God is Not Petty

I grew up in Pocatello. It's a small-ish city that is predominantly Mormon (perhaps not actually, but when you're a kid and most of your socializing is with people you go to church with, your social circle is small and yet feels like your whole world). The culture of being a Mormon was very prevalent.

When I was twelve or so, I remember a girl from one of the wards in our stake being pregnant and unmarried. This was kind of a big deal. People talked about it in hushed tones, perhaps fearful if they talked about it out loud it might happen to their daughters, too. As if it could be the worst possible thing in the world. This girl wasn't a girl at all, as she wasn't in junior high or high school. And yet it was still so tragic to everyone around me. And I, being young and not knowing anything except what I had been taught my whole life, also thought it was tragic.

Then this girl, who married the boy, ended up having a miscarriage.

I remember asking my mom, "Did God punish her?" That was the connection I made based on everything I knew and had learned as a twelve year old - sexual sin is the worst, being pregnant and unmarried makes you a pariah, and naturally God would want to punish you.

My mom looked at me and explained that God is not punishing her, He does not work like that. I remember her being slightly off put by my question, and she answered it emphatically.

And she's right. God isn't petty or spiteful or mad at us for making bad choices. God is loving and unconditional.

So when we have tragedies, real tragedies where innocent lives are taken in a public place, be it a school or a movie theater or the place you work, it's not because "society" has removed God from those places  and God is being spiteful. It's true, we don't have a national religion, we don't make everyone pray at school, we don't build publicly-funded monuments to religious leaders or organizations. But that doesn't mean God isn't allowed in those places.

God is everywhere, and anyone can pray to him at anytime they want. I can sit in my office and say prayers all day long. A student at school can say a prayer before a test. A family can say a prayer at a restaurant before eating their food. A person can wear a t-shirt that states, "I Love Jesus" and wear it wherever they please.

Bad things don't happen because we no longer have state-endorsed prayers in school, or because we removed a Ten Commandments replica at the courthouse. Bad things happen because bad things happen. Bad things always happen. People get cancer. Marriages fall apart. Finances are mismanaged. Wars happen. If we expect God to stop every large-scale tragedy because we are saying endorsed prayers at school, then shouldn't we also expect Him to stop every other personal tragedy just because I pray and have faith?

That's not how it works. Many times we have to do things, take action, start the ball rolling, because God expects us to do our part.