Knowing What God Wants

Some years ago I introduced two of my friends to one another. I invited them both to my condo, probably mainly because they are both Catholic.

I was in the kitchen doing my host-ly thing but I could overhear the conversation from the living room. I came rushing out of the kitchen when I heard one of them say, "I always wear coat and tie to Mass because I think it shows respect for God." I said, "How do you know what God does or doesn't like? I think you're projecting your middle-class values onto God. Maybe he could not care less what you wear to church."

Then we have the pastor and members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas—largely all members of the family of Rev. Fred Phelps. These are the people who picket the funerals of military personnel with their signs that say "God Hates Fags."

And the Crusades marched (and slew tens of thousands, both Muslims when they got to the Middle East and Jews they encountered along the way) under the banner Dieu le veut, 'God wills it'.

My anger with my Catholic friend and with these other strongly stated positions is that I've always felt that it's arrogant to assert that you know what God wants or likes—or doesn't like.

We have preachers who continually exhort their flock by telling them that God wants them to do this or that—sometimes to vote for a certain candidate (never mind that that is not allowed as long as they want to keep their status as tax-exempt with the IRS).

Of course there are those who say "I know what God likes and wants because I read it in my Bible, and the Bible is God's word." Well, even if you believe that the Bible was in some way authored or dictated by God, there are the questions—blithely ignored by fundamentalists—of whether our modern texts are correct in all particulars. First, there were many biblical books that did not get included in the modern Bible; the decisions as to what would or would not be included in the Canon were made by men who might just be fallible.

Then there are questions about the accuracy of  the texts themselves. There are contradictions, evident omissions, and errors in the texts we have today. In any text that has been copied by hand through the ages, errors will creep in. Not to mention mistranslations of the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew. There are many cases where modern scholarship has suggested a better translation, yet these corrections have not made it into most versions of the Bible.

So, if you take these things into account, knowing "what God wants," or having a good authority as to what God wants or likes—well, I think that if you look at the facts, no one should be so certain that he knows.

Copyright © 2013.