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From: nlt@duke.UUCP (N. L. Tinkham)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Nuclear war and Providence
Message-ID: <5076@duke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Nov-84 12:51:25 EST
Article-I.D.: duke.5076
Posted: Tue Nov 20 12:51:25 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Nov-84 08:41:59 EST
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 37

[]

   My applause to Tim Sevener for a well-stated and challenging article
("Re: Re: Replies to Ken (morality and religion)").  I will quote only
a small portion of it, to set the context for my own comments, but the
article is worth re-reading in its entirety.

> [Tim Sevener:]
> An argument I have heard again and again is that anyone who worries about
> Nuclear War cannot believe in God because God would not allow such a thing
> to happen.  This attitude scares me because I think we are drifting towards
> a possible Nuclear War but nobody seems to care....
> One also notices a two-faced attitude towards God's
> beneficence and our duty to do something about moral issues. On the one hand
> Fundamentalists were roused to do something about the fetuses being aborted
> every day in a political way by voting for Reagan.  On the other hand movement
> towards a Nuclear War is not opposed because God will somehow prevent it....
> Will the Christians on this Net support a war in Central America if it comes?

   I, too, have heard from fellow Christians arguments to the effect that
there's no sense worrying about a nuclear war since God wouldn't let
us do that to ourselves.  Some, having drawn up detailed charts
diagramming the end of the world, will point out that there's no nuclear
war on their particular chart and thus nuclear war is impossible.
It is the dark side of belief in Providence:  God will pull us out of
it in the end, so it doesn't matter what we do in the meantime.
   If the Eden story tells us anything it is that God will let us get
ourselves into all sorts of trouble.  If we are as interested in the will
of God as we profess (remember? "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven") then it is our responsibility as Christians
to act out that will and not just wait for it to happen.
   To answer Tim's last question, I hope desperately that the Christians
on the Net (and elsewhere) will *not* support a war in Central America,
if it comes.  I, for one, will not.

                                     N. L. Tinkham
                                     duke!nlt