911 to God

I don't get the local paper anymore. I rarely watch the news. I typically only catch the leads of major news stories unavoidably from my Comcast home page and other web sites. When I do actually read news stories in depth, I try to stick to sports.

One of the primary reasons is that so many terrible things are in the news and frankly it gets me down. I am not a believer in hiding from the world or avoiding issues and problems, but the older I get the more I seem affected by the negative and evil things in the world. And the news media loves to hype this stuff. I think it needs reporting, but I get sick of the sensationalizing and almost glamourizing of that which is bad, wrong, or just down right evil.

The Interent, as great a tool as it is in so many ways, is one of the worst contributors. It has provided an unregulated forum for every idiot, predator, and malicious purveyor.

A perfect example is the recent arrest of 8 teens who set up an ambush to beat up another teen and filmed it so they could post it on You Tube (Teens Behind Florida YouTube Attack to Be Charged as Adults). I am sure most readers are aware of this story by now. I have wanted to post, but could not think of what to post about it.

Everything about this incident sickens me. The thought process of the teenagers and then their actions. The state of society that contributes to such behavior. The parents of these teenagers. The fact that You Tube allows many despicable things to be aired which gives malicious, idiotic people hope that they could post anything (You Tube has become a top forum for posting your homemade porn). And finally, it sickens me that the teens accomplished their original stupid purpose: to get this crime broadcast to the world.

And this story is fairly benign! Last year I read a story that really pushed me over the edge in avoiding the media. It was about a little boy who was killed during abuse. The male abuser slammed the child into a tile shower wall repeatedly until the boy died of massive brain and other internal injuries. The reason the man gave? This little innocent child would not stop screaming and crying while the man repeatedly raped him anally.

There are millions of horror stories occurring regularly across the globe. Pick one. Can anybody shed any light on how people can do these types of things? And please do not bother responding with the cliche it is a broken world. Really? It is too much an understatement.

I could lose my faith, many have and it is hard to fault them. But I have not given up on God. However, it does make me pray in anger. It makes me pray my own 911 call to God. Unfortunately it is not a prayer for God to save us or these victims. I do such prayers often, but we all realize it continues and will continue. Sometimes my 911 prayer is for God to come and wipes us all out--destroy us all, including me. We deserve it. We can be such a wretched creation. Why do we love evil so much? Why do we gloss over the topic so easily?

I am not losing it or depressed. But I also don't shy away from being honest about the anger I feel at times over the abject evil that God allows to exist. With due awe, reverence, and respect, I do ask God, "Free will--that is the best gift you could give us? Your ways are not my ways God, and some of your ways are just so painful. I love you, but please don't expect me to understand"