In the face of evil and suffering, is belief in God still morally justifiable? No, says Kemi Badenoch who last week admitted losing her Christian faith following the revelations of Josef Fritzl’s crimes. In this response, Andrew Ollerton says that rejecting God because of evil is to saw off the very branch we are sitting on
The atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said if a person put their ear to the heart chamber of the world and heard the roar of existence, the ‘innumerable shouts of pleasure and woe’ would be enough to destroy them.
In a recent BBC interview, the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, revealed that her belief in God was destroyed when she put her ear to the monstrous crimes of Josef Fritzl.
In 2008, Austrian police discovered that Fritzl had imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar and repeatedly raped her over a 24-year period. She gave birth to seven children while in captivity.
For Kemi Badenoch, the idea of a God who ignores the cries of victims like Elisabeth, while answering other relatively trivial prayers, is completely untenable.
No doubt we all share Kemi Badenoch’s moral outrage at this horrific crime. But must we also share her atheist conclusions? In the dark of evil and suffering, is belief in God morally justifiable?
A logical response
Firstly, some logic. If God does not exist then the universe consists of nothing but motion, matter and blind chance. Moreover, without God moral concepts such as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are arbitrary and carry little weight.
As C.S. Lewis noted, the assumption that a line is crooked implies the existence of a straight line. To say that someone’s actions are morally ‘wrong’ presupposes a ‘right’ way. Otherwise, all human behaviour is just ‘natural’.
If Kemi Badenoch no longer believes in God, then what grounds her belief in morality and why is she so angered by evil and injustice? Atheism cannot explain our feelings of moral outrage. What Josef Fritzl did to his daughter was not ‘Wrong’ with a capital W unless we believe there is a ‘Right’ way for a father to treat his daughter.
Equally, Fritzl can only be brought to justice if he was responsible for his actions and not merely subject to genetics, brain chemistry, and primal urges. In short, the reason we have a problem with evil is because we believe in a good God. This still leaves us wrestling with many mysteries. But to reject God because of evil is to saw off the very branch we are sitting on.
A biblical response
Secondly, let’s consider a biblical response. Taken as a whole, the Bible depicts God as the enemy of evil and never the cause of it. In Genesis, God created only what is good. At the end of Revelation, he promises to restore all things. Now, as we interpret God’s ways between these bookends, we must avoid two dangers.
One is to equate God’s silence or hiddenness with indifference. Kemi Badenoch assumes that if God cared for Elisabeth Fritzl, he would prove it by stepping in. However, while God is active in the world, he has given humans free will. He is not a puppet-master continually tweaking reality.
As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks noted: “We believe God gave us freedom. It is the most fateful decision he made in the entire universe.” God teaches us what is good but does not forcibly prevent us from doing evil. Josef Fritzl is therefore responsible for his actions. To blame God for such malevolence overlooks the serious truth of free will.
To reject God because of evil is to saw off the very branch we are sitting on.
The opposite danger is to assume God’s current tolerance of evil is permanent. It is not. God has set a day to end injustice and hold evildoers to account, including Fritzl. Moreover, those like Elisabeth who have suffered at the hands of earthly fathers will have their tears wiped away by their heavenly father.
Then and only then, from the vantage point of eternity, will pain and suffering be put into perspective. To feel deep anguish in the face of evil today is absolutely right. But to reject God for this reason is premature. Instead, we need to hold on in hope and echo the cry that concludes the Bible: “Maranatha! Come Lord!”
A pastoral response
Finally, a pastoral response is found at the foot of the cross where God himself entered our world of pain. From the agony of the cross Jesus expressed feelings of abandonment that no doubt resonate with many victims: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Christianity doesn’t sidestep suffering; it centres on it. God’s plan may play out more slowly than we would like. But planted in the centre of it is the cross, where God himself bore the weight of our sin and made it his own.
This doesn’t resolve all the mysteries. We still don’t know the answer to why God allows certain things to happen. But we know what it can’t be. It can’t be that God doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he doesn’t care. What difference does this make to our experience of suffering? A friend recently posted on social media as she neared the end of her battle with cancer: “As we walk through this dark valley, Jesus knows what we’re facing; he has the scars to prove it. And his presence gives us peace.”
In her interview, Kemi Badenoch said she rejected the idea of God but still believed in cultural Christianity. However, the Bible does not offer us a set of moral values or a logical argument for God. Neither will suffice when pain and suffering hit. Instead, the Bible invites us to personally trust in Jesus Christ, the sovereign and suffering God, who is with us in the darkness and promises hope beyond it.
For more on this topic see Andrew Ollerton’s forthecoming book, God’s Book: An Honest Look at the Bible’s 7 Toughest Topics (Hodder). Click the link to pre-order and receive a 25 per cent discount
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