God's role in disasters

God has been in the news a lot lately. From CNN, BBC and NPR to The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, the role God played in the tsunami was probed. People from all religions asked a question similar to that of a woman from southern India: "Why did you do this to us, God? What did we do to upset you?"

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams created a minor buzz when he examined God's role in an article headlined: "Archbishop of Canterbury: This Has Made Me Question God's Existence" (Sunday Telegraph of London, Jan. 2). But his press secretary, Jonathan Jennings, said the headline misrepresented the archbishop's comments. Williams didn't say the tsunami caused him to doubt God's existence, Jennings said, but "that the Christian faith doesn't invite simplistic answers to the problems of human suffering."