You may have read it. Heard it. Even said or thought it yourself.

‘Why does God allow bad things to happen?’

We might sometimes wonder where God is. If He’s really there. If He could have prevented it. If He could have sent a miracle.

He doesn’t usually interfere with the consequences of our choices. If He forced us to make the right decisions, it would be impossible for us to grow and reach our divine potential. It would be impossible to live by faith in Him and His plan for our happiness.

The trials we face allow us to develop compassion for others and can inspire us to make a difference in the world, in big and small ways. They enable us to truly be “willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.”

Sometimes when bad things happen, they empower us to act and serve. Trials can open our eyes to those who are suffering. They can enable us to show others genuine compassion and love. They can refine us to be more charitable, empathetic, and influential humans. They can instill in us a powerful need to serve.
— Chakell Wardleigh, Church Magazines

Still, Sherwin Pomerantz asks the question in the above headline. Pomerantz (not a political conservative) has lived in Israel for 38 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based international business development consultancy, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, former Board chair of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and president of Congregation Ohel Nechama in Jerusalem. On this Sunday, here’s an excerpt from today’s read:

There has never been a time in post-civil war history as now where the US has been so broken, where so many things seem to be going wrong simultaneously, and where the political leadership seems powerless to deal with all of it.

It is almost as if God is now expressing displeasure with his servant, the US, in the course it has taken.

I don’t buy some of Pomerantz’s leftist views, but he’s, as the headline says, interesting.

Here’s the entire column.