On my post tomorrow about Christianity I came across an article by Kate Bowler who is a an assistant professor at Duke Divinity School. She was born in Canada. She recently became ill with stage four cancer. I went to her Twitter account to see how she was getting along as a happily married mother of a seven year old boy. She tweeted:
“When you worship the economy
When you demonize science
When your God loves “winners”
You will leave the immuno-delicate behind.”
This is why I had to return to Canada. I wish that everyone had a backup plan (sorry for calling you a backup plan I love you please don’t leave me)”
In the article she tells how she grew up in Canada and “I learned at my Anabaptist Bible camp about a poor carpenter from Galilee who taught that a good life was a simple one.” Then at 18-years-old she got caught up “in the prosperity gospel.” She described it as having: “its bold central claim that God will give you your heart’s desires: money in the bank, a healthy body, a thriving family, and boundless happiness.”
She went on to say: “I thought I was trying to understand how millions of North Americans had started asking God for more than subsistence. How they seemed to want permission to experience the luxuries of life as a reward for good behavior.” Then she notes: “It is true that the prosperity gospel encourages people — especially its leaders — to revel in private jets and multimillion-dollar homes as evidence of God’s love.” She adds: “I felt the lure of the promise that I could curate my life, minimize my losses, and stand on my successes. No matter how many times I rolled my eyes at the creed’s outrageous certainties, I craved them just the same.”
Then telling of her success in life she says: “I wanted God to make me good and make me faithful — with just a few shining accolades along the way. I was willing to accept some setbacks but thought each one would also serve as a step forward; any hardships would be only detours on my long life’s journey. I believed God would make a way. I don’t believe that anymore.”
When her illness struck she wrote that now: “I plead with a God of Maybe, who may or may not let me collect more years. It is a God I love, and a God that breaks my heart. Anyone who has lived in the aftermath of something like this knows that it signifies the arrival of three questions so simple that they seem, in turn, too shallow and too deep.
Why?
God, are you here?
What does this suffering mean?
Here is a young women full of goodness. She has been cast from the world of certitudes into one of uncertainties. Because of the American problem with dealing with a deadly virus she is chased from America back to Canada to avoid the virus. She adds to my thought that Doctor Death Trump is deliberately killing people with his total indifference to the virus leaving among others the “immuno delicate behind.”
What is mind numbing to me is how many folk think Trump deserves as accolades for his handling of the virus. His Herd Immunity approach has been decried by many. “It’s a complete myth that you can just let the epidemic rage, protect the vulnerable, and achieve herd immunity. What may happen is … you fill the hospitals, you fill the morgues, and then the next year it happens again.. . . You’re not going to get enough people infected to achieve herd immunity and therefore you’ll have done it all for nothing.’” Even Sweden is reconsidering its ideas where “fatalities remain much higher than in the rest of the Nordic region.”
I wish @KatecBowler the best. I have enjoyed her wisdom. I am glad I found her. May God grant her wisdom and peace.
Matt, an emotive story and my best wishes and prayers to Ms. Bowler and her family. Thank you for your efforts to assist your readers to understand the challenges and difficulties of others and our lives.
Tom
Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving.