37 pages • 1 hour read
Harold S. KushnerWhen Bad Things Happen to Good People
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Bad Things Aren’t Punishments
Eventually, every life is touched by tragedy. It’s tempting to believe that such bad things are visited on us by God to punish us for our transgressions. The problem with this view is that so many innocent people get trampled in the process. A bad person may die in a plane crash that also kills hundreds of blameless people. Meanwhile, the wicked often are rewarded with wealth and satisfaction while the good may toil in ill health and poverty.
In Chapter 3, titled “Some Things Happen for No Reason,” Kushner offers several examples of tragic events that happen randomly to one person and not another: A mad gunman may shoot someone who happens to be nearby, a spark may start a fire that the wind then blows toward one set of houses and not another, a change in wind may send a hurricane toward a town, or a couple may conceive a child with crippling malformations due only to random genetic variations.
While Kushner examines the possibility God that inflicts suffering to impart lessons that can “purge his thoughts of pride and superficiality, to expand his horizons” (24), such arguments, he says, defend God more than helping the victim, and “not every painful thing that happens to us is beneficial” (28). If such acts are God’s doing, then one might wonder who would want to worship such a deity. It’s much simpler to understand that good and bad fortune are random and that they involve luck rather than divine intent. What remains, then, is anger toward a God who would permit such things to happen to good people. Kushner, though, suggests that God can’t intervene and therefore isn’t to blame.
God Doesn’t Intervene in Human Life
God created the universe in such a way that a great deal of chaos is involved in its workings. Whether God can or will reduce that chaos over time isn’t known; for now, humans must deal with the uncertainty of chaos and the ongoing possibility that random bad things may happen to anyone at any time.
At base, however, the universe obeys strict natural laws. God does not break these laws, either to suit Himself or to please humans. Thus, He will not intervene if a hurricane happens to roll across a big city and cause death and destruction; neither will God step in to prevent a dreaded disease from rising up in accordance with the laws of molecular biology and causing devastation to humans.
God also gives people the gift of free will, which enables them to make their own moral choices. This free will means, however, that people can do evil as well as good. Were God to correct people every time they made a wrong decision, effectively He would be taking back the free will he has given. God wants from humanity not a horde of worshiping drones but people who freely give their love to Him. Thus, for His own purposes, God will not fix people’s mistakes or evil acts.
In conforming to His own rules for nature and for human freedom, God permits bad things to happen. He does so not because he wishes such things on humanity but because He values the consistent laws of nature as well as the moral freedom he has bestowed on people.
Recovery Begins with Resolve, Forgiveness, and Love
People want and need a sense of purpose; without it, life feels empty and meaningless. Traditionally, people have sought meaning and purpose in a feeling of connection to God and community. God’s refusal to intervene in life and to guarantee our success and happiness throws His own purpose into doubt and, by extension, throws into doubt the meaning of our lives: If God will not, or cannot, prevent bad things from happening, then what good is He? And, lacking God’s protection, what meaning does life have to offer?
Kushner explains that God’s power lies not in saving us from tragedy but in empowering us to prevail over it. Our prayers for protection often seem to go unanswered, but our prayers for strength and resolve often are rewarded, and thereafter we find the inner strength to push past troubles and emerge into a better, happier life. Blocking our path is our anger toward those whom we believe caused our misfortune, and we may find ourselves unable or unwilling to forgive them. When we are willing to love those who have hurt us, despite their imperfections, then we can truly begin to heal.
Though loss can make us feel lonely, in our connection to God and our community we discover that we still can love and are loved. We then find renewed purpose in supporting others, and this purpose helps us recover our ability to live constructive and loving lives.
