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{"id":5759,"date":"2012-01-13T16:10:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=5759"},"modified":"2012-01-13T16:10:38","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:10:38","slug":"thank-god-blame-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/01\/thank-god-blame-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Thank God, Blame God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve long complained about the tendency of religious believers to thank God when things go well and blame others when they do not. And so I appreciated this cartoon in the New Yorker<\/em><\/a> (HT Hemant Mehta<\/a>):<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Its relevance to the recent discussions<\/a> about Tim Tebow and other religious athletes<\/a> is presumably obvious.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

To be clear, I have no objection to people giving thanks, or blame, to God, should they see fit to do so. But I do note some glaring inconsistencies in the way many do so, which suggests to me that they have never really reflected on what precisely they believe, whether or not they are being consistent, or what the implications are for how they depict God or affect other people with their religious language<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What do others think about this topic?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"