Different religions discuss God

Representatives from four different religious backgrounds met Monday
night to discuss why God allows pain, suffering and death.

Jeffrey Donner, a priest at St. Mary University Catholic Parish;
Scott Koefoed, an associate pastor of the Young Church; Harrison senior
Nicholas Linindoll, a member of CMU’s Student Kabbalah Group; and Jim
Griffin, a member of the Baha’i faith, were panelists at a United
Religious Meeting in Park Library Auditorium.

The meeting was presented by the Campus Religious Leaders
Association.

“We did this to increase the awareness of the CRLA, which
represents many of the spiritual and religious opportunities on
campus,” said CRLA president Matthew Leavesley. “We had quite a range
of views on the panel and figured it would be a pretty interesting
discussion. We wanted something that was as much of a broad range as
possible while still representing traditional groups.”

The Kabbalah theory of creation begins with a force which
created an infinite vessel of giving, Linindoll said. When the light it
contained separated from that vessel, space and time were created.

Linindoll said the ills humans face are the result of their
separation from the light.

“Our job in this world is to re-enter into the light,”
Linindoll said. “We need to shatter the illusion of time, space and
physicality and re-enter that endlessness.”

In a handout accompanying his speech, Donner said Catholics
have different responses to why God allows evil to happen and said he
could not speak for all Catholics.

Donner said he gravitates toward the second of two
assumptions Catholics make in explaining the existence of evil. This
assumption states God’s absolute love is mediated through man’s free
will and creation being unfinished.

“We are agents of God’s energy in this world,” Donner said. “We are
co-creators with God in finishing the work that began when creation
began. How well we channel God into this world makes a huge difference
in how people receive the love of God.”

Donner also posed the question of which was more evil:
tornados that destroy towns or structures of economic systems that
allows 5 million children to starve to death.

“Keep your eye on what actually matters,” Donner said. “The
accumulation of bad stuff we do to each other can be absolutely
horrible.”

A key to the Baha’i faith, Griffin said, is the idea every
man is equal in the eyes of God.

“God gave us free will,” he said. “We reap the benefits of
good decisions and suffer the consequences of bad decisions, as
individuals or society.”

Griffin said humans have themselves created many of the
world’s problems such as pollution and loss of natural resources.

“We’ve polluted, we’ve overused resources,” Griffin said. “We’ve
made some bad choices. We’re doing it to ourselves.”

Speaking as an evangelical Protestant, Koefoed described his
crisis of faith after his mother died of breast cancer when he was 13.
It was not until years later, that he found comfort in the Bible’s
teachings.

“The death of Jesus has been called the greatest tragedy and
crime in human history,” Koefoed said. “God is overruling tragedy for
greater good. He is using the unjust death of His own son for
forgiveness for our sins.”

There were 25 people in attendance at the United Religious
Meeting. Grosse Pointe senior Dennis Egan said his experience Monday
night was a powerful one.

“I think it reinforced my Christian faith,” Egan said. “I
definitely think it was worth being here. Being here really spurred me
on to a deeper faith because it caused me to confront issues and as a
result to have a deeper relationship with Jesus.”

St. Charles junior Carla Slominski saw a common theme
throughout the event.

“Regardless of denomination, everyone had the same objective, to
over come evil and pain,” she said.

Greenville senior Eric Wisniewski, a nondenominational
Christian, said he learned something about God from the panelists.

“Loving others unconditionally is what God is,” Wisniewski
said. “He is pure love and that’s what I took away from it. Everything
evil is the result of a lack of God.”