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Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Is there a more confusing question?
It’s hard to think of a more perplexing question than the classic:
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Harold S. Kushner explored the topic in his bestselling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. There is no way I could do the book justice by trying to review it. So, I offer my thoughts and I hope you will read them.
Even though I am a Christian, I am frustrated by one of the standard answers that some Christians give when considering this topic. They start off by saying that in reality there are no good people. So therefore, the question is moot to start with.
The technical theological position is that we are all sinners who have fallen from grace. Therefore, there are no (theologically) good people on this earth. Ok, I get it. But those of us who ask the big question aren’t thinking of perfect (theologically good) people. We are referring to the people that I think of as “walking around good”.
Let me give you a sample.
Before retirement, I occasionally worked with a detective in Savannah whose wife became concerned with the homeless people she saw around town. She couldn’t do a lot for them, but she did keep brown paper bags in her car that were filled with non-perishable…
