Kendal wrote:
please dont interpret what I am about to write as suggesting that people who get disease are incurring the "wrath of God" in any fundamentalist or ignorant sense.
Clearly, though, many illnesses are incurred because of peoples choices. Most of the lifestyle habits- smoking, alcohol, drug use, sexual
promiscuity...etc- that are at the core of our public health problems are
also against "divine law".
Having done HIV laboratory research, I am aware of the implications of public health problems, and I think it is self-evident to everyone that certain choices can affect our health. I intentionally avoided mentioning these choices because I think it opens up a whole new can of worms. As we are all aware, some people have been infected with HIV through blood transfusions--babies, hemophiliacs, hospitalized patients--while others have been infected through drug use and sexual activity. The latter group has been portrayed as blameworthy and deserving of their illness. Yet there are millions of others engaged in the same high risk behaviors that have not become infected. Having met and treated many HIV infected patients who engaged in high risk behaviors, it is difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend how many of these people deserve this infection when there are many others that engage in the same behaviors and are not infected. Similarly, I can think of many sociopaths and white collar professionals that have harmed and continue to harm many without any negative consequences--did they deserve to go unpunished? Are the ones infected truly more blameworthy? I don't think we can pretend to know the mind of God, who is blameworthy and deserving of punishment, without at the same time, making some kind of moral judgment about others, which we have been forbidden to do.
In a metaphorical sense, one could say that these diseases are "punishment" for people's actions, if we understand "punishment" to be what happens to you if you engage in activities that are outside the natural order. In this metaphorical sense, "divine" "reward" and "punishment" is embedded into the natural order of things.
If we understand nature to be an expression of the Will of God, then we can also understand, in a metaphorical sense, that things which- by their nature- lead to disease and illness, as being the "wrath of God".
I honestly don't understand how these statements can be interpreted or rationalized as anything other than "suggesting that people who get disease are incurring the 'wrath of God' in any fundamentalist or ignorant sense," as you mentioned above. The argument based on natural order or law would be more compelling if literally everyone who violated a divine precept was afflicted with illness and everyone who did not violate a divine precept was not afflicted with illness, but this is not what actually happens in the world. It is obviously much more complicated. Perhaps the most important point to be considered is the consequences of holding such beliefs in the face of reality. Could not such beliefs on some level of consciousness justify our not caring or not acting to the same degree than if there were no judgments involved? I can't tell you the number of times I have seen such judgments affect the level of care patients have received, or even the way Bahais are treated in their local communities by their fellow believers and local institutions. Are mentally ill and homosexual Bahais to be blamed for not curing themselves through prayer? And what about those diseases that do not result from the neat public health categories listed above? What should we assume about how cancer, other infectious diseases besides STDs, birth defects, mental illness fit into the natural order of divine reward and punishment, as you have outlined?
It seems to me that there are passages in the Writings which do use terms like the "decree of God" or the "wrath of God" as being expressions of the natural order (which itself is an expression of the "will of God").
Given that such terms appear in the writings, as an act of faith, we accept them. The question is how do we understand or apply them in relation to of our life. This is a question that each of us can only answer for ourselves. My answer is that I accept such pronouncements by God, but I don't presume to understand the reasoning and the judgments behind them. Since I can never achieve omniscience, I can't presume to understand why some people who make particular choices become ill, while others making the same choices don't. I can't presume to understand why good people become ill and seemingly mean people don't. And by not making these presumptions, I try to avoid being judgmental about the complexities of human life that are beyond my limited capacity to comprehend. Sincerely, Marleen
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