Editor Daily Nexus,

Today, a friend tried to explain to me why God lifted his veil of protection from the U.S. and allowed the attacks in New York. She said, “You know, God isn’t always just a nice guy.”

I said, “The one I worship is …”

She then began to explain why being a nice guy all the time is impractical. As a parent, she explained that she is loving to her children, but when they are bad she has to “spank their butts.”

My response? I said, “Yeah, you spank them … you don’t blow them up.”

How dare these people think God was protecting the U.S. to the exclusion of other countries. That 6,000 innocent people had to die for the infractions of others is nuts. She asked me how do I know they weren’t ready to go “home.” I tenderly put my arm around her shoulder and said I actually don’t know, but it seems implausible that the Lord loaded 6,000 people, all of which were ready to go to heaven, into the World Trade Center. Given the looks on those widows’ faces, I bet none of those husbands were ready to go “home.”

I swear, give people a book and tell them it is God’s word and they completely chuck all their good sense. I swear those books are a front, it is all a ruse just to justify being mean to people. I believe fervently in God but I know he didn’t have anything to do with what happened in New York and at the Pentagon.

We have such a need to understand our surroundings; so we contrive answers which have little basis in the evidence or logic, just to salve our inability to understand. A wrong answer is a wrong answer and it shouldn’t make anyone feel better. The answer that the Christian God of the Bible sanctioned the attack or was involved is as wrong as the notion that Allah, the Arabic word for God, sanctioned the attack.

The answer is that human beings, mean and hateful, are the ones who sanctioned the attack. Don’t place this one on God – it was the act of a few cruel, heartless human beings. Leave God out of this.

YVONNE DE BRAZIL

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