ambient

The World with Lisa Mullins broadcasted the gut-wrenching story of a doctor who is trying to help victims of rape in the Congo (and rape, as bad as it is in most circumstances, does not come close to describing what is happening in this case). It’s one of those stories that instills doubt about the future of the entire human race.

It’s one of those stories that makes people - religious and non-religious alike - wonder why God, if there is one, doesn’t do anything about this sort of thing. I’ve heard all sorts of explanations and attempts to answer this question throughout my life, but the best one I’ve heard so far comes from Alyosha, the main character in The Brothers Karamazov.

Alyosha came from probably one of the worst families in literary history (and an obvious symbol for the human race) and after witnessing all the worst things that people could do to one another, he (himself deeply spiritual) came to one conclusion: he was responsible for it all.

He was a good man despite his family background, and yet he, and everybody else in the world who cared about goodness and life, was responsible for all of the bad things that people did to one another. It’s only the good people in this world who can and will ever stop the horrors that people inflict on one another.

The lesson is clear. When we ask “Where was God?” the response echoes back: “Where were you?”