(I’m not even going to dignify the whole White Devil thing with a response. And, fortunately, on my way home from work the other day, XM played Dave Matthews’ “What Would You Say” so I was able to get it out of my head!)
I get what you’re saying, but by the same rationale, I don’t have the heart to “lie” or, at the very least, “speak for God” in a situation like that.
I can only speak from anecdotal evidence here, so bear with me:
When I was 15, and still a Christian (although I had my doubts; always did) my father died. It was sudden, and on the 20-minute trip to the hospital, not knowing if he would pull through or not, I prayed and prayed that he’d not die, or at least make it long enough for me to say goodbye and that I loved him. That didn’t happen.
Afterwards, the Christians I know tried to console me in the usual way: “He’s in a better place now,” “Sometimes God doesn’t answer prayers,” “He’s looking down on you and will always be here in spirit,” etc.
Ultimately, I asked the pastor “why?” And I got a lot of bluster about how we humans aren’t capable of knowing the nature of God, or why certain bad things are allowed to happen, etc. Which, essentially, just says exactly what I said in my post…“I don’t know.”
My reaction, even though I didn’t vocalize it, was always “Please don’t patronize me.”
And I obsessed over the “why?” for years and years, until after I’d become agnostic/atheist and finally realized that, there is no “why?” That, finally, gave me comfort and allowed me to move on.
And I was always squicked out by the idea that my father (or other dead folks) were “watching over me” and such. Does my father’s soul watch me masturbate? Does he watch me in the shower, or when I have to poop? Is he up there, subject to watching the genocides in various countries, or did he watch 9/11? That’d be horrible to see, and would fill him with disappointment (in my behavior) as well as impotent rage at the events of the world.
So the thing that gives me the most comfort is the idea that my father is just dead–unaware, unconscious. He’s finally getting the rest he deserves after 63 years of hard, physical labor.
The other example is my best friend. He has a terminally ill child (Tay-Sachs Disease.) Even the doctor advised him to pray, etc. But his reaction is like mine–don’t patronize me. She’s going to DIE, and she doesn’t deserve to, and we all have to watch as her body breaks down in this years-long process of torture. His view (which I agree with) is that, were there a God, he’d be a sadistic bastard, and why on earth would we want to spend eternity singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” to an entity like that?
Even Jesus, in Gethsemane, begged his father to let the cup of execution pass from him, and that prayer went unanswered. Jesus, himself, couldn’t explain the “why?” of it, other than to say “Your will be done.” AKA: I don’t know.
And, ultimately, “what goes around comes around” may not even be true from a Biblical standpoint, anyway. The rapist/murderer, whoever, could repent to God and be forgiven, and still make it into the same heaven as the victim, anyway. So it’s potentially just as much a lie to say “he’ll eventually get his” as it is to acknowledge that…hey, maybe he won’t, although we all wish he would.