Process and the Coronavirus

 What is being said about God and the Coronavirus, in the social media? What is your process response?

God's relationship to the virus is currently a hot-button issue in he spiritual circles of the social media. It seems everyone has a definite opinion to share. However, definite patterns emerge. I will address of the more popular ones. This necessitates I repeat points from my previous columns. So if you missed any of them, here is your chance to get caught up.

Ever popular is the classical notion of predestination. Before the foundations of the world were ever laid, God, thought of as a Ruling Caesar or Cosmic Dictator, came up with a plan for absolutely every detail, for the largest to the smallest, of all events in creation. Everything that happens, including the virus, is a part of that master plan, from which there is no deviancy. Hence, one poster wrote, “Sorry to beak up the big panic, but the Coronavirus will not take anyone outta this world unless that's the good Lord's plan. And your not gonna change that no matter what you do or buy.”

As a process thinker, I strongly reject this model of God's actions. If it were really true that whatever happens was set in cement by God, hen why should we bother to do anything? Why not just stay in bed? After all, if God predestined something to happen, it will happen, no matter what we think or do. Moreover, this thorough-going theological determinism rules out any degree of genuine freedom. We are but puppets or robots doing only what God programmed us to do. And who could put faith in a God so unimaginably sadistic that he wishes the pandemic, as well as all other historical tragedies
upon us. No, I believe in a truly loving God who respects our freedom.

On the other hand, there are those who argue God is not causing the virus, but merely “allowing” it. For example, Deists, especially, have argued that Go created the world, then adopted a hands-off approach. God merely sits on the sidelines, merely watching the world go by, and doing absolutely nothing. This model assumes God could have single-handedly stopped the virus, but prefers to be the eternal bystander whose back is turned toward the world.

But who can put faith in such an indifferent God? I know I can't. A God who is lazy and negligent, a God who will not help us in our moments of suffering, is no God at all.

Those who believe God causes or simply allows the virus often make a vain attempt to cheer us up, by arguing some greater good will come from the virus. All evil is merely apparent evil. In the end, we will see it is the best of all possible worlds.

As a process thinker, I also reject this model of God's actions. For me, evil is far too obvious, far too real, for it to be but an illusion that would instantly go away if we look to the heart of the matter. I add that God, in process, does seek to lure such beauty as is possible under the circumstances. Please note that I said 'under the circumstances.” I did so to emphasize, God cannot eliminate all the tragic elements that yet remain in the world.

Realizing the problems of saying God causes or allows the virus, others have resorted to the “mystery of God.” “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” they will say. I am reminded here of Calvin, who argued God has a “secret will,” by which , for reason totally unknowable to us, he ordained all the evil and suffering in the world. God's ways are always higher than ours. We can know only what God is not, not what God is, to paraphrase St. Thomas Aquinas.

Now I agree God's ways are higher than ours. But I take issue that necessarily means we can know nothing of God. How can you put any real faith in an ill-defined X? If we can't say something affirmative about God, then we really don't know what we re talking about, and that makes the whole concept of God totally meaningless and something that should be dropped from our vocabularies.

So I think the best model of God's actions is that God is doing all that she or he can do to help us overcome the virus. However, there are definite limitations here. All creatures, including the virus, have some real degree of free will. And that means it is utterly impossible for God to fully control it. At the same time, God is a loving God. And the strongest lover never seeks to dominate or fully control others (I Cor. 13:5).