A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.<\/a>\u00a0 Being angry at God is a perfectly respectable thing to do, as Job demonstrates. \u00a0Fry\u2019s main mistake is in not directing the anger at God in prayer, but at the press in pointless complaint. Being furious at somebody you strenuously assert is not there is much sillier than believing in somebody Stephen Fry demands you believe is not there.<\/p>\nFr. Barron, being a good pastor, directs his reply to the complainer more than to the complaints, which are ancient cries of the human heart. \u00a0I\u2019ve always enjoyed Fry\u2019s work, and I\u2019ve always had the sense that he struggles with vast reserves of pain under that cool British wit and reserve. \u00a0Now and then, as in that rant, it comes spurting out like lava. \u00a0He needs healing, as do we all. \u00a0I can\u2019t give him alms for Lent, so I give him mercy for that rant instead and, taking a cue from the book of Job, offering not to give him easy answers like Jobs comforters. \u00a0The only answer is the wordless icon of the\u00a0Word Crucified. \u00a0In the end, that\u2019s all the Faith can say about the Problem of Evil (a problem that does not even exist apart from the goodness of God).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a perfectly respectable thing to do, as Job demonstrates. \u00a0Fry\u2019s main mistake is in not directing the anger at God in prayer, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[43,668,681],"class_list":["post-91576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-fr-robert-barron","tag-theodicy"],"yoast_head":"\n
Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html\",\"name\":\"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry","description":"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry","og_description":"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html","name":"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-23T17:26:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"A kindly reply to a man who, though he says he does not believe in God, speaks as though he is in fact deeply angry at God.\u00a0 Being angry at God is a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/02\/fr-barron-on-stephen-fry.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fr. Barron on Stephen Fry"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}