God Punishes You, but Only Tests Me

I recently read that some far-right writers are making the claim that Sen. John McCain’s brain tumor is the justice of God on the Senator for not backing the President. 

Ok.  For a moment, let’s take the politics out of that barbaric statement.  Is it theologically true?  To answer that, we have to consider the nature of the claim.  As one person wrote, “I’m pretty sure that God is punishing him.”  Why?  “God made it pretty clear that he supports the New Right now.”

Of course, how one proves that God is on the side of the New Right is the challenge.  What most of these claims say, the ones that aren’t so offensive that they stagger the mind, is that God has chosen the President as God’s agent of change, which, in the Bible, is usually described as one who is ‘anointed’ or, in translation, ‘messiah.’

That’s a huge claim for any group to make about a President.  It has been made on behalf of a few presidents here and there, but never made by any president to my knowledge.  But, as the thinking goes, if the President is God’s new messiah, then failure to support him results in some kind of divine punishment – brain cancer in the case of the Senator.  Of course, not supporting the president is a pretty broad idea.  Do these people mean that McCain has to agree lock-step with everything the President says?  Or do they mean that people have to agree with specific policies?  Or do they mean that they can’t say anything against the President?  It isn’t clear, and neither is their theology.

That’s because it is bad theology.  Advocating “godly justice” for someone’s suffering is always questionable, especially if it revolves around them not agreeing with the politics of another elected leader.  If the claim is being made that the President is the new messiah, then we have moved well out of the realm of traditional Christianity.  There is only one messiah for the Christian faith – Jesus of Nazareth.  To claim that there are others is to veer off into radically different ideas.  While there have been others who were called messiah in the Bible, for the Christian faith, these messiahs were deliverers of God’s people.  But the messiah for us is Christ.  No one else, and no one else ever.  And even those who opposed Christ weren’t struck down with cancer.  Jesus actually forgave the people who crucified him – he didn’t call for their subsequent crucifixion.  Nor did he ever celebrate in someone else’s suffering.

I don’t believe Senator McCain’s brain cancer is divine punishment.  I also don’t believe the President is the New Messiah, and you shouldn’t either.  Regardless of your political view, these theological views are just bad theology that do nothing but, as Alexander Nazaryan wrote in Newsweek, “speak to the utter debasement of civic discourse, particularly on the internet.”

Of course, the people who make these kinds of claims are usually also those who are not bound by their own thinking.  If someone else gets sick, it is some kind of punishment.  If they get sick, it is a test of God to remain faithful.  Everyone else suffers, they are tested.  Semantics, I know, but an important difference.  Because if these people ever thought that their own illnesses were punishment by God it would have to mean that they didn't support the politician of God's choice - which they could never admit to.  Therefore, if they get sick, then God is testing their resolve.  It's a theologically constructed loophole that gets people off the hook from their own thinking.  Pretty handy.

What we should also remember is that illness is biological.  God does not send it to us or foist it upon us.  It is part of being alive, unfortunately.  And no illness should be celebrated nor should it be seen as evidence of God’s punishment.  Because in our illnesses, God remains by our side.  As Paul wrote in Romans, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We certainly act as if that isn't true, especially if our theology is such that our political opponents suffer because of their opposition to policy.  But that is all fabrication by people who wish to claim God on their side.  It's all about the perception of being divinely correct.  That's not new, but it is still pretty repugnant.