God stays happy with us. 

As a Christian, I take comfort in the fact that Jesus explicitly rejects this way of seeing God.

4. This is all a conspiracy by people who hate God and freedom and who want to shut down the church

I include this because I see it circulating. But it’s really stupid so just stop it.

5. This is an attack of the devil.

I know this isn’t explicitly about God, but it’s still really prevalent. But the short answer is, no it’s not the devil. It’s a virus.

6. God is doing this to propel the church into a new season of expansion

The final temptation is to turn this experience of global pandemic into a triumphalistic celebration of all the good things that will come out of it. I’ve seen a lot of this too. “Let’s look at all the good things that are going to take place. Let’s look at how the church will grow and expand online into new arenas. Let’s look at how the church will rise up and be the answer to the world.”

This is a very exciting way to think about what’s going on, but its not the Christian gospel. It’s just positive thinking enveloped in capitalism and then dressed up with religious imagery. The Christian story is of a man who rejects triumphalism, rejects the way of the throne, rejects the way of power and success, in favour of serving and suffering alongside those in pain. 

Don’t tell me how this seems bad but is actually going to be really good. Don’t tell me that it’s all an answer to our prayers.

We need to acknowledge that for many people this is deeply difficult, disruptive and painful. The waves of sickness and suffering may only just be beginning, especially as we consider how this might hit poorer and less-supported peoples in the Majority World. 

This is hard, and awful and that’s the way it is.

Of course good things can come out of this. Of course we can wake up to a new way of being and treat this as a challenge and invitation to change the way we live. Yes, of course those things.

But don’t use that as a glossy justification for the pain of those who have had to say goodbye to loved ones over a zoom call. There’s no justification that can make any sense of that.

So there it is. That’s the list.