Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Well, you came back–or perhaps you are reading this for the first time. If you are new to the blog, read the next entry first, then scroll back up.

 I’ll wait.

 Great. Glad you’re back. So here’s the deal.

One of the reasons that Bad Things happen to Good People (insert your own definitions here) is because other Good People often stand aside and do nothing to prevent it. Martin Niemöller wrote a poem that has been translated, quoted, and misquoted (as it was this past week by your’s truly–my apologies to the literati) for decades. Here is the translation of one of his speeches:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

There’s more to sinning than just those things that we do and shouldn’t.

There are sins which are made up of those actions that we should do, but do not.

Personally, I’m tired of people yelling at people like you for doing things you probably don’t even consider doing. You won’t find that at Piperton United Methodist Church. You will, however, find honest discussion about the things that are left undone; those things we should all be doing.