{"id":3401,"date":"2015-12-12T21:35:12","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T03:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=3401"},"modified":"2015-12-13T14:17:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T20:17:48","slug":"when-god-is-not-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/12\/when-god-is-not-love.html","title":{"rendered":"When God is not love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n
Beloved, let us love one another: <\/span><\/p>\n
for love is of God; <\/span><\/p>\n
and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.<\/span><\/p>\n
He that loveth not knoweth not God; <\/span><\/p>\n
for God is love.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I cite this in the King James Version<\/a> not out of concern over copyright violations but because that\u2019s how I learned it, back in my childhood at Camp Cilca (yes, this is a Lutheran Church \u2013 Missouri Synod camp), where I learned a number of similar songs.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it goes:<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\nAnd here\u2019s why I was thinking of this:<\/p>\nWe in the West take this for granted: \u00a0God is love. \u00a0We think of this as the basic distillation not just of Christianity (\u201cfor God so loved the world . . .\u201d) but of religion, in general. It\u2019s so obvious that it leads so statements like \u201call religions are basically the same\u201d \u2014 that is, because we think that at the core of religion is love: \u00a0God loves us, and we should love God and each other.<\/p>\nBut it\u2019s not.<\/p>\nA while back I read a book called In the Land of Blue Burqas<\/em>, by Kate McCord, in which the author shares her experiences working for a charity in Afghanistan for 5 years. \u00a0The book was published by Moody and the author is an evangelical Christian, but she doesn\u2019t attempt to convert them to Christianity. \u00a0She does, however, attempt to understand their world, and to get to know the women in the village she lives in, and learns the local language so that she can converse with them in their homes. \u00a0She also attempts to explain her world in terms that make sense to them, and describes herself as \u201ca follower of the Honorable Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\nOne of the things that most struck me about this book was her description of her efforts to share a message with the women she met \u2014 not that Jesus is Savior, but the simpler message of \u201cGod loves you.\u201d I got it from the library again to refresh my memory on this point.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s one instance, in which she\u2019s working with a language tutor on a speech that she is preparing for a Woman\u2019s Day event.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\nI prepared a talk. \u00a0I wanted to encourage the women, to help them understand tha they are absolutely precious to God, to one another, and to the society at large. \u00a0I wanted them to hear that God made them unique and beautiful. \u00a0I wanted to tell them God loves them. . . .<\/p>\n[After reading the speech] my language helper loved it until I got to the last part. \u00a0I said, \u201cGod loves you. \u00a0God loves you because God is love. \u00a0Each one of you is precious in the presence of God. \u00a0God loves us all.\u201d<\/p>\nMy language helper immediately stopped and corrected me. \u00a0\u201cGod is not love; God is kind.\u201d<\/p>\nThese are very different words. \u00a0My language helper had assumed I\u2019d picked the wrong word. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t. \u00a0I knew exactly how to say, \u201cGod is kind.\u201d It\u2019s one of the most common expressions in Afghanistan. \u00a0There\u2019s a bombing in Kabul and at the end of the conversation, someone says, \u201cGod is kind.\u201d \u00a0A child dies, and after the tragedy has been discussed, someone says, \u201cGod is kind.\u201d \u00a0A man finds a job and is delighted, and someone says, \u201cGod is kind.\u201d \u00a0The only appropriate response is agreement. \u00a0\u201cYes, God is kind.\u201d<\/p>\nBut \u201cGod is love\u201d? No. \u00a0That\u2019s not a thing Afghans say. \u00a0Later I read that Muslims can\u2019t say that Allah loves because love implies need and Allah is so great that he has no needs. \u00a0I agree that God has no needs, but He still loves. \u00a0(p. 105 \u2013 106)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nNow, I\u2019m not exactly sure what the Afghans mean by \u201cGod is kind\u201d \u2014 it sounds a bit like the tendency on the part of some Christians to say, of pretty much anything that happens, \u201cit was God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\nIn any event, elsewhere, she describes further the conception that the people she meets have of God \u2014 a stern taskmaster who demands obedience and punishes those who have failed, or for no particular reason at all. \u00a0She relates that they believed that the fasting of a woman who is having her period doesn\u2019t \u201ccount,\u201d so she meets older women who are fasting in a \u201cmake-up\u201d fashion, but fear they\u2019ll never have made up the right number of days, because they don\u2019t know how many days they \u201cowe,\u201d and will be punished accordingly when they die.<\/p>\nIs the religion of these people \u201ctrue Islam\u201d? \u00a0There\u2019s no reason to doubt it. \u00a0But there is no room for \u201cGod is love\u201d in their world.<\/p>\nDoes Islam, in its core beliefs, teach that \u201cGod is love\u201d? \u00a0So far as I understand, no. \u00a0An individual Muslim may come to believe this, perhaps influenced by the culture at large if living in the West, but it isn\u2019t a particularly Islamic belief. \u00a0After all, one of basic things one learns about Islam is that the name itself means \u201csubmission,\u201d and the core of the religion is submitting to God.<\/p>\nCould<\/em> a \u201creform Islam,\u201d in contrast, teach that \u201cGod is love\u201d? \u00a0That<\/em> I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\nUPDATE: \u00a0a couple points of clarification:<\/p>\nWhen I speak of \u201cIslam\u2019s core beliefs\u201d I don\u2019t mean whether \u201cGod is love\u201d or \u201cGod is loving\u201d can be found in the Quran. \u00a0(And, by the way, I think there\u2019s a difference between \u201cmerciful\u201d and \u201cloving.\u201d) \u00a0I mean what the essence of Islam is. \u00a0Christianity has John 3:16, and its core belief is that God, in the person of Jesus, came to earth and allowed himself to be put to death in atonement of our sins, out of love for us. \u00a0What would a \u201ctypical Muslim\u201d identify as the \u201ccore belief\u201d of Islam?<\/p>\nAnd, more broadly, when I speak of what Islam teaches, I\u2019m not interested in proof texts from the Quran, or various websites expounding on Islamic doctrine. \u00a0What is more important to me is how ordinary, everyday Muslims experience and understand their religion. \u00a0But don\u2019t worry \u2014 I\u2019ve got several books from the library that I\u2019m working my way through.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. I cite this in the King James Version not out of concern over copyright violations but because that\u2019s how I learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>When God is not love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 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