Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned

by Brian D. McLaren

Liam explained that his “God problem” wasn’t just about how conventional God concepts had caused him personal harm. Nor was his problem only about the harm his parishioners experienced, even though that harm was, he surmised, significant. He also felt that these God concepts pose a credible threat to human survival going forward. I agree with Liam. If God is entirely separate from the physical world, then the world is just stuff—profane, cheapened, easy to exploit. Besides, if God plans to destroy the world, we humans might as well exploit it all we can while we still have the chance. If God is in control of the world like an engineer controlling a big machine, when we or our neighbors suffer, we can logically conclude that human suffering is God’s will. If God dominates the world and everything in it with an iron fist (or rod, as in Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 2:27), we may find ourselves more amenable to authoritarians who do the same, especially if they hold up Bibles in front of churches. If God chooses some for privilege and abandons others for damnation, God sets an example of us/them thinking that only the worst of us will follow. If God likes to save people from predicaments through magic skyhooks, it becomes more spiritual for humans to pray for a miracle rather than to engage in hard work, diligent study, wise planning, and collaboration. These and other understandings might have been problematic in the best of times, but they’re downright life-threatening in times ...