In perhaps the most shocking development to come out of the Trayvon Martin shooting, since George Zimmerman‘s alleged plans to flee the country, occurred in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. During the interview, Zimmerman discussed a number of topics, but the one that caught my attention the most was his comment about God in relation to the shooting:
I feel like it was all God’s plan and for me to second guess it or judge it…
Later in the interview, Zimmerman said that he prays for Martin’s parent’s daily.
So let’s take a step back here. We have to ask, “What’s really behind Zimmerman’s comment that the shooting was, “God’s plan”? Why does he pull out the God card? According to George Zimmerman, God works through a plan in which he orders shootings and people are devoid of responsibility?
Trayvon Martin’s father, said later in an interview with the Associated Press:
We must worship a different God. There is no way that my God wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son.
It appears that George Zimmerman sees God has a divine force that causes both good and evil. In addition, it appears that Zimmerman believes that God causes people to die a horrible death (e.g. dying from a gunshot). Seeing God through these lenses forces us to believe that there is no cause and effect to our actions. If we bring a gun to a conflict and shoot someone, then we are responsible (though, legally we may not be liable for punishment). Often, people think that the Bible answers the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people.” The Bible holds no such answer because it is an epic story of God’s people living in relationship with their Creator. Scholar N.T. Wright help us to understand God’s involvement in evil and suffering:
I used to go on a lot of Habitat for Humanity trips, especially during college, and I frequently ended up on job sites where we had to build a house from the ground up. We framed walls, put trusses up, put the roof decking up, and shingled the roof. Over the years, I would learn a little more about building a house. Building a house is really tricky. If you are a half inch off on a line it could wreck the whole job. For a guy like me, a half inch does not seem like a whole lot, but in the building trade it can equate to disaster. I remember on one trip, we were following the directions of a volunteer on how to build the framing for the house and the gentlemen supervising the job did not really know what he was doing. We put in a half day of work on it and the real site supervisor came on the scene and told us to rip everything out! We were off two inches! Ahhhh! Needless to say, that guy was not directing anymore work for the rest of the week.
