Theological Fragments

I am a priest in the temple of Possessions. I lead the worship of the god of Things. I preach the gospel of Eternal Consumption. Come, listen to the word of the lord: “There was a time, America, A long time ago, When each family had their own household gods— Personal idols they could worship And possess and be possessed by. Then came God, the One God, who abolished the gods, One God where once there were many. One God, with demands and rules And cruel expectations. One God who wouldn’t let anyone be. But truly truly, I say unto you, That a day is coming, and indeed has now come, When you can own your very own gods again! Not the old gods of stone, but shiny new gods, Gods of metal and plastic and LED lights, To worship and possess and be possessed by. Give your offering to the priest, and one of these new gods can be yours!”

[I've been remiss in my posting over the last two weeks because my schedule kind of got unraveled. I'm hoping to catch up this week, but I thought I would start posting some of my shorter, more concise thoughts as a way to get myself posting and and hopefully get some feed back.] When something bad happens, people often comfort each other by saying that the event in question was part of a "higher purpose." They explain evil things as necessary parts of God's plan to bring about the "greater good." This answer is not only unhelpful, but it is also unbiblical and it takes away from the glory of God. The fact that God uses evil to accomplish good is not an explanation of the presence of evil; rather, it is a miracle that itself defies explanation.